Monday, May 7, 2012
Organizers say they still need about $5,000 to pay for school desks and supplies.
Bring on the bake sales, pizza sales and online donations, as a three-year volunteer project at New Trier High School nears its finish line. After raising $150,000 for a new school in Haiti, students and teachers need about $5,000 more before a May 24 celebration assembly in Northfield. Donate here. The Haitian school, St. Joseph Elementary School in Petit-Goave, shares a special bond with New Trier, where two Haitian security officers have worked for nearly two decades combined. Since moving to Chicago, childhood friends Jean Cayemitte and Maurice Bonhomme spent any extra resources and time trying to rebuild a school in Haiti, originally opened by Bonhomme's father. A few years ago, they asked Carolyn Muir, the service learning …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Deborah Lazar is raising money to rebuild a library in the coastal town of Petit Goave. That's gotten harder to do as the memory of the devastating earthquake two years ago starts to fade.
The only time New Trier High School librarian Deborah Lazar paused during an hour-long conversation about her fundraising efforts to rebuild a Haitian library is when asked what she felt when she heard about the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country she’d grown to love. “To see it was devastating,” she said. “To know that people live and keep going in that is what I carry with me here.” That is what keeps Lazar motivated in her fundraising work two years after the quake that killed more than 200,00 people and left three times that many homeless. And it’s why she is on a renewed quest to remind the rest of us that the restoration work there is far from done. “It is so important to keep Haiti in the hearts and minds of people,” she …
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Author and activist Eve Ensler gave a riveting speech at Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky's 10th Annual Ultimate Women's Power Lunch, speaking of the "horrific atrocities" against women and children she witnessed in the Congo and the "embarrassment" of the lack of support the U.S. has provided for Haiti. You can read the full article here. Patch caught up with Ensler after the event. Here she speaks of the struggle of unraveling patriarchy, the growing movement of women warriors and how opening yourself to the despair of others can ultimately set you free.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Amid ruins and cholera outbreak, glimmers of hope abound in microloans and relief efforts.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Ted Regencia
-
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
As Haiti marks the anniversary of the deadly 2010 quake that claimed at least 220,000 lives, a Skokie lawyer and humanitarian worker is appealing for direct help to rebuild one community in the struggling Caribbean nation. Rosalie Selinger Murphy, chairwoman of the Sharing Committee at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, said even with small donations, Chicagoans can make a difference in the lives of children and adults at St. Anne Parish in Limonade, Haiti. While her work is centered on education and microfinance, Murphy told Patch that the effort to help the community recover from last year's devastating magnitude 7 earthquake has been complicated by the recent cholera epidemic. "Many people have died. That [cholera] has spread …
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Written by Susan Walsh, "Walking in Broken Shoes" explores the Glenview native's medical mission trips to Haiti, including a trip after last year's Jan. 12 earthquake.
Glenview native Susan Walsh penned her first book "Walking in Broken Shoes" following last year's earthquake in Haiti. Written through Walsh’s eyes, the book takes a microscopic look at life in Haiti before and after the disaster. As Walsh, a nurse, and her team, a mix of volunteers and medical staff, leave a local clinic set to return home to the States, the ground rumbles and trees bend to their breaking point. Soon after, Walsh realizes they’ve just experienced an earthquake. Wasting no time, the team races back to the village to check on any injured residents. A young girl who was struck in the head when the side of a foothill came crashing down leads the medical team to Port-Au-Prince, where they ultimately save and serve hundreds …
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Deborah Lazar, an Evanston resident and New Trier librarian, recently traveled to Haiti to help build libraries, and plans to go back again soon.
When Deborah Lazar is asked about Haiti, it's immediately clear that it's a subject she's passionate about. She waves her hands as she speaks and pulls out a computer to show off a series of pictures she took on her latest trip to the hurricane-stricken country. Lazar has gone to Haiti twice now, once before the earthquake and once after, but even when she is back at home the country is constantly on her mind. She runs a fundraising website for Haiti, sends money to help a young boy there attend school, and she is raising money to build new libraries and repair the ones that were destroyed. "One question people ask me, especially when they've seen pictures (of the country post-earthquake) is if the basic needs are so great, why do you …
Carrie Porter
8:14 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
Does anyone have any related volunteer stories to share? more ›