American Students Learn About Haiti Relief Efforts

The head of Life for Relief and Development’s Haiti Relief Team, Ayman Aburahma, recently conducted a series of presentations to elementary and high school students about the humanitarian work that Life has done in Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake that took the lives of over 200,000 people, and displaced 3 million more. 

As the head of Life’s Haiti Relief Team, Aburahma has been to the Caribbean country half a dozen times since January and has overseen the distribution of millions of dollars in aid to survivors of the earthquake.

His most recent school presentation was held at the Toledo Islamic Academy in Toledo, OH.   Aburahma showed students a slideshow of the destruction that he witnessed, as well as some of the people that Life was able to help.

The presentation was an opportunity for the children to learn the importance of values like empathy, compassion, and charitable giving. 

In this spirit, one student rose from his seat and walked to the front of the room with $118 in hand.  “This is the money that I received during the last Eid holiday,” he said.  “I want to donate it to the kids in Haiti—my brothers and sisters—because they need it more than I do.”

At the end of the event, the students presented Aburahma with a large banner with painted hand-prints from each of the students.  In the center of the banner was a message reading, “Our Hearts Go Out to You!--From Your Friends at the Toledo Islamic Academy--Toledo, OH U.S.A.”

That banner now hangs on the wall of an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, and is displayed as a monument to the bond of brotherhood that now exists between children from two different parts of the world, all of whom are members of the same human family.