Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Men anpil chay pa lou.
In Creole, the predominant language of Haiti, those words mean, “Many hands make the load lighter.”
Members of the Latin American Solidarity and the Honors Program Student Council are trying to make life easier for a group of Haitian female orphans who have been denied access to the same housing given to their male peers.
From right Rebecca Monroe, Fayetteville Ark. junior, and Gianna Short, Edmond Okla. junior, fill their plates with traditional Haitian food during a fundraiser at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries Tuesday night. The fundraiser, which was put together by the KU honors program student council, was to raise money for an orphanage in Haiti to finish building on a girl's dormitory interupted due to lack of funds. According to Heidi Girgis, a member of the honors program student council, Haitian law prohibits boys and girls from living together, therefore without a seperate dormitory the girls of the orphanage are often forced to spend the night on the streets.
Danielle Coffyn, Prairie Village junior and member of both the Latin American Solidarity and the Honors Program Student Council, was the lead organizer for the Haitian Girl Project, a fundraiser held Tuesday at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries. The fundraiser benefited the construction of an all-girls dormitory at Maison Fortune Orphanage in Hinche, Haiti.
The event was donation-based and featured free Haitian-cuisine, guest speakers and drawings for gift certificates to local restaurants.
Coffyn said that under Haitian law, boys and girls could attend school together at the orphanage, but after classes the girls left the school compound and stayed with neighbors, relatives or whoever would take them in.
“If they could stay at the orphanage, it would be a much better living situation,” Coffyn said.
She said that 50 to 80 percent of the Haitian population was illiterate, so the type of free education the orphanage provided was greatly needed. She also said that the education and overall well-being of women in third-world countries was often overlooked in place of educating only the male students.
“When we heard they wanted a girls’ compound, we jumped to help because we thought it was an amazing opportunity,” Coffyn said.
Coffyn said the groups have raised $4,250 so far to send to the orphanage. She hoped after Tuesday that the total would exceed $5,000.
Amy Lavaveshkul, Lawrence junior and service chair with the Honors Program Student Council, said less than an hour into the event that the fundraisers had already sold several hundreds of dollars worth of raffle tickets.
“Hopefully we’ll be selling all of them,” Lavaveshkul said.
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Coffyn said that under Haitian law, boys and girls could attend school together at the orphanage, but after classes the girls left the school compound and stayed with neighbors, relatives or whoever would take them in.
Cassidy Creek, Kansas City, Kan., junior, said she joined Latin American Solidarity to help with this event.
Creek cooked the meatballs for the Haitian dinner and said she wanted to get involved because the Haitian girls needed a home and that there was a lot of money in this area of the state that could be used to help them.
Jean-Benito Mercier, a native Haitian, spoke at the event to raise awareness about the plight of educating the impoverished in Haiti.
“The wealthy keep education away from the people to limit their competition so they can stay in power,” Mercier said.
Kansan staff writer Tyler Harbert can be contacted at tharbert@kansan.com.
— Edited by Trevan McGee
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