Humanity First: Helping Haitians | Northville's Jeff Crawford, friends raising funds for clinic

They are representing an organization called Humanity First. The three of them started their trip by dipping their tires into the Pacific Ocean at Venice Beach in southern California and ended up by mid-May at their destination goal of Charleston, SC.

File photo: Humanity First volunteers raising funds in California

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: Home Town Life
By Lonnie Huhman | May 26, 2011

Biking across the United States is a difficult challenge, but for Northville High School graduate Jeff Crawford it was a perfect way to spend a month off from his medical studies at the University of Michigan.

The goal of the 37-day trip was, and still remains, to raise funds for the Cloud Forest Medical Clinic located in Seguin, Haiti. Crawford, who recently graduated from U of M, has visited this clinic in Haiti at least eight times since he was 16.

His first experience came when he went on a mission trip with his church, Livonia Memorial Church of Christ.


Now he and his friends Clayton Bell and Kyle Martin are making an effort to find funds for the Seguin clinic so it can hire and support a Haitian-born medical physician. They are representing an organization called Humanity First.

The three of them started their trip by dipping their tires into the Pacific Ocean at Venice Beach in southern California and ended up by mid-May at their destination goal of Charleston, SC. They tallied a total of 3,100 miles … and around 20 flat tires.

One thing that stood out to Crawford was the generosity of those they met along the way.

“Everyone was great and very helpful to us, from gas station attendants to passing motorcycle riders,” he said. “It's this kind of generosity we want to send to Seguin.”

Over a year ago, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake inflicted much damage to Haiti, leaving over 200,000 dead, 300,000 injured and more than 3 million Haitians affected. According to Humanity First (HF), they arrived at the disaster zone and setup a relief mission that served more than 50,000 Haitians in need. A cholera outbreak and hurricane followed, inflicting even more damage.

Both Bell and Martin have been volunteering at the clinic as physicians for the past several months. Bell is an M.D. from Arkansas, and Martin is completing his medical studies at Michigan State University.

Their hope is when they leave a full-time doctor will step in to take over the responsibilities.

According to HF, Seguin is an isolated mountainous and farming community of approximately 60,000 people located at more than 5,600 feet above the sea level. Besides this clinic, the nearest healthcare facility for the people of the Seguin community is two hours away. The rebuilding of Haiti continues.

“The Haitian people are resilient, but are living in a very poor country,” Crawford said. “We want to help them out in a very crucial and specific way. This is literally a grass roots cause.”

The three men have risen over $20,000 and hope to get to $30,000. Interested people can help their cause by going to the web site www.bisiklethaiti.com and making a pledge of assistance.


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