Students raise hundreds of pounds for Haiti

A student fundraising group has been set up to help Haiti following the devastating earthquake on the island three weeks ago.

The group, “Haiti at Warwick”, was originally conceived in a small seminar class of fourth year Comparative American Studies students and has so far raised £1,000 for the victims of the disaster.

The earthquake, which struck Haiti’s largest city, Port-au-Prince, on 12th January, currently has a confirmed death toll of 150,000.

Olivia Patt, a fourth-year CAS student, said, “The response from the student body has been amazing.

“None of us have had that much experience fundraising but we were impressed by how many people have become involved.”

Haiti at Warwick has raised money by various methods, including setting up a “JustGiving” website, which had £555 in donations at the time of writing. In addition, collecting £360 at the One World Week fashion show has been termed “a massive success” by Francesca Doggart, also a fourth year CAS student.

The group walked from Leamington Spa to the university campus on Tuesday 2nd February in pursuit of more donations.

They met on the parade, near the church and aimed to get to campus by 11.00am for their morning seminar. Doggart said, “We wanted to do something original.”

However, the group already appears to have attracted controversy, with reports of bad feeling between the CAS students and the One World Week organisers.

Accusations of OWW railroading the group out of fundraising in order to boost their own publicity have attracted significant debate on the internet. However, both the Haiti fundraisers and OWW organisers say the situation was simply a “miscommunication”.

Haiti at Warwick organisers are keen to make sure aid is sustainable and long term.

Plans are being formed for a “Haiti Day”, where experts will be invited to talk on natural disasters, as well as a seminar on the “Shock Doctrine” – a theory which asserts disasters are used by the radical right to push through unpopular neoliberal economic reforms.

The group will also be fundraising at Top Banana in Week 5.

To find out more about “Haiti at Warwick”, visit them on Facebook, or to donate visit [Justgiving](http://justgiving.com/haitiwalktowarwick).