Should the population of Haiti in New York really participate in earthquake relief efforts?
Haitians in New York Eager to Help, but Struggle With How By JAMES BARRON Published: January 13, 2010 They know how to make the calls. They know what to collect and send. In a city of insular immigrant communities, none has had more experience helping with disasters back home and knowing how to make crucial life-or-death connections, than the Haitian communities in Brooklyn and in Cambria Heights, Queens. But no one was ready for an earthquake, the first in 200 years. The enormous temblor created challenges not even they had faced before, on top of the personal ones: fearing the worst for relatives they could not reach on their cellphones. Some filed into churches that led special noontime prayers, kneeling, waving photographs of loved ones, sobbing. “I’m praying for everybody in Haiti — my heart is there,” said Marie St. Aime, 57, a nurse whose brother and his eight children lived close to the presidential palace. There had been no word for him. Some, frustrated that the familiar numb
