College Students Raise Awareness and Funds to Build a Second School in Jamaica
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (May 4, 2010) – For the second year in a row, members of Lynn University’s Students For The Poor lived in tents and fasted, as well as sponsored a public forum in order to bring attention to the desperate living conditions of those who remain homeless and in need throughout Haiti. For several years the campus organization has partnered with the international relief and development agency, Food For The Poor, to provide food, emergency relief assistance, access to clean water, the construction of homes and schools, and the shipment of medical and educational supplies to the destitute.
As hurricane season approaches those who have been displaced by Haiti’s earthquake remain extremely vulnerable. This year’s weeklong, on-campus event raised funds to help build critically needed housing in Haiti, and to construct a basic school in Jamaica.
“Members of Lynn University’s Students For The Poor are to be commended for their actions to help raise awareness and be the voice for our less fortunate brothers and sisters,” said Angel Aloma, Food For The Poor’s Executive Director. “After witnessing firsthand the reality of destitution in developing countries, the students returned home more emotionally involved than ever with a desire to help those they met.”
“I know I can’t fix all the poverty, and I know I can’t make the lives better for everyone, but I do know I can make some of them smile, even if its just for a moment, and to them that means a lot,” said Robin Bouricius, a student who traveled to Jamaica in January. “Thinking about the trip and all the tough lives these people live just makes me want to help out more and be an even nicer person. Most of all, I hope that someday people will understand the kind of trouble other countries are dealing with, and it shouldn’t take something like an earthquake for people to go over there and start helping.”
In January, two volunteer service-learning groups from Lynn University’s 2010 J-Term traveled to Haiti and Jamaica to serve the countries’ destitute. Four students and two professors from Lynn University perished in the Jan. 12 earthquake. Food For The Poor will memorialize the six by building The Lynn Memorial Village in Anse a Veau, Haiti. The village will be located near a Food For The Poor fishing village and will comprise 25 double-housing units with sanitation in each home, an artesian well and a community center. The community center will double as a health clinic and for vocational training classes. The Lynn Memorial School will provide classes for first through 12th grades.
On Jan.12, the other group visited Hibernia Early Childhood Institute, in Manchester, Jamaica. Hibernia school is part of a legacy created by Lynn University students from the 2009 J-Term trip to Jamaica – several of those students were in Haiti this year with the 2010 J-Term. Lynn University students experienced an immediate bond with the children at Hibernia as they blew bubbles, painted each other’s faces, and played with stickers. The young children showed their gratitude for the new school with warm hugs and smiles.
Rebecca Block also traveled to Jamaica in January 2010 with Food For The Poor and met the children at Hibernia school. She returned to the United States inspired to help those she had met – and left behind. Committed to the idea of building a basic school in Jamaica, Block asked her parents to consider her proposal to build a school in Jamaica and won the support of the Hahn-Block Family Foundation. The donation will build Morris Hall Basic School in St. Catherine, and will help empower generations of Jamaicans with an education.
To continue to support the student’s effort, make checks out to Food For The Poor and include a special source code “SC# 64619″ so the money can be attributed to Lynn University’s Students For The Poor campaign. A donation of $5,200 can provide a destitute family with a double-housing unit.
You can learn more about Food For The Poor’s 2010 mission trips for college students by e-mailing [email protected]. You can also involve your school in Food For The Poor’s mission by calling 1-877-654-2960, ext. 6988 or e-mailing [email protected].
Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org
Contact:
Jennifer Oates
Public Relations
954.427.2222, ext. 6054