The 2015 Health for Haiti class met this morning to finish packing our luggage for Haiti. We ended up with 36 suitcases filled with over 1800 pounds of medical supplies, toys, clothing, fabric, educational materials, computer supplies, 27 laptops, and 1000 personal care kits! In Haiti we hope to find our shipping container housing the water filtration system and solar power equipment. The container cleared Customs on New Year’s Eve, and we are making the final arrangements to transport it to Grande Saline.
Next Up: We will meet very early Monday morning (pretty much Sunday night), and begin our journey from SUNY Broome to Haiti. As we prepare to start our travel, we feel so fortunate to have had such tremendous support from our community.
Thank you SUNY Broome administration, faculty, students and the surrounding community for your amazing generosity and countless donations of money and supplies for our Health for Haiti projects. Thank you for bringing in supplies, holding bake sales and book drives, attending our fundraisers and making generous donations.
Thank you to Geodis for Panasonic Toughbooks and for managing the super complicated and almost impossible logistics of purchasing and shipping a container to Haiti. Lou Policastro, we are grateful for your guidance and patience and tenacity and willingness to put hours and hours into this project over many months. In fact, Jen is not sure what it will be like to not speak with you on the phone every day!
Thank you to the Pall Corporation in Cortland for laptops, personal care kits, medical supplies, monetary support, and the water filtration system that can provide thousands of gallons of clean water for the people of Grande Saline, Haiti. Thank you for all of the time you put into engineering the system for the complicated situation in Grande Saline. We look forward to working with Jodi and Paula in Haiti to install the system and learning more about this life-saving technology.
Thank you to the Binghamton University Center for Civic Engagement, led by Dr. Allison Alden, and the Bridging the Digital Divide Program for launching and nurturing the Bridge to Haiti initiative. Thank you for providing computer literacy training documents, refurbishment of all of the Bridge to Haiti laptops (Jack Rappaport….you are amazing), and helping to organize and publicize the project. Your efforts have made it possible for hundreds of children in Haiti to have the opportunity to learn to use a computer.
Thanks to SUNY Broome BIT chairperson Sandy Wright and her fall 2014 Project Management class for Bridge to Haiti student achievement certificates, teacher badges, a successful eWaste drive, and a great social media presence.
Thank you to Dr. Gay Canough from ETM Solar Works for your expert guidance, solar equipment, and your willingness to join us on this trip. We know that we and our friends in Haiti will learn so much from you! It will be a pleasure to replace that noisy, smelly gas generator with some clean, quiet solar power!
And thank you to the 2015 Health for Haiti students for all of your hard work to prepare for our time in Haiti. You are an amazing group with so many talents, and we know you will do great things in Haiti!
There is no way to properly thank everyone who has donated to this project, but please know that each of you is an important part of what we will accomplish in Haiti. We hope you will follow the blog and share this experience with us.
Orevwa!
SUNY Broome Health for Haiti 