Haiti: determination follows devastation
Naomi Urquiza
Issue date: 1/28/10 Section: Features
All eyes are on Haiti. Media coverage of the country has dominated television screens for more than two weeks since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the country Jan. 12.
Haiti, an already devastated country, became the scene of a worst-case scenario. Its astonishingly dense population, in combination with its standing as the least-developed country in the western hemisphere, complimented by an 80 percent impoverishment level, could not have been a worse or more vulnerable target.
A world, where currently a devastated people dig through rubble, scream out for mothers, children, siblings, grandparents and fathers buried beneath thousands of pounds of rubble, collapsed buildings and rigid pieces of a crumbled hospital, is something we're used to seeing on television, in movies and stories of far away places.
In reality, the world on our screens is closer than some might guess. Some may be slow to believe that an inhabitant of Miami, Fla. sitting comfortably on a beach could hop a plane and be in Haiti in half the time it would take them to get to Texas.
However, Haiti is, in fact, only an hour and a half away from the tip of America's southeastern border.
People all around the world have watched the struggle that the people of Haiti have lived through, and as the devastation has become clearer to onlookers, volunteers have swarmed into the country, organizing aid efforts and any kind of help possible. Some of these volunteers are beginning to organize in the Seguin community as well as on the TLU campus.
The Seguin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce opened an account Jan. 21 with the American Bank of Texas. The proceeds will be going through the American Red Cross foundation.
"You can donate at the branch of American Bank of Texas that's located here in Seguin. You just tell them when you go there that you want to donate to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Haiti Relief fund," Kathryn Nyholm, VISTA volunteerism coordinator, said.
Haiti, an already devastated country, became the scene of a worst-case scenario. Its astonishingly dense population, in combination with its standing as the least-developed country in the western hemisphere, complimented by an 80 percent impoverishment level, could not have been a worse or more vulnerable target.
A world, where currently a devastated people dig through rubble, scream out for mothers, children, siblings, grandparents and fathers buried beneath thousands of pounds of rubble, collapsed buildings and rigid pieces of a crumbled hospital, is something we're used to seeing on television, in movies and stories of far away places.
In reality, the world on our screens is closer than some might guess. Some may be slow to believe that an inhabitant of Miami, Fla. sitting comfortably on a beach could hop a plane and be in Haiti in half the time it would take them to get to Texas.
However, Haiti is, in fact, only an hour and a half away from the tip of America's southeastern border.
People all around the world have watched the struggle that the people of Haiti have lived through, and as the devastation has become clearer to onlookers, volunteers have swarmed into the country, organizing aid efforts and any kind of help possible. Some of these volunteers are beginning to organize in the Seguin community as well as on the TLU campus.
The Seguin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce opened an account Jan. 21 with the American Bank of Texas. The proceeds will be going through the American Red Cross foundation.
"You can donate at the branch of American Bank of Texas that's located here in Seguin. You just tell them when you go there that you want to donate to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Haiti Relief fund," Kathryn Nyholm, VISTA volunteerism coordinator, said.
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