Vassar Haiti Project

Rooster Morning, Renee Haspil

On January 20, VHP members attended Renewal and Rebirth: A Fundraiser for Haiti, hosted by Vassar alumna Diana Schaffner and the Disaster Relief Network of Fordham Law School. Laura Livingston ’12, one of the VHP members who was present, describes the event.

The thoughts and feelings behind the event “Renewal and Rebirth: A Fundraiser for Haiti” can perhaps be best presented through a symbolic fowl and a musical cliché.

VHP was invited to the event by Vassar alum Diana Schaffner. Schaffner is part of Disaster Relief Network (DRN), a public interest group at Fordham Law School that works with populations affected by natural disasters. Held one year and eight days after the January 2010 earthquake, the fundraiser featured a series of speakers including DRN representatives, Andrew Meade, State Committeewoman Rodneyse Bichotte, comedian Haitian V, and a priest. Listeners were exposed to DRN’s work with Haitian prisons and land use, education in Chermaitre, political achievements of Haitian Americans in New York, Haitian experiences at McDonald’s (from Haitian V), and a rooster in the rubble.

Let me explain that rooster, the symbolic fowl. The following is the priest’s story (extracted from my fuzzy memory and so perhaps a little bit different than it was actually told). After the earthquake, Port-au-Prince was mostly a city of collapsed buildings. A day after the earthquake, people heard a strange noise coming from just beneath the rubble. Soon, a rooster emerged from the dust and concrete. The bird was missing several body parts, including an eye. Despite the appearance of death, the rooster mustered its vocal cords to crow at the rising sun. It was a vivid image of the event title, “Renewal and Rebirth.” Both the rooster and the notion of renewal and rebirth speak to why there were so many people in Fordham’s Presidential Lounge that night.

While the priest’s rooster story and the words “renewal and rebirth” may sound religious, they are based on a foundational principle that seems to be common to any human group working in Haiti: there is sometimes a connection between hard work, hope, and reality. As mentioned before, many people attended the fundraiser that night. Some of us had never met each other before, yet there we were in a room twelve floors above NYC’s streets listening to stories about Haiti. So, the musical cliché conclusion: it’s a small world after all.

The next reflection comes from Manning Wu ’14, another VHP member who attended the Fordham event.

I understand that the job of raising Haiti out of poverty is very daunting, but our effort with the students from Fordham Graduate Law School was a step in the right direction. At the end of the event, many people bought Haitian paintings and handicrafts from VHP. They were not just making simple purchases; they were connecting with the people living in Haiti.  I felt that seeing so many people in America caring about Haiti was simply amazing.

This was a terrifically successful event. I loved experiencing the buzz about Haiti, and listening to the truly inspiring speeches that were given. I was so happy to see people in America trying hard to contribute to Haiti at a time when the country needs our attention most.