The first text messages, phone calls and e-mails arrived on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 12, and they were blunt: “Turn on the television. Now.”

For members of Temple's Haitian community, those chilling messages triggered a cycle of anxiety, hope, sadness, uncertainty and fatigue that, for many, shows few signs of letting up. The news that a 7.0-magnitude earthquake had struck just west of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, killing tens of thousands and knocking out communications, was soon followed by a frantic search for information about the condition of relatives, friends and colleagues. Yet while Haiti and its diaspora mourn, the extended Temple family — led by the efforts of Haitian and Haitian-American students, faculty, staff and alumni — has begun to mobilize in support of the stricken nation.

Temple senior Gaëlle Amazan, a psychology major from South Plainfield, N.J., was taking a nap when she got a text message from a sorority sister about the earthquake. Piecing together scraps of information from e-mails and texts, she figured out that the quake's epicenter was only about 10 miles from where her mother lives in Haiti. With no word from her mother, Amazan spent the next three days alternating between states of fear and denial before her father finally called to say that her mother had survived.

French instructor Gregoire Rosia, an adjunct faculty member for 14 years and a Temple alumnus, was getting ready to preach at his church in Lansdowne, Pa., when he saw the horrific televised images of the quake's aftermath. He spent the next two days trying to track down his family in Haiti before reaching a nephew who assured him that his sister and her family were alive, although sleeping outside for fear of aftershocks and building collapses.

For some, the long wait for news about family ended bitterly. Jean St. Jean, a 22-year veteran of Temple's Housekeeping Department and a fixture at the Fox School of Business, learned that more than 20 relatives were killed by the quake.

"The sense of grief and powerlessness is overwhelming," said Religion Department Chair Terry Rey, a former resident of Haiti, where he married his late wife and two of his children were born. "But Haiti will survive this. People there say 'Bondyebon' — God is good — when horrible or good things happen. This earthquake is one of the worst things ever to happen to Haiti, but Haitians will derive strength from their faith and their pride, and they shall overcome."

Within 24 hours of the earthquake, Temple students began to channel their grief into action. The Haitian Student Organization (HSO) joined forces with the Haitian Professionals of Philadelphia to raise funds and collect supplies for a relief jet to Haiti. HSO is organizing a Haiti Relief Collection Drive on Monday, Jan. 25 at the Student Center (8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., room 200AB). Needed supplies include non-perishable food, medical supplies (such as gauze and bandages), infant needs (such as baby formula and diapers) and toiletries (such as bar soap and toothbrushes).

"I'm in awe of the strength of these young men and women as they wait to hear from their family members, and of their efforts to bring together members of the community to pay tribute to the people of Haiti and the lives lost there," said Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Students Elizabeth Leebron Tutelman.

Another student-led effort is the Kornberg School of Dentistry's Haiti Club, a long-standing outreach project. The Haiti Club is going ahead with plans to embark on its annual trip to Haiti to provide free emergency care in March. The club is collecting supplies to bring to Haiti and soliciting donations to support their trip.

The Dean of Students Office is compiling and posting a list of Temple initiatives as well as national and international organizations seeking donations for Haiti. Among the many units at Temple that have initiated relief projects are the School of Medicine, which helped launch a university-wide campaign to raise funds for the Haitian relief efforts of Partners in Health, a respected non-profit; and the Temple University Health System, which has identified about $40,000 worth of basic medical supplies — including surgical masks, gloves, sutures and disposable stethoscopes — to deliver to Haiti.

While Haitians at Temple are intensely grateful for the outpouring of aid and the sudden burst of awareness about the nation's geography and history, they are determined to work together with the rest of the university community to prevent Haiti from retreating into invisibility once the last aftershock is felt and the camera crews go home.

"The Haitian motto is 'L'Union Fait La Force,' which means unity makes strength," said Temple senior Karl-Lydie Jean-Baptiste, president of HSO. "We need unity, because there's a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done. I just hope people don't forget about Haiti once the media attention ends."