The Waltham Group, Global Haiti Initiative, B-DEIS Records, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Student Events and several a cappella groups are among those at Brandeis coordinating efforts to aid Haiti, which was ravaged by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake Jan. 12.A Brandeis Vigil for Haiti was held last Wednesday in the Shapiro Campus Center. Shaina Gilbert '10, a first-generation Haitian-American who was instrumental in organizing the vigil, said that the vigil was a great start but the work goes far beyond there.

Many more events to support Haiti are currently in the works. There are plans to sell Valentine's Day grams, hold benefit concerts, sponsor staff-versus-student basketball games and hold a black-tie fundraiser, Waltham Group representative Nate Rosenblum '10 told the Justice. These fundraisers will be promoted later in the semester. Rosenblum returned from Haiti just three weeks prior to the earthquake, where he went as a member of a volunteer program.

"There will need to be consistent, long-term support and efforts to even begin the rebuilding process," Rosenblum told the Justice.

Rosenblum said that approximately $2,500 had been donated by the Brandeis community thus far and will be donated to disaster relief.

Along with four other Brandeis students and her father, Gilbert founded a camp in the Haitian town of Hinche last summer and ran its first session that July. The camp, called Empowering Through Education, served 43 boys and girls between eight and 11 years old by "bringing the spirit of Brandeis there," said Gilbert.

In a working draft to the Heller administration, faculty and staff, representing the approximately 70 members of the student body who have signed a petition, Krista Clement '11 wrote that "many students have expressed the desire to travel to Haiti as part of Heller's annual 'Alternative Spring Break.'

In an e-mail to the Justice, Clement wrote, "Heller students have joined together to create what we've dubbed the Heller Haiti Recovery Effort," noting that "recovery is not immediate relief," which she said is "best left to those on the ground and with significant medical training.