By Erin Thompson
When the 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed much of Haiti’s capital city of Port-Au-Prince on Tuesday, Americans heard the cries of those who were left without homes, hospitals and churches.
Within hours, some even had a plan of action.
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In less than two days from the time the earthquake hit, Mike Dupuy, who was born Haiti and lives in Middleburg, a professional public speaker and bird of prey expert, conceived of helphaitirebuild.org — a Web site that accepts donations that will be used to provide Haitians with clean water, food and medicine.
“There is suffering and pain going on right now. ... There was no time to waste,” Dupuy said.
Dupuy has family in Haiti, so he understands first-hand what the conditions of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation were like even before the earthquake.
He said his children witnessed the effects of extreme poverty.
“They saw other kids go to school with no shoes,” Dupuy said. “They got to see what kind of misery exists out there in the world.”
The purpose of the Web site is two-fold, Dupuy said. First, he wants to be able to provide Haitians with essentials, and second, to make the burdens they already bear a little lighter.
In addition to getting adults to donate, Dupuy is going into the schools to ask students to donate spare change. He wants to go into the schools to let them know that this is a worthy cause. “I’m thinking that this money should go to schools, children’s hospitals — I’d like to focus that money from child to child,” he said.
Dupuy’s biggest fear is that after a few months, Haiti’s urgent need of help will fade from memory.
“Kind of like Katrina,” he said, referring to the devastating hurricane that hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
Another way to help is to make a donation to the International Response Fund at www.redcross.org, by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS or by texting “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation to the Red Cross.
More than 80 percent of Haitians are Catholic, and the Harrisburg Catholic parishes and campus ministries will take up a special collection for the people and church of Haiti. The collection will be taken over the next two weekends.
