[ campus news ] [ campus news ]
MNU MNU
Campus, alumni help victims of Haitian earthquake
Partnering with Heart to Heart helps MNU community fulfill the passion to serve
A volunteer’s Haitian tale:
Devastation, but hope remains
Mike Jensen (‘94) was in New
Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
He was in Sri Lanka after the 2004
tsunami. But nothing prepared him for
what he saw [in] Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Residents of the capital city of more
than two million cried and prayed,
their hands bloody from digging
through rubble as they searched
for loved ones. Hungry and thirsty,
crowds massed at the airport gate
hoping for some of the food, water
and medical supplies coming in on
transport planes.
There was devastation everywhere.
“It looked like those pictures of WW
II after Warsaw was bombed, just piles
and piles of rubble,” said Jensen, a
long-time Heart to Heart International
volunteer.
Jensen was among early Heart to
Jensen photographed one of the many tent cities that have sprung up in and around Port-au-Prince.
Heart volunteers who made their way
into Haiti following the Jan. 12 earth-
It’s rewarding but tough work, Jensen
quake that left more than 70,000 dead and
said.
MNU community
millions homeless. A roofing contractor in
“You have to bottle your emotions up
his everyday life, Jensen helps support the
contributes to
when you see something like a corpse in
medical teams and – when not handling
the intersection, half burned.”
logistics – acts as Heart to Heart’s photog-
Haitian relief efforts
rapher on the ground.
But Jensen also saw Haitians deter-
mined to rebuild their shattered lives, and
In response to calls for disaster relief in
Jensen spent long days supporting the
occasional signs of hope and wonder.
Haiti, MNU students, faculty and staff do-
medical teams, ferrying supplies, and
shooting photos. The devastation – seven-
The sorrow of a man who mourned his
nated more than $1,650 to Heart to Heart
story buildings collapsed across road-
six-year-old daughter for five days turned
International, as well as 150 emergency
ways, impromptu tent cities covering side
to joy when she showed up at the door.
care kits and three boxes of supplies and
streets and alternate routes – made the
After days when residents couldn’t find
toiletries.
logistics difficult.
food or water, fruit, vegetables and water
Prior to January’s earthquake, MNU
began showing up at roadside stands and
student Mac Gouin had spearheaded a
On the ground in Haiti, Heart to Heart
the city market in Port-au-Prince.
project to raise money for notebooks for
medical teams set up emergency medical
facilities.
It’s impossible to leave such devastation
children in Haitian schools. During a
unchanged, Jensen said.
mission trip to Haiti in 2009, Gouin met
Injuries range from aches and pains to and taught children who lacked writing
those far more serious.
“I think our default mode is to take for
paper for school.
granted what we have. [This] really puts
“People were being brought into the
everything into perspective about what’s
After the earthquake, Gouin contacted
clinic who had gangrene for four or five
important and what isn’t. The value of
MNU ServiceCorps staff about helping
days.”
human life and relationships. All the rest
further. The money he raised for note-
Medical teams set up mobile units in ar-
of the stuff is going to end up in landfill
books was reallocated to Heart to Heart.
eas outside the city. In those areas, Jensen
someday.”
Gouin has family in Haiti and reports that
said, friends and relatives transported the
they survived but were left homeless
– by David Hayes/reprinted with permis-
injured by motorcycle, in wheelbarrows or
following the earthquake.
sion of Heart to Heart International
on makeshift stretchers.
12 | Accent magazine | Spring 2010
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20