Just 700 miles from Florida, Haiti is a world apart economically. Life expectancy hovers around 65 years, infant mortality exceeds 45 deaths per thousand births and political instability has pushed thousands to seek refuge in the Dominican Republic.
Hoping to direct attention and resources to these worsening conditions, juniors Eric Liang and Linh Do co-founded a local chapter of the nonprofit organization We Kids United over the summer.
We Kids United is a youth-led nonprofit aimed toward providing medical supplies to Haiti and other developing nations. Along with other executive officers in charge of social media, journalism and logistics, Liang and Do began the community project in hopes of creating change in the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti.
After being cold emailed by one of the organization’s leaders, Liang joined a few meetings to discuss his interest in becoming involved with the organization. With experience tutoring in different organizations, Liang was drawn to We Kids United for its potential to spread his passion for solving international problems.
“Starting a high school chapter was pretty challenging as it required me to form a diverse 12-person team, communicate effectively and schedule times and tasks that worked for everyone,” Liang said.
We Kids United was started by several college students during a service trip to Haiti in hopes of improving healthcare access in the country. The main goal of the organization is to set up accessible mobile clinics in the Dominican Republic, as many Haitians have migrated there due to geographical conditions and political conflicts.
The organization is unusual as it focuses on fundraising through community engagement rather than just private donors, spreading awareness about conditions in Haiti. As a fully volunteer-reliant organization, the group’s strengths stem mainly from their high school chapters — regional teams in charge of setting up fundraisers, organizing events to raise awareness and working on large-scale projects to promote regional change and work towards the organization’s broader goals.
Currently, in addition to co-founding his own chapter, Liang serves as the co-chair of the organization’s South Bay Regional Board, which covers a number of high school chapters around the area. Together, the board works on integrative projects education in Haitian communities through various programs such as pen-pals, tutoring and financial and technological literacy initiatives.
Recently, the chapter organized a fundraiser in downtown Saratoga, selling packaged snacks to fund medical supplies and spread awareness. They are also helping organize a hackathon at Stanford University, where winning projects will receive the support of the larger organization to create solutions for healthcare in Haitian communities.
Despite facing initial challenges, Liang notes that the outcomes have been rewarding so far.
“I love having the opportunity to create a positive real-world impact,” he said. “I feel like I was not only able to gain a better perspective on real world issues, but valuable leadership skills. The process will be difficult, but I hope that my team’s work will be able to create a significant impact in Haiti.”
