Clearly I was tired and now I was sick, so I had little desire to continue. However, at that moment I read the guy’s shirt in front of me. There was a picture of a little girl and under it, “Clara has leukemia. As long as she keeps struggling, I’ll keep running.”

Long story short, that put my current situation in perspective and I finished.

And every once in a while I remember that shirt.

Tonight is one of those times.

Haiti was hit with the most devastating earthquake in its history a week ago. Tens and tens of thousands of people have died and those that are left behind are left with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Since that happened, I have been working between 12-16 hours a day in disaster response. I am tired and heartbroken, but my current situation is not even comparable to the struggle those on the ground in Haiti are faced with.

I eventually will go to sleep tonight and it will be in a giant, soft bed. Hundreds of thousands of people in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area are sleeping outside on the ground right now. As long as my friend can walk through streets literally lined with the dead bodies of his neighbors and hold it together, my heart can hold on. As long as my boss can be away from her 6-week-old daughter to coordinate efforts in Haiti, I can make it.

As long as Haiti keeps struggling, I will keep working.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of questions right now. Why do our brothers and sisters in Haiti have to endure yet another tragedy? How are they ever going to get ahead when hurricanes and earthquakes won’t even let them catch up. I have no answers.

All I know is that we now have the opportunity to do what we might have only thought about before. We can commit to walking alongside Haiti until they are known for their prosperity instead of their poverty. We can commit to working as if those children who spend their days walking for water instead of attending school are our own.

This earthquake has brought unimaginable destruction. Decide today that it will also bring indescribable hope. Alone we cannot do much, but together we can change a people’s future.

A major earthquake measuring 7.0 magnitude on the Richter scale hit Haiti Tuesday evening at 5:53 EST. The initial quake lasted about a minute, followed by strong 5.9 and 5.5 aftershocks. The epicenter of Haiti’s earthquake was six miles west of Carrefour, just outside the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

The extent of the damage and loss of life has yet to be seen, but it is clear that the devastation is immense. Bill Dawson, Field Strategy Coordinator, emailed to say that the situation “is grave and urgent.”

“There are many injured all over the city. Major buildings, three and four stories, are down. … Neighbors who work for the UN report many injured, people carrying wounded through the streets,” Dawson said.

The population in the capital area is about 2 million people, living in dense urban communities. Catastrophic casualties and damage are expected, as Haiti’s weak infrastructure is not prepared for this kind of disaster.

In Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, dozens of people gathered at the Veye-Yo community center, where a pastor led them in prayer. Members embraced each other as they tried to contact relatives back home.

Tony Jeanthenor said he had succeeding in reaching a family friend in Haiti who told of hearing people cry out for help from under debris.

“The level of anxiety is high,” Jeanthenor said. “Haiti has been through trauma since 2004, from coup d’etat to hurricanes, now earthquakes.” Associated Press

Yes, Haiti definitely has, and to ease the trauma we are asking that you do what you can to come alongside our brothers and sisters in love. Click here to donate to immediate disaster response or here to help us reach more people with clean water. Share the news with friends, start a collection drive, or any other creative idea you might have to let Haiti know that they are not alone.

photo courtesy of radioteleginen.com

Students at Olivet Nazarene University have proven this semester that with a simple, good idea and a little motivation, great things can be done. Each year Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) does fundraising for a project with wide-ranging economic impact. This year they were approached by another student organization, Missions in Action, about the Haiti Water Project and the economic impact of clean water. During the presentation, students heard facts such as every $1 invested in clean water resources has an expected $8 return. Simply, clean water means health; health allows children to attend school and adults to work; and a healthy, educated, working population stimulates the economy.

“We saw the passion that the MIA students had for Haiti as they presented to us the HWP and what it meant for the people of Haiti,” Andrew Clausen, VP of Market Economics for the ONU SIFE team explained. “After hearing them speak, we really did not have any second thoughts about helping them out.”

They continued researching the water crisis and started recruiting friends to help spread the word. One student spoke with her professor about the project and arranged for one of their class assignments to be the design of a t-shirt that would later be sold to raise funds. Another student got to work on creating labels for water bottles that would also be sold.

The students came together for a campus-wide fair focusing on ways to make a difference in the world, and even their highest expectations were surpassed by the interest and generosity of students. Over $1000 was raised, and they ran out of t-shirts and water bottles. The group ordered more shirts and made more water bottles and continued to sell them everywhere from the cafeteria lobby to basketball games.

The tools were not too complicated — a catchy t-shirt design and some water bottles — but the solution to the problem is not too complicated either. More than half of Haiti does not have access to clean water and we can do something about it. We can wear a t-shirt, tell a friend, sell a water bottle, or any of the infinite options that are available.

Andrew shared his perspective: “Through this process I have seen firsthand what one passionate group can do for thousands of people. I hope that anyone who feels a draw towards the people of Haiti will take the hard steps to make a difference.”

It doesn’t take a lot to make a difference — just a simple, good idea and a little motivation.

12 days / 1200 people

but it was just the opposite! We had a wonderful turnout; members of the community as well as the student body here at Bluffton University, came out to see some art and support the Haiti Water Project!

Although we did raise an amount that I was proud of, the event was not just successful monetarily. I was able to talk with many members of the community about what Haiti Water Project is and why it’s important. People should know that sometimes life’s biggest problems have simple solutions! It’s important that we raised money, but I think it’s just as important to empower people to affect change in their community and abroad!

Last night I watched my close friends and people that I had never met before rally around a cause that is important to me. I don’t know if I can remember a time when I was more aware of the love of God than seeing this community work together to support HWP. I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to see something that was nothing more than an idea a little over a month ago, become something so beautiful.

There are few things that are impossible if you have an idea, a cause, and a fabulous community to work with

Andrea Flack is studying social work, religion, and ESL at Bluffton University in Ohio. She likes John Mayer, The Andy Griffith Show,  and The Irresistible Revolution and suggests eating Oreo O’s for your Christmas breakfast…and with that information you could be Facebook friends.