President Giles-Gee on Haiti and KSC's Response

To the Campus Community:

As we have all seen over the past few days, the earthquake in Haiti has been devastating, causing an as-yet incalculable loss of life and near total destruction of critical infrastructure. It is during times like this that we are reminded of how interconnected we are as members of a global community, and that tragedy in Haiti impacts us all.

Indeed, Haiti will seem quite familiar to many members of the College who may recall author Tracy Kidder, who visited the campus in February 2006 and spoke eloquently about the work of anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer, whose crusade to bring healthcare to the world’s poorest countries led him to found a medical mission in the Haitian countryside. Kidder chronicles Dr. Farmer’s efforts in his book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, a previous selection of the “Keene is Reading” program.

I know you join me in sending thoughts and good wishes to the people of Haiti. Should you wish to do more, you may click on the following link to the CNN website where you will find an extensive list of nonprofit organizations that are mobilized to assist with Haiti’s recovery efforts: http://www.cnn.com/201 0/LIVING/01/13/haiti.earthquake.how.to.help/index.html. This list includes Dr. Paul Farmer’s organization, Partners in Health: www.pih.org.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Helen F. Giles-Gee

President