Haiti Still Needs Our Help

Dear Readers,

A good friend and fellow graduate student just got back from a short trip to Haiti where she witnessed the continuing state of chaos and need for aid.

She saw many organizations doing good work but struggling to stretch their now diminishing resources.

Haiti may not be in the current headlines but she still needs our help.

Thus, we will be doing more fundraising for Partners in Health at the Davis Farmers Market on Saturday, September 18th, from 9am to 12pm.

Please come out and show your support!

Thanks in advance,
HAC

A HUGE opportunity we should take advantage of!!

I just got this email forward from Chris Benner, the chair of the Community Development Grad Group. Check it out:

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"I was in Haiti shortly after the earthquake providing medical relief with a FEMA Disaster Medical Assistance Team. Since I have been back, I have been trying my best to keep the needs of the Haitian people from fading from the public consciousness. This has included numerous speaking engagements, news interviews and preliminary partnerships with several NGO's.

As you may be aware, the University of California did not officially participate in relief efforts following the earthquake in Haiti. However, a number of concerned students and faculty from the various UC campuses felt strongly that as one of the premier institutions in the world, the University of California has an obligation to utilize the talents of its students and faculty, as well as its enormous resources, to provide long-term assistance in the re-development efforts underway in Haiti. Despite being amidst the greatest budget crisis of our time since the Great Depression, the University is committed to advancing work in international development.

On April 24, 2010 at UC San Francisco, the UC system will hold a 10-campus, system-wide summit to deliberate on a long-term plan of engagement between the UC system and Haiti. Based on needs assessment reports from non-profits and ideally official representatives of Haiti, faculty and students in various disciplines will fine-tune potential projects, educational and training partnership opportunities, and community-based initiatives. As community members of UC, we are intending to find ways to partner with the people of Haiti, via education and training, to facilitate locally-derived solutions.

The plan of the summit is to have some preliminary general discussions and then to break into "interest groups" that will come up with specific proposals in areas such as medical care, agriculture, economic development, politics, public health, etc. Our College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences has some of the top talent in the country, and their input would be invaluable in the Agriculture component of the proposal. I will be leading the interest group in the Healthcare component of the proposal, and am coordinating the participation of UC Davis faculty, staff and students.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could forward this email to the faculty and staff of the College. If any of your faculty or staff have an interest in participating in the summit, they should contact me at dsgross@ucdavis.edu or 530-219-8960 as soon as possible, and include their area of expertise/interest. I have attached a tentative version of the Summit Proposal and schedule. Thanks."

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What do we think?? Should we jump on this? Lets discuss further at the next meeting. Keep posted.

g

Don't Forget Haiti

Thanks to Jamiella for sharing this Newsweek post.

Fundraiser for Engineers without Borders TONIGHT!!!

Hey Everyone,

There is a fundraiser for EWB at Uncle Vito's from 5-9 this evening. Mention EWB when you order and some of the money will go to them.

I think a bunch of people are planning to head there for drinks around 5 or so. Anyone interested should just show up. Bring friends and spread the word.

Cara

The Plan

We will start up strong beginning next quarter. In the meantime, we are getting organized as an official UCD student group (thanks Bidita and Rizel!)

Volunteers will have the opportunity to work on various projects that interest them. Possible project committees include:

• Farmers Market fundraising for Haiti (including screen printing projects)
  
• Picnic Day tabling (April 17th)
  
• Whole Earth Festival tabling (May 7th, 8th, 9th)
  
• Haiti art show
• Long-term community development projects (with Dr. Guarnizo)
• Working with/helping a specific community in Haiti (like Eloissant's community)
  

There are some issues on the front burner:

1. First of all, we need to get a head count to see who is interested in helping with what
   
2. We also need to decide on a logo (finally!!)
3. There needs to be consensus around the group's mission statement
4. Finally, we need to decide where/to whom our fundraised funds are going
   

Some folks have raised the issue of transforming the group into a more general International Disaster Relief Fund - type group instead of just focusing on Haiti. We will discuss this option further.

Please add to this post or email me if I've forgotten anything.

I will send out a Doodle poll to see when/where we should meet next quarter.

Thanks!
g

Comments on the logos

Bidita says:

"I think the logos you have made are very beautiful but I have seen similar logos for gender empowerment orgs and herbal products in India. I could not find the exact logos in the internet so I am attaching the ones which are similar to the ones that I have seen. I am sorry for being critical. But I think that since we have decided to make a fresh start and we have two weeks to pull ourselves together, we should really think carefully about all the decisions."


Cara says:

"Visually I think the blog looks great - nice colors, etc, so awesome job there. I agree with Bidita on the logos though...they look like a lot of other things and I'm not sure they exactly express what we want. I would suggest something more simple, although I'm not an artist so I don't know how well I could contribute to creating another. I did see these t-shirts for sale, and I liked what they had. I'm attaching a picture so you guys can see it....I think a simple design will appeal to a wider range of people, and I also feel like the image of a tree is maybe suggesting we are an environmental group ---- there are of course a ton of environmental issues associated with what we are doing, but from my viewpoint we are approaching this from a humanitarian viewpoint and focusing on the people themselves."

Possible Logos