Students chip in to provide aid for Haiti

Several students and organizations at Norwich are heading drives and fundraisers to try and help the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the recent earthquake disaster that demolished much of the country.

Ally Manousos, a 19-year-old sophomore political science major from Lowell, Mass., was in Thailand during winter break when she heard about the earthquakes.

"We heard about it in the newspapers there, and soon Nicole DiDomenico (the director of civic engagement) sent an e-mail out about it that day asking what we were going to do about this," Manousos said. "I told her I would be happy to help with any of it."

"I've been to a developing nation before and you can see that people don't have much to begin with. Something like that happens and they have even less after that," said Ashley Potvin, a 20-year-old junior international studies major from Biddeford, Maine.

Norwich's Center for Civic Engagement was approached by the World Church Organization to help make hygiene kits that can be sent to Haiti, according to Potvin.

"The World Church Organization is a global nonprofit organization," Manousos said. "But now they're focusing on Haiti and they're telling us exactly what we can do, so it's organized help."

"We've been given the job of collecting supplies and money (to) create the hygiene kits," Potvin said. "The money that we (are) collect(ing) right now is going towards buying things we need the most of, like wide-tooth combs and nail clippers."

The items being collected for the hygiene kits are wide-tooth combs, toothbrushes that are sealed, bars of soap, nail clippers, band-aids, washcloths and hand cloths.

To help the drive for supplies for the hygiene kits, Manousos headed the MLK Jr. Day of Service with a team of several other students.

"We sent half the team into Northfield and made posters to collect donations and three of us went around the dorms to collect money and left over stuff people had from after break," Manousos said.

The MLK Jr. Day of Service team collected about $300, which is enough money to make about 80 hygiene kits. "That's about 80 people that have goods to last a week," Manousos said.

"We are still collecting and students can drop off donations at the Center for Civic Engagement, which is Wise Campus Center room 230," Potvin said.

"We can still use donations until mid-February," Manousos said. "And any kind of change is good too."

Other efforts to aid Haiti are also taking place around campus. Roger Motaze, a 21-year-old junior and studies in war and peace major from Yaoundé, Cameroon, is organizing a dodge ball tournament to help with the cause.

"Coming from Cameroon in Central Africa, I know and understand the pain in which such a poor country is in right now," Motaze said. "As the soccer team captain, I thought it would be a great idea to involve all my teammates and organize a dodge ball tournament for the Haitian cause."

The tournament is scheduled to be held on Feb. 14 in Plumley Armory.

An effort to provide Haiti with solar-powered lights is being taken by the Norwich University Green Building Collective (NUGBC), an organization on campus that is interested in "green" design and promoting it on campus.

"The NUGBC is looking into the opportunity to help Haiti by gaining financial support to provide free solar flash lights," according to Wendy Cox, assistant professor and co-sponsor for the NUGBC.

The solar flash lights are called "BoGo Lights" and according to their Web site (www.bogolight.com), the BoGo Light is a "sun powered flashlight (that) has an enormous economic advantage over single use battery flashlights.  Our rechargeable batteries last for 750 to 1000 individual nights of use, with each night a user enjoying on average six to eight hours of use."

Cox has also been in contact with the Boston Chapter of Architecture for Humanity on behalf of the School of Architecture and Art to see what else can be done to help.

"We all think it is important to do what we can and lend our talents and support to help the Haitians," Cox said. Norwich is providing many opportunities for anyone to donate and help out.