Schenectady resident Vincenzo Polsinelli leads service trip to Haiti

2013 Feb 25

Schenectady resident and Siena College senior Vincenzo Polsinelli recently organized and led a trip for Habitat for Humanity to Haiti. Polsinelli, a biology major, and seven other students, spent nine days in January volunteering in the small village of Fontaine. Fontaine is the hometown of former Siena student Pierre-Louis Joizil, who attended Siena on a scholarship after an earthquake ravaged Haiti in January 2010.

The Siena students' main goal was to paint the newly constructed St. Gabriel Middle-High School alongside its students, who enjoyed working on their English in the process. "I used to walk two hours each way to attend the nearest middle and high school," said Joizil. That's not the case in Fontaine anymore. Constructing the school there has made education accessible to 119 students in the area.

Electricity is also a commodity in Haiti, with only one out of 100 families having access in Fontaine. With this knowledge, Polsinelli worked with General Electric, which donated six solar panels, and Let's Share the Sun, an organization in Troy, N.Y. that facilitates their installation in poor, disadvantaged areas of the world to bring electricity to Fontaine's school. The solar panels allow the Haitian students to use laptops that had been previously donated and to continue their studies at night. Solar lanterns were also donated so that students can bring electricity home to share with their families on a rotating basis.

Polsinelli plans to continue his relationships with Fontaine and return one day with medical experience. "I plan on going to medical school and I plan on taking this project with me," Polsinelli said. He hopes to conduct research in the village and eventually create a clinic that will be run by the people of Fontaine.