Guest Post: BU for Haiti

Raul Fernandez, our guy at the Howard Thurman Center, is holding it down today with a guest blog post.  He reminds us of connections:

One year ago, Dr. Paul Farmer spoke to more than a thousand of us about compassion, justice, and altruism at BU’s 2009 Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration. As you may know, Farmer’s organization Partners in Health (www.pih.org) has brought free quality healthcare to millions of people in Haiti for more than two decades. Now, in Haiti’s greatest hour of need, Boston University’s Haitian Cultural Association & African American Studies Program are rallying students, faculty and centers like ours to support PIH’s emergency relief efforts, which are already underway.

“It’s a great time to serve a just cause, to concern ourselves with the oppressed or those less fortunate. It’s a great time to do what many BU students have done: to draw on deep reserves of compassion and solidarity and, above all, to engage.”

-Dr. Paul Farmer, January 19, 2009, at BU’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration

On Monday, the Boston University community will gather together to honor one of BU’s most distinguished alumni, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” I ask that in honor of Dr. King and in support of Dr. Farmer, that you provide whatever financial support you can at one of the donation boxes at this year’s MLK Commemoration event. Immediately following the event will be a reception hosted by BU’s Haitian Cultural Association with great Haitian food and live music for anyone who would like to learn more and contribute more to this worthy cause. For more information on the post-MLK reception, contact Katy Evans at kaevans@bu.edu.

I’ll leave you with one final quote by Dr. Farmer: “Good intentions are not sufficient to do the job, any more than is reluctant compliance with progress.”

I say, let’s get the job done.

Thanks Raul. Peace.