As Haiti copes with the strongest aftershock since last week's destructive 7.0 earthquake, former and current members of the University and Charlottesville communities have continued their efforts to aid the devastated nation.
Friends of deceased Batten student and College alumna Stephanie Jean-Charles confronted their personal loss at a vigil Sunday night, where they shared memories of their friend and erected a shrine in her honor in front of the French house, where Jean-Charles used to live, fourth-year College student Frederika Braun said. Jean-Charles' friends also expect a big turnout - especially from members of the classes of 2008 and 2009 - at her memorial, which will take place in Newcomb Ballroom today from 4 to 7 p.m.
On Grounds, the response to the disaster has been strong. Minority Rights Coalition Co-Chair Neal Fox said he believes as many as 100 student organizations may have been present at a meeting last night that was held to coordinate the efforts of the many groups concerned about the earthquake's aftermath.
At the meeting, Hoos for Haiti decided to collect donations from individual students and organizations in a HoosOnline fund. The money will be sent to the Red Cross, Partners in Health and UNICEF. Donors can pledge to contribute their money to another organization, as well, and that money will still be considered part of the sum raised by the University community. Hoos for Haiti hopes to raise at least $100,000 by Feb. 14.
"It's not a surprise that the University community has embraced this event," Asst. Engineering Prof. Lisa Colosi said, noting that the community's generosity is probably driven by the culture of service on Grounds.
Additionally, a Hoos for Haiti concert will be hosted Saturday evening by Engineering School faculty and students at Fry's Spring Beach Club. The event will feature both a silent auction and local bands such as 180 and Acme Swing Manufacturing Company, all of whom will play for free, said Colosi, who helped plan the event.
All proceeds will go to the relief agency Partners in Health and to the non-governmental organization GHESKIO - the Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections - which provides clinical service and conducts research on diseases such as HIV/AIDS, she said. These organizations were selected because they have specific, focused goals, as well as lower overhead costs than groups such as the Red Cross, she added. GHESKIO also has strong ties to the University's Global Development Organization, and its facilities in Port-au-Prince have been damaged by the earthquake, Colosi said.
Local businesses and student groups such as Engineers without Borders have also helped promote the concert, and Colosi said this activity may be critical to the event's success, especially because most students have been out of town during the past few weeks.
"There's some research that suggests that with emergency relief, it's critical to be on people's minds in the first 10 days," she said. "After that they ... sort of lose that sense of urgency - that they have to help."
Graduate Arts & Sciences students Wendy Hsu and Peter Traub have also made a move to quickly organize Love4Haiti, a charity event that will feature a silent auction and live music performers. The funds will be divided among UNICEF, the International Rescue Committee Partners in Health and GHESKIO. The event, which will also feature food donated by local restaurants, will take place at Random Row Books on West Main Street Saturday evening.
"Overall, I see the event as a start for a long-term engagement with the Haitian people," Hsu said.
Away from Charlottesville, community members also are working together to raise support for the Haitian people, and in doing so, have exceeded their own expectations.
2005 College and Commerce alumnus Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of the social news Web site reddit.com, noticed that many of the site's users wanted more transparency from the organizations that receive funds from relief efforts.
"It was clear the community was not only interested in helping but they also wanted to do it as effectively as possible," he said. "Based on that first day of discussion, I thought, 'Hey, we could really do something there.'"
Ohanian sent a "tweet" to an old friend from his University days, College alumnus Jim Prosser, who is now the manager of media relations at the medical charity Direct Relief International. Ohanian believed the charity would provide the transparency that donors desired, and so last Thursday, the two organizations created a page at which Reddit users could make donations.
As the page opened, Direct Relief International prepared to update it with photos showing how those donations were being spent, so as to encourage more donations. Within four hours, the page surpassed its initial goal of $31,450, Prosser and Ohanian said. After 12 hours, donations had already doubled the amount of initial goal. As of press time, the amount had surpassed $150,000.
Though Direct Relief International updates the page, the actual funds have been generated solely with the generosity of the donors, Prosser said.
"There's no incentive other than it's just the right thing to do," he said.
Moreover, Ohanian believes this type of transparent fundraising is both effective and a good example for the future of philanthropy.
"It's going very well beyond the 'Here's a photo of the child you'll be feeding' scenario," he said. "At best, they were inefficient, and at worst, they were outright frauds ... Now with technology the way it is, there really is no excuse not to [continuously provide photo and video updates.] To know that my $20 is an important part of the $1,000 that bought a case of syringes goes a long way."
-Kate Colwell contributed to this article
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