Carmelite Delvas saw more than she could bear.<\/p>\n
The Harvard employee, a native of Haiti, rushed to her devastated homeland after the massive earthquake to search for her 79-year-old mother, who uses a wheelchair.<\/p>\n
Delvas found her mother living on the street in Port-au-Prince, without food, water, or access to her heart medication, surrounded by destruction and death.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was crying, crying, crying. I\u2019ve never seen anything like that in my life,\u201d said the Harvard custodian. \u201cI saw too much over there. I saw too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Together, mother and daughter spent five days on the street. A couple of hours a night of sleep was all that Delvas, a 48-year-old who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, would allow herself, fearful of robbers who were roaming the ruined capital.<\/p>\n
In a desperate attempt to return to the United States, she made her case at the airport in Haiti, but officials refused to let the pair travel together. Delvas could leave the country, but without the documentation required, her mother would have to remain.<\/p>\n
Finally, after an eight-hour bus ride over rough mountain roads to the Dominican Republic, the pair were able to fly to Boston.<\/p>\n
For the past month, Delvas has been helping her mother to recover, struggling with the complicated process of securing for her a visa and trying to find her a place to stay. Fortunately, with help from the Harvard University community, Delvas\u2019 rough road has gotten a little smoother.<\/p>\n
Like nearly 100 other Harvard employees with direct ties to Haiti, Delvas recently received assistance from the Harvard Haiti Emergency Relief Fund for Employees<\/a>. The fund was created to provide financial support for emergency or unanticipated expenses arising from the quake, and was initially established with gifts from the University and the Harvard University Employees Credit Union. It is currently accepting donations from the Harvard community.<\/p>\n \u201cI say, thank you to Harvard, thank you to everyone. I didn\u2019t expect [anything],\u201d said Delvas. \u201cBut the money is going to help. I can get food for my mom, I can get clothes for my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n