The current turmoil and bloodshed in war-torn Haiti is forcing a student group to change its spring break plans.
The Institute for Global Leadership had scheduled a week-long fact-finding trip to rural villages in Haiti. The group planned to visit a local village and a medical clinic in a humanitarian capacity.
The trip was formally cancelled late last week as Haitian rebel activity increased. According to Institute Associate Director Heather Barry, the office waited "as long as possible" to cancel the trip.
The trip was postponed when the already volatile political situation escalated with violent clashes between rebels and supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Astride left the island last Sunday, but fighting is continuing between rebel troops and Astride loyalists.
Though Barry admitted she was "very skeptical once the violence started," that the trip could continue, the Institute waited just in case.
"When we take risks they are very calculated risks. We would never risk the lives of our students," Institute Director Sherman Teichman said.
Approximately 70 students picked up applications for the trip based on advertisements on campus, according to Teichman.
At the time of cancellation, the Institute was considering 18 applicants in hopes of a final delegation of around six to ten students. The selection process was in the beginning stages of the interviews when the cancellation was announced.
Teichman said the high number of applicants showed that "our perceived need [to aid Haiti] has resonated with the campus."
Instead, the trip will now be rescheduled for when the political situation stabilizes, Teichman said.
Barry said this could be as soon this summer.
Teichman said a group will eventually go to Haiti, once the political climate is more favorable and less dangerous.
Teichman said the purpose of the expedition was to find possibilities for an annual project that students could provide to the village. Leaders of the village were alerted of the trip and were preparing suggestions for possible services.
The idea for the trip grew out of the Institute's relationship with doctor and anthropologist Paul Farmer. In 1987, Farmer founded the Partners for Health, which currently gives 1,000 patients daily free medical care. The group was planning to visit Farmer's clinic.
Farmer was the recipient of the 2002 Dr. John Mayer Global Citizenship Award.
The Institute had originally been looking to celebrate the bicentennial of Haiti's independence from France. An academic conference was considered until it was decided that on-the-ground action would be more useful for the country.
"Rather than spend money on a symposium, we realized we would rather invest the money in a society that desperately needed it," Teichman said.
The need for action was emphasized by the appearance of Ambassador James Dobbins at last weekend's EPIIC Symposium, the former U.S. special envoy to Haiti and currently director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center RAND Corporation.
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