7581: Re: 7571: RE: 7545: Re: 7432: Usefulness of spring break trips to Haiti ( fwd) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Paulette Smith <psmith@emerald.tufts.edu>


I am with you Julie!

In fact some of those Universities students are (in great part) from
"minority" groups and African-American.
Some of them will tell you that Haiti should benefit from the same
attention given to children and women in Africa who have survived
thanks in part to the young people generosity and gotten help from
students doing field work - from the Medical Schools here.
(they have for exemple taken care of  vaccination, dental care, as well as
distribute old textbooks they collect from us during the year!)

I have an advisee who just came back from such a project:
she has been transformed from her experience and has transformed the life
of some destitute people from the remote villages.
(whose suffering have been totally ignored all their lives by their own
government adgencies and who have no contact with the outside.)

I can't see how that fosters dependency!

Paulette Anne Smith
Tufts University