Last Sunday, December 8, the Haiti Solidarity Club was featured in the article “Can Foreign Aid Help This Girl?”, written by famed journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient Nicholas D. Kristof. The article highlights a myriad of controversies surrounding foreign aid and the complicated, often corrupt, politics behind it.

Often times, the Haiti Solidarity faces difficulties in relaying money and providing supplies to Haiti because of the Haitian government’s extremely oppressive rule. The article details the importance of foreign aid, and how foreign aid is helping girls like Darline St. Luc, who was featured in the article, get an education in a poverty-stricken Haiti. Darline, who is 13 years old, is going back to school as a result of Rea Dol’s, a Haitian woman that works closely with the club, efforts in helping children like Darline receive an education at SOPUDEP, Los Altos’ sister school. Rea, with the help of the club, transformed a Haitian torture chamber into what SOPUDEP is today.

“[The article] shows the whole country what we’re doing as a club and what the potential for foreign aid is, especially in Haiti, which is a poor country,” senior Katie Tritschler said. “I thought [the article turned out] really good [as] it talked about the controversy of foreign aid and if it is really helping countries and going to the right people.”

Katie, who joined Haiti Solidarity her sophomore year, never imagined that the club would be featured in a renowned newspaper like the New York Times.

“It’s awesome [to be featured in the New York Times] since we’ve been working for the past few years, and we’ve been so dedicated to [the club],” Katie said. “We go to Haiti, we help out, we come back, it’s not a huge deal, but I never thought we’d get this far…To be on such a high level news publication and actually be printed in the New York…raises awareness for the club.”

Check out the article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/opinion/sunday/kristof-can-foreign-aid-help-this-girl.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0