NBLSA Adds a Drop to the Bucket

NBLSA’s International Week of Service – February 18to 22

Proposed Week of Activities

Monday 18

Soccer Equipment Drive benefiting Pax Christi’s Soccer for Peace Program

Tuesday 19

Movie: Ghosts of Cite de Soleil

Wednesday 20

School Supplies Drive benefiting Pax Christi’s Outreach Program

Thursday 21

Conference call for all chapters and interested groups on situation in Haiti

Friday 22

Give your dinner to a hungry child

Cite de Soleil is Haiti’s biggest and poorest slum…

an enclave of violence, street kids, poverty, disease and HOPE!

Pax Christi’s Soccer for Peace Program aims at keeping young boys off the streets and away from gang violence.

If each BLSA chapter gets at least 100 people from their schools, neighborhoods, workplaces or families to contribute at least $10 one Friday in February, we can feed the Soccer Team for a year…

WILL YOUR CHAPTER HELP US HELP THEM?

Programming

On March 14^th 2008, NBLSA’s International Relations Committee will go to Port-au-Prince Haiti to learn more about Haitian culture and the impact of Haiti’s socioeconomic environment on young children. International Week of Service will introduce NBLSA’s International Relations Committee’s (IRC) Drop in the Bucket Project on Haiti. The IRC will focus one major fundraiser and two gear drives on helping Pax Christi Haiti with its Programming in Haiti’s Cite de Soleil. The IRC wishes to foster an understanding of the situation in Haiti among young law students in the U.S. while helping an organization of young professionals in Haiti fulfill their own commitment to social justice in Haiti.

A day in Cite de Soleil

The IRC’s weekend will consist of discussions, service activities and panel discussions. The highlight of the weekend however, is a Day in Cite de Soleil, Haiti’s largest and poorest slum.

The day in Cite de Soleil is a chance for NBLSA members to come face to face with the daily lives of young children in Haiti. This is a chance for NBLSA members to see the bigger picture of poverty in our back yard and the effect of poverty on the lives of Haiti’s most vulnerable. More than just learning about the slum, NBLSA members will interact with the young children of the Pax Christi soccer team. IRC will donate school supplies to the group as well as soccer supplies for their soccer team. IRC will also present to Pax Christi Haiti funds collected in its “Give a hungry child your dinner” drive for the program's feeding project. The IRC aims at collecting at least USD15 000 dollars for this project with the hopes of funding the soccer team, to cover its feeding program and other administrative costs for a year.

Impact Litigation

Part of the weekend will be spent discussing human rights and international law issues with Pooja Bhatia, a Harvard Law School Fellow (Class of 2007) working in Haiti with Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI). Mario Joseph, one of Haiti’s top attorneys will also be at our discussion if his schedule permits it. He is the founder of BAI.

Fundraising

Each school will be asked to participate in fundraising attempts for the trip. We need money to send the equipment to Haiti, the equipment and school gear and most importantly, the give a meal for a hungry child drive.

We will give each chapter access to promotional materials to help with fundraising. For more information, contact us at International@NBLSA.org or IRCHaiti@gmail.com. And join our google group for updates on our Haiti Project: http://groups.google.com/group/irc-goes-to-haiti?hl=en