The new student coalition UM Student Activist Alliance (UMSAA) partnered up with a local non-profit organization to host FlowFest, a multimedia event in the UC Patio on Wednesday highlighting the availability of fresh water worldwide and donating proceeds to a Haitian orphanage.
With the help of Konbit For Haiti, a 501 (c)(3) organization based in Little Haiti, student groups igKnite, Random Acts of Kindness, WVUM 90.5 and the Haitian Student Organization, or collectively UMSAA, organized a free concert and documentary screening with artists like Jahfe, LaGuardia Cross, Michael “Mikaben” Benjamin, Maeva the Artist, Final Second and Sekajipo Genes to benefit Haiti relief efforts and encourage activism.
A component of the UM student-led workshop, “Flow: Uniting Children’s Visions on Water and the World,” the benefit concert featured a silent auction of photographs taken by nine middle school children on the subject of water.
“We had a workshop over the weekend at Konbit offices near little Haiti and invited middle school kids from the area and taught them about water scarcity and pollution,” said Gustavo Lang, Jr., president of Random Acts of Kindness.
“We asked them to go out and take pictures of water within the context of their community,” Lang said. “Pictures of a drain, a water bottle, or just water itself- whatever represented water to them.”
Proceeds of the silent auction will be donated to Shalom Village orphanage in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, as part of UMSAA’s continuous campaign to help Haitian earthquake victims. The photographs, being auctioned for $15 each, were displayed in the UC Patio alongside artisan jewelry, free Haitian food and related student groups who tabled at the event.
One student group in particular, Soley Ini, helped raise awareness about their current CGIU-proposed project to build community centers in Site Soley, Port-Au-Prince.
“We actually built a community center; it started to get off the ground, and then the earthquake happened so we’re starting all over again,” said Lissette Miller, president of Soley Ini. “We’re hoping to fund-raise on campus to get our projects off the ground.”
You can learn more about FlowFest at igknite.org/projects/flow or watch videos of the Flow workshop in Little Haiti on the School of Communication’s project kozeayiti.org.
Nicolette Roque may be contacted at nroque@themiamihurricane.com.