SVC Community Share Experiences in Aid to Haiti

March 18, 2010

Southern Vermont College student Zach Cota-Weaver and SVC parent George Henry recently spent two weeks in Haiti providing emergency medical care for hundreds of Haitians. Both will share their stories and pictures in two presentations on Tuesday, April 6, at 2:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Everett Mansion Theatre on campus. Both presentations are free and open to the public.

A pre-Nursing student from Starksboro, Vt., Cota-Weaver is an active member of the Bennington Rescue Squad and works at Southewestern Vermont Medical Center. In Haiti, he brought his real-world experience and classroom education to work in hospitals and clinics providing patient care for the sick, injured and chronically ill. “It’s given me a different perspective of the world,” Cota-Weaver said, “I witnessed humans doing things we Americans could never comprehend.”

Cota-Weaver self-funded his trip after hearing some of the experiences from SVC student Christie Henry’s father, George Henry. Cota-Weaver and Henry travelled to Haiti in association with the Vermont Haiti Project (VHP), http://vermonthaitiproject.org/, a program formed in 2007 which provides humanitarian services in Haiti. VHP sends groups of Vermonters to volunteer in Haiti and brings Haitians to Vermont for professional development and advocacy. The organization has been selected as a benefactor for Southern Vermont College’s Haiti relief efforts.

For more information, contact SVC’s AmeriCorps/VISTA representative Mike Moran at 802-447-4692 or e-mail mmoran@svc.edu.