Oregon Public Broadcasting

Dozens of people came out in Portland Thursday night to attend a vigil in support of Haiti, which is recovering from a disastrous earthquake. Here are some of their voices.

Judith Gelin: “My name is Judith Gelin and I’m the program coordinator for the Society for Haitian Arts and Culture. Yeah I have a lot of family down there. No word. No signals. No contact. So I don’t know how they are doing right now, which is very painful for me.”

John Paris: “My name is John Robert Paris, and I’m from Haiti. I’ve lived here most of my life. And this is just a tremendous tragedy.”

Gabi Ross: “My name is Gabi Ross and I’m here tonight obviously because it’s a tremendous tragedy, but also because I believe earthquakes are natural disasters, there’s nothing anyone can do. But the fact that Haiti is so impacted has a lot to do with what already was missing there, and that has a lot to do with us, with history and economic policies.”

The international aid group Mercy Corps of Portland hosted the event.