When Rucheli Manville saw the news reports of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti last month, the University of Central Florida undergraduate – echoing the response of aid organizations and international governments – decided to take action.
Looking to Jewish teachings for inspiration, she formed her own charitable enterprise, dedicated, in her words, “to saving and improving the lives of those endangered by unexplainable catastrophes.” Drawing on the support of fellow students and small online donations, her Chai4Humanity International Relief Fund has been collecting clothing and other supplies at area Chabad-Lubavitch centers. The plan is to sell the items and send the proceeds to relief organizations in Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic.
What cannot be sold will be given to Haitian refugees arriving in Orlando.
“In times such as these, the best thing to do right now is to stop talking about why disasters happen and just go DO something to make it better,” she wrote in a recent column on Orlando’s local Examiner.com Web site. “That is the Jewish response to … every disaster and tragedy.”
Since Jan. 25, Chai4Humanity has collected 38 garbage bags full of clothing at three locations across the UCF campus, as well as at the school’s Chabad House, Chabad of Greater Orlando, Chabad of South Orlando, Chabad of North Orlando and two Jewish Community Centers in the area.
Manville has also been collecting donations through the program’s Web site. Some are as small as $18, numerically equivalent to the Hebrew word chai, meaning “life.” Some of the organizations that have already received disbursements from Manville include the Chabad Haiti Relief Fund run by Chabad-Lubavitch of the Dominican Republic and Chabad of Puerto Rico, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the Red Cross.
People “are literally donating life to people,” said the 22-year-old engineering student.
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| Rucheli Manville |
Taking Action
Manville credited the lessons she learned at her campus Chabad House with providing the impetus to take action.
“Judaism is a religion of action,” she said.
Before engaging in an in-depth study of her heritage, Judaism, she said, was for her, a label, an identity. She was Jewish because her mother was Jewish; the idea of actively being Jewish through giving charity and doing good deeds “was mind-blowing for me.”
When she walked into the Chabad House and met Rabbi Chaim and Rivkie Lipskier, she quickly felt at home. She called the couple “practically a big brother and sister.”
Today, she serves as the organization’s founding secretary and teaches at Chabad of South Florida’s Hebrew school.
Rivkie Lipskier said that Manville’s actions have inspired everyone around her.
“It is wonderful to see a college student do something about this horrible story,” she said. “But I’m not surprised Rucheli started this; she’s very motivated and talented.”
Manville, who plans to spend time at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem after graduating in May, said that she wants Chai4Humanity to continue to reach out to victims of natural disasters.
“When somebody needs our help,” she said, “we’ll be there.”
