Five days after the ground shook in Haiti, Marco Duverseau returned to Tampa.
The UT sophomore and Haiti native had returned to Florida just days before the earthquake. Him and his aunt helplessly watched the CNN news coverage of the devastation in his homeland.
“The general area where it [the earthquake] hit is where the people I know live, and no calls were going through,” Duverseau said. “All I kept thinking was, everyone’s there and I don’t where they are.”
Duverseau eventually received the news that his grandmother was alive, but half of her house collapsed. By the time he contacted his mother, Haiti had experienced over 20 after-shocks.
Duverseau’s mother is a doctor in Haiti and once everything was shaking, she ran out of the house and straight to the hospital where patients were flooding in.
It would be longer before he heard from his father, who is also a doctor.
“Someone told me they saw my dad in my hospital and I didn’t know if it was true. I couldnt eat, I couldnt sleep and I had a headache for three days,” Durvseau said.
Miraculously, many of Marco’s family members survived the disaster. The worst part were the rumors he said.
“People were posting on Facebook ‘so-and-so is dead, so-and-so is dead’ but no one knew for sure,” Duverseau said. “People were posting pictures from their mobile phones, it was so much worse than we actually thought it was.”
Melissa Jiha, UT senior and Haiti native experienced the earthquake first hand, and was driven to help her fellow countrymen facing the devastation. When Durveseau got to campus, Jiha called him and said ‘we’re the only people who know what happened there, we need to get people to help.’
That night we made our Facebook group.
Duverseau and Jiha created the Facebook group, titled ‘University of Tampa for Haiti earthquake.’ Boasting 420 members, the group asks for idea submissions to help mobilize people in Tampa to donate to the relief effort.
Two days after creating the group, the organizers had a table in Vaughn to collect donations of food, clothing and water. They visited Brevard hall and asked residents to donate anything they could.
“Donations were pouring in. Just by knocking on Brevard doors we had boxes of stuff,” said Duverseau.
So far, UT’s donations allowed more than 60 boxes to be sent to Haiti through the Red Cross.
Organizers also sold ‘Help Haiti’ t-shirts and bracelets, and also organized a candle-light vigil held on campus Jan 29. The projector screen normally would have cost them $1500, but the company donated it for free.
“I was really impressed with how much people cared,” said Duverseau.
As the semester continues, the group hopes to continue fundraising and awareness for the people in Haiti.
“Most people don’t know much about Haiti, it’s a small country. But we need to help everyone there more than ever.”
Visit their Facebook group for more information on how to become involved.
