Health and education outreach to Haiti cancelled

Two on-campus service groups have been denied permission by the university to travel to Haiti following the earthquake.

The two groups were slated to visit the country in the spring. The first, a group from the College of Science and Engineering, the Bannan Scholars, had planned to visit the Louverture Cleary School on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince.

Louverture Cleary is a Catholic boarding school that provides education for children whose families can't afford it (in Haiti, public schools are not free). The school historically has been extremely successful; 96 percent of students pass the Haiti national exam versus the countrywide average of 32 percent.

The Bannan Scholars were set to work alongside the Haitian Project, the organization that runs the school, to teach students basic science and math skills. They planned on supplying the school with basic lab materials like microscopes and telescopes and donating unused equipment from the Bannan building.

Derek Rogalsky, senior biochemistry major, led the planning process for the trip.

"The two principles that Bannan Scholars are supposed to exemplify are academic excellence and community service," Rogalsky said. "Since science and engineering students don't get to go out and do community service as much as others, I felt like this would be a great example."

Rogalsky had visited the school before on his own in 2008, when he helped plant rooftop gardens for students.

"The gardens were meant to provide students with food to bring home over the weekend, so that not only they could eat but their families as well," Rogalsky said.

On weekends, students returned home from Louverture Cleary and usually didn't eat. Students were fed throughout the week at school and were also sent home with additional food. Their families saved on money and resources.

Rogalsky's previous relationship with Louverture Cleary led him to organize much of the trip that would have left next month.

The second mission trip was to be led by nursing professor Martha Goedert, who earned an Endowed Mission Fund grant from a program run by Fr. Peter Ely, S.J., vice president of Mission and Ministry.

Goedert's proposal was to take a faculty-staff immersion along with a group of nursing students to Haiti to provide health care outreach.

April Rodriguez, a Seattle U graduate nursing student, hoped to use the trip to help write a simple medical manual that could be used to treat and care for children at a Haitian orphanage in the rural village of Hinche.

"After the recent devastation that Haiti received from the earthquake," Rodriguez said, "there is an even greater need for trained medical personnel in rural villages in Haiti such as Hinche."

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning before the earthquake due to the country's high crime rate. Both the nurses and the Bannan Scholars had to appeal to the provost for permission to enact their programs as per Seattle University policy.

"They had really planned out the whole thing and presented us with convincing reasons why they should be allowed to go," said Robin Craggs, director of Education Abroad.

The provost granted both groups permission, but soon after the devastating 7.0 earthquake struck, the cases were called in for re-evaluation.

"Both groups had really great cases," said Craggs, who sat on the panel that heard the groups' appeals. "The whole landscape of the situation changed when the earthquake happened."

On Jan. 14, two days after the quake, the State Department issued a new travel warning asking anyone not extensively trained and affiliated with an approved aid group to avoid travel in Haiti.

According to reports from the State Department, there is extensive risk for malaria to travelers, extremely low security and clogged up airports. These new factors forced the provost to revoke permission for the two on-campus groups.

"With the current situation, it wasn't practical to send these students over there," Craggs said.

The question of how much help the students could have really provided after the quake was prevalent. It would have cost thousands of dollars to send them, according to Craggs. "Someone brought up the point that so much good could be done giving that money to people suffering right now," Craggs said.

Disappointed but still hopeful, Rogalsky is pushing for a re-evaluation in February.
He is preparing a new proposal to the Provost, asking him to review the conditions in Haiti by Feb. 12 and reconsider his decision.

"A lot of walls in Louverture Cleary fell, so we'd focus a lot on helping with that situation since we have educated engineers in the group," Rogalsky said.

Any future trips would focus more on rebuilding than they had before.

In the meantime, the groups will be tabling around campus and at basketball games to collect donations for Haitian aid.

"We just want to respond to what they need," Rogalsky said, "Whatever that may be."

Kelton may be reached at ksears@su-spectator.com.