UA News

World Care has collected supplies and on Monday, UA volunteers are hosting a benefit luncheon on campus to collect funds to fly donated supplies to Haiti. The event is one of many the UA community has undertaken to help victims of the earthquake.

University of Arizona community members have joined together with the Tucson-based international humanitarian organization World Care to host a Haitian relief luncheon to help pay for the cost of shipping supplies to the country. 

Volunteers from the UA include event organizers Sheri Hill, executive assistant in the UA President's Office and Hassan Hijazi, director of government relations and development at Biosphere 2. They worked with World Care to identify the need for donations to help with the cost of leasing a plane to ship donated items.

The World Care organization has already shipped 66 pallets of donated supplies – the equivalent of three semi tractor trailers or 30 tons – to Haiti so far.

"The Tucson community has been extremely generous in its donations. We have received an overwhelming amount of supplies for this disaster," said Lisa Hopper, president of the World Care organization, which began in Tucson in 1996.

Hopper said the Cats and World Care for Haiti Relief Benefit will help to cover the $48,000 cost of acquiring a plane to fly the donated supplies from Miami to Haiti.

"The sea port is still closed but now Haiti is able to accommodate 130 supply aircrafts a day up from 30 a day," she said.

"This is a wonderful cause and I think it's a great idea," said UA President Robert N. Shelton, who issued a memo to the UA community in the days after the earthquake, showing support for the Haitian community.

The UA and Tucson communities are invited to the fundraising event on Feb. 1 at 11:30 a.m. at the Student Union Memorial Center Grand Ballroom.

Hill and Hijazi said half of the cost of the ticket will cover the cost of the meal provided and the rental of the Student Union ballroom while the remaining half will be donated to World Care.

"Despite tough economic and budgetary times in our state, our community has always been there to help those in need," Hijazi said.

World Care has a direct UA connection in that Hopper teaches a UA Honors College course on community relief and has student interns who learn first-hand about international relief efforts.

"Over the last 15 years, people have trusted World Care to get their donations from point A to point B. It is truly humbling to know we have gained that type of trust and through the students we continue carrying on the tradition of humanitarian relief," Hopper said.

Another UA effort directed toward the Haitian community involves collaboration between the Center for Latin American Studies and the School of Geography and Development. They will host a UA Roundtable Discussion on Haiti today from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Family and Consumer Sciences Building, Room 202.

Various UA student groups, campus organizations or departments have collected Haitian relief items.

Campus relief efforts include:

• The members of the Black Graduate Student Association observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day by volunteering at World Care and packing supplies bound for the victims of the Haitian Relief effort.

• The members of the UA Chapter of Chi Upsilon Sigma National Latin Sorority Inc. collected donated supplies and/or money on the UA Mall for the humanitarian relief agency Mercy Care.
• The members of the African Student Association held a memorial service and collected donations toward the relief effort.

• The UA Office of International Student Programs and Services set up an on-campus supply donation site for World Care and collected a truck bed full of donated items over the course of three days.

During Monday's luncheon, Haitian students whose families have been affected by the earthquake will speak.  

"Many of these students have family still in Haiti and have been tragically affected by the earthquake. The students will speak about their families' experiences as well as share stories about the Haiti they know," Hill said.

In addition, the luncheon includes an opportunity to purchase a raffle ticket from World Care for the opportunity to win donated prizes.

"We hope the University of Arizona wildcat community will come together again to assist in the relief effort in Haiti just as we did in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina," Hijazi said.