Allan Appel Photo
Ralph Jean-Mary kept calling. Finally he got through to his parents in earthquake-shattered Haiti.
Like other New Haveners with family there, Jean-Mary (pictured) had only one way of learning if loved ones were among the estimated 50,000 Haitians who lost their lives in that country’s worst quake in 200 years. Relatives have had to keep dialing in hopes of connecting amid spotty cell phone reception.
Jean-Mary was doubly lucky. He eventually reached his mother in Hinche. He reached his father in Port-au-Prince. Both were OK.
So many other are not. “It will take several weeks to clear the dead from the streets,” his father told him.
Thursday Jean-Mary told that story at a press conference at NAACP headquarters on Whalley Avenue, as he joined New Haven’s fast-developing response to Haiti’s humanitarian crisis. Jean-Mary is the local group’s treasurer, as well as a business manager at Yale-New Haven Hospital’s Adult Emergency Department.
The NAACP announced it has set up a special fund through which people can contribute money for emergency help. The NAACP had already raised $10,000 from individual donors by mid-Thursday. It put out the call for New Haveners to help.
Donors can deliver checks to the NAACP office at 545 Whalley Ave. (New Haven, CT 06511), or, starting Friday morning, access it through the website of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. Checks should be made out to the Community Foundation with “NAACP Haitian Fund” written in the message line.
By Thursday the NAACP had already pulled together a range of organizational partners to raise money through the fund: Yale-New Haven, a coalition of local Hispanic ministers, the Firebirds, and a range of African-American fraternities & sororities: Phi Beta Sigma, Delta Sigma Theta, Omega Psi Phi, Yale African-American Affinity Group, and Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Local NAACP President James Rawlings said the group is in this for the long haul.
“This is not something that is going to take 30 days or three months,” Rawlings said at Thursday’s press conference. “It’s an implosion of a country. We’ll be paying attention. It may take four or five years for the country to get on its feet.”
Yale-New Haven spokesman Vin Petrini said the hospital has already received 20 calls from employees wanting to help. Friday morning the coalition will meet at Yale-New Haven to take an inventory of operating room supplies and other materials that might be sent to Haiti. On Sunday ministers at the city’s black churches plan to take up special collections for the fund. And local NAACP officials plan to coordinate their activities with the organization’s national drive.
“We have so many resources at Yale-New Haven to take care of even minor injuries, so we understand what it means to deal with a trauma situation,” Jean-Mary said.
One of the ministers present at Thursday’s press conference was Rev. Jose Champagne of Church of God of Prophecy. He’s been working, with Yale-New Haven’s help, to build a hospital in the Dominican Republic. He has 30 doctors on the ground there, he said, as part of an “international positive mission.” “We’re offering our doctors,” he said. If people have trouble delivering emergency supplies, Champagne added, the doctors can bring them by land.
The Red Cross also has a website up for donations.
NAACP President James Rawlings.
Where is the NAACP with all of the gun violence in the city of New Haven. 13 Deaths in 2009, 2 murders starting off the New Years. Families have held vigils for their lost love ones, community members have attend, Politicians attended, but wait not one person from the NAACP attended. I am not saying you shouldnt help those over seas, but what about those right at your door step. ... And yes I am a black man.