Tony Curcuru stood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Jan. 8 where there is now only rubble.

The streets he and groups of missionaries walked together are torn up, the effects of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that ripped the island nation apart.

The status of a nutrition center for infants they volunteered at, with the children’s faces still fresh in his mind, remains unknown.

“Now looking on every news channels and every article online you just think of all those faces and what’s next for them,” he said.

Curcuru, a senior foreign language major, was part of the Haiti Connection missionary trip through the Newman Center and spent nearly a week in Haiti during winter break.

Along with 15 other people, Curcuru arrived in the capitol, Port-au-Prince, on Dec. 30 and stayed until Jan. 8.

The earthquake hit 10 miles southwest of the city.

Roy Lanham, director of the Newman Catholic Center, has been leading groups down to Haiti for almost 20 years and has made many personal connections during that time.

“We’ve been in touch with some folks in Haiti,” Lanham said. “It’s terrible right now.”

Lanham has been attempting to contact people since yesterday, with little success.

“Our hearts and minds and our prayers are going out to everyone down there,” Lanham said.

Curcuru is still shocked by how close they were.

“Today they were talking about a group of 15 people that went down for mission work and no one can get a hold of them now, that could have been us,” Curcuru said.

The Newman Center is collecting donations that will go directly to relief services in Haiti, due to their established contacts.

“Whether that’s for clean water, for food for shelter, there’s still going to be hundreds of thousands of Haitians in need of water and shelter”

The Newman Center has tables set up in the Martin Luther King Jr. Union today and Friday to collect donations for direct relief.

Donations can be made there or by writing checks to the Newman Haiti fund, memo earthquake which can be dropped off at the Newman center or sent for free through campus mail to the Student Life Office addressed to Haiti Connection.

Emily Steele can be reached at 581-7942 or easteele2@eiu.edu