Today is the 1 year anniversary of the devastating Earthquake in Haiti that killed over 100,000 people in 60 seconds, and the Earth shattered literally right under the densest, most massive city in that country, destroying already destitute Port-au-Prince.

A friend of mine is a resident of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I met him as he was studying medicine in Moscow, Russia and I was teaching English there as a university student. He subsequently had to drop out for lack of funding and return to his poverty-stricken home in Haiti. Then the earthquake hit.

He was able to email me from his phone, using what little mobile phone infrastructure that was left. The building his house was in had collapsed. He was alright, but his mother was in the house, and was now hospitalized. She was to die from her injuries about a month later. Remembering his emotional and sobbing phone call to me after that still moves and saddens me to my innermost core – I can only imagine the pain my friend must have and still be going though. Fortunately, I was able to help financial several times, but to him personally, and to two excellent aid organizations doing relief in Haiti Doctors without Borders and Direct Relief International. My employer’s bankruptcy ended that ability last August, however.

Despite that tragedy, he has an unshakable faith and an optimism that God will make some good come of this. He and fellow survivors camped out in the courtyard around their destroyed church after that, supporting and assisting each other. This makeshift community was even shown on Fox News here in the us, as one of their camera crews happened upon it.

My friend is quite an intelligent young man, and he dreams of starting a business there, partly to fill the vacuum of services and small businesses in the impoverished city, but also to aid and assist those who have given so much support to him in a time of deep sadness.

I have a good laptop that I would like to send him, and while it’s not a completely new laptop, it would be a good tool for his goals of doing business, or even just having better communications with the outside world. As logistics costs and risk of postal theft are a big concern, I need to find a good solution for sending this laptop to my friend (or even find a way to fund his purchase of a laptop there, if shipping, duties, etc. are cost prohibitive.) Unfortunately, since losing my job last August and struggling to make ends meet as a freelance programmer, I’m no longer able to financially contribute to this goal. If that changes, I will make this happen, but I feel bad about having to continually delay the process for want of logistical knowledge and funding.

[Edit: 11:48 MST - Formatting fixes]