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Oxford graduate living in tent to promote Haiti earthquake relief awareness

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February 18, 2010, 3:10 pm by Kate Oczypok

Illinois native Jesse Sullivan has been living in a tent near the Capitol for a monthin the midst of two of the worst blizzards the area has seen in years.
 
Sullivan is helping to raise money for emergency shelter for those affected by Haiti’s Jan. 12 major earthquake, The Springfield State Journal-Register reported.
 
The 25-year-old was in D.C. for job interviews when the earthquake hit. He got a call from his cousin, a doctor who started a medical program called “Haitian Hearts.”
 
Sullivan has a master’s from Oxford University and studied abroad in El Salvador when, coincidentally, an earthquake hit there.
 
To make a long story short, he ended up getting a hearing at the Haitian embassy and was accepted as a volunteer assistant for relief efforts.
 
The embassy offered him a hotel room in place of pay, but Sullivan chose to set up shop in his tent to raise awareness about bringing shelter down to Haiti. The ambassador and his wife told Sullivan he was crazy, but to go for it.
 
“It was really cold,” he told the Journal-Register. “But regardless of however bad it gets, I just feel like the conditions on the ground in Haiti are so much worse.”
 
Despite over two feet of snow, Sullivan is still in his tent. It is unclear exactly where is tent is on Capitol Hill.


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