Emergency Assistance for Haitian Students on U.S. Campuses

Last week, the Institute of International Education (IIE) announced that they will provide emergency grants to Haitian students studying in the United States. The Haiti-EAS (Emergency Assistance for Students) is available to provide grants up to $2,000 to Haitian students who are experiencing “serious financial difficulties due to the recent tragedy in their home country. Nomination forms should be submitted to IIE by February 12, 2010.

U.S. campus administrators can learn more about this generous support for their Haitian student population at www.iie.org/HaitiEAS

Photo credit: ChrisM70

Cruise Ship Arrives at Haitian Private Resort Labadee a week after Earthquake

Yesterday I came upon an article in the Guardian entitled “Cruise ships still find a Haitian berth” which describes the 4,370 passenger ship Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, docking at the private resort of Labadee in Haiti. Labadee is approximately 60 miles from the devastated city of Port-au-Prince.

Royal Caribbean International plans to provide $1 million towards the humanitarian relief efforts in Port-au-Prince. Part of Royal Caribbean International’s statement on the situation in Haiti states the following “in addition to continuing our visitation to Haiti, and the revenue it brings to the country, 100% of the company’s net revenue from the destination will be contributed to the relief effort. Guests will also have the ability to make donations to the Food for the Poor’s Haiti Relief Fund through their onboard accounts fleetwide.

You can link to the Guardian article here and you can link to the Royal Caribbean International webpage describing their efforts in support of Haiti here.

I’m curious what IHEC Blog readers think about this?

Photo credit (top photo): LWY

Photo credit (middle photo): United Nations Development Programme

Photo credit (bottom photo): Nick Hobgood

Video of the Week - American Red Cross Update on the Situation in Haiti 24 Hours After Quake

Donate to the American Red Cross at http://www.redcross.org/

Extensive Webpage Resource Devoted to Haiti

The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy has developed and compiled an extensive list of resources and created a webpage devoted to Haiti, opportunities to get involved and news/resources for individuals to educate themselves on the issue. You can access this resource at http://www.uscenterforcitizendiplomacy.org/misc/haiti/

This map shows the predicted shake intensity from the Haitian quake of 2010. Prediction made by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Photo credit: simminch

International Students and Faculty in Haiti – Is Your Institution Prepared for a Crisis?

While reading today’s “Quick Takes” section on insidehighered.com I came across the following item entitled “U.S. Colleges Track Students, Faculty in Haiti” which mentions that the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Lynn University, Blue Ridge Community College, Taylor University and Maryville University all have students and/or faculty in Haiti. You can read this “Quick Take” here which provides links to some institutional news releases on the situation for their students and faculty. The institutions listed above are, of course, all from the United States and it is highly likely that students and faculty from non-U.S. institutions were also in Haiti when the earthquake struck.

The earthquake in Haiti is a reminder of just how fragile life is and that health and safety issues can arise without warning. Make health and safety planning a part of your best practices when working with your students and faculty who are headed abroad for study, research and work purposes.

An excellent resources in this area is the Safety Abroad First Educational Travel Information (SAFETI) Clearinghouse. You can access the SAFETI Clearinghouse, which was created and developed by the Center for Global Education which is now at Loyola Marymount University, at http://globaled.us/safeti/. The SAFETI Clearinghouse is jsut one resources that international educators can use in their health and safety preparations and I will post more to IHEC Blog on valuable health and safety resources and best practices in the future.

CNN.com has put together an excellent resource on how you can help the Haitian people during this crisis and you can access it at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/.

Photo credit: UNDP Global

How you can help Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake

It should not be news to anyone that Haiti is in crisis. As with all humanitarian crises the best that one can do is to make a financial contribution. I searched the internet to find a listing of organizations that are helping with the relief effort in Haiti and I think CNN.com has created an excellent resource for you to donate. You can link to the CNN.com webpage dedicated to the Haiti crisis at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

Photo credit: r-z