Local service supports Haiti victims

Local advocacy groups and Pitt students held a service in Wilkinsburg yesterday to support the… Local advocacy groups and Pitt students held a service in Wilkinsburg yesterday to support the victims of the earthquake that devastated Haiti almost three weeks ago.

The Redeemed Christian Church of God held the service along with the Union of African Communities in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County in the Hosanna House in Wilkinsburg.

Music from a pair of hand drums, a drum set and a pair of keyboards filled the hall. A PowerPoint projector put the lyrics of the songs up on a screen for the audience to follow along.

A small choir in front of the seats sang and encouraged the audience to participate.

Akunna Emeremni, a second year graduate student at Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, was a part of the choir and the church’s welcoming committee.

She said she thinks people needed to get involved in rebuilding Haiti or it will not happen.

“As bad as it looks now, there can be life there again. We need to be involved in that,” Emeremni said.

More than 100 parishioners shared their thoughts and prayers for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The parishioners joined Emeremni and her fellow singers yesterday. Many danced in their seats to the music.

More than a dozen children played between the aisles when the service began, adding to the din in the hall.

The music started just after 10 a.m. and shortly after 10:30 a.m., Pastor Adegboyega Esan stepped to the podium and started his sermon.

“It does not matter how devastated Haiti is, it will bounce back. It will rise again,” Esan said.

The text of Ezekiel 37 lit up the screen as Esan talked on dry bones and “God’s specialty of bringing life to the dead.”

But, Esan said, Haiti’s recovery wouldn’t happen spontaneously. Mankind would have to help for Haiti to “rise again.”

“Without God we cannot. Without man, God will not,” Esan said of the need for people to pitch in for the Haiti relief effort.

Rufus Idris, general secretary for the Union of African Communities in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, said that they planned the event over the past two weeks as a way to raise awareness for the Haiti relief effort.

A news release for the event said representatives from the Red Cross would be present to take donations.

Brian Knavish, a spokesman for the Southwestern Pennsylvania Red Cross, said that the Red Cross has seen an immense outpouring of support from the community, but hadn’t heard of the event.

Idris said he thought the service was a success.

At the end of the service ushers passed around baskets to collect donations for the Red Cross Haiti relief effort. The groups collected more than $500 in a small gray metal box to bring to the Red Cross in Pittsburgh.

Six leaders from a variety of African nations founded the Union of African Communities in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County in 2008. The Union includes representatives from 26 African nations and several student groups from the Pittsburgh area.

The Union lists support from Pitt’s African Student Organization, CMU’s Young African Leader’s Alliance, and Duquesne’s African Student Organization.

Idris said that the goal of the Union was to “respond as one people whether it is a happy time or a disastrous time, like this one.”

“Many Haitians are of African descent. They are our people,” Idris said of the Union’s involvement in the Haiti relief effort.

More events will depend on the needs of the Haitian people, Idris said. He had received calls from people who wanted to donate clothing and food.

But, according to the Red Cross Web site, the organization is “unable to accept small, individual donations or collections of items such as clothing, food, cleaning supplies and medicine.”