Zamor: Fondwa University is 'gone', town flattened

Riche Zamor, a Boston man who serves as president of the University of Fondwa tells the Reporter today that the school's facilities have been completely destroyed. Fondwa, a town located about 45 minutes southeast of Port-au-Prince, is utterly destroyed, according to Zamor, who is in the United States but has spoken directly to several members of his staff on the ground.
"All of the students are alive, but some are injured," Zamor told the Reporter on Saturday. "We know that one American nun who lived in the center next door has died. There are about 30 people who were killed when the church collapsed. The whole town is destroyed."
Zamor said that most of the students have all dispersed to various communities in southern Haiti.
Zamor had been scheduled to return to Fondwa on Tuesday. He has been in the United States for the last year to recuperate from a very serious car accident in March 2009 that left him near death. Zamor said he has now decided to postpone his return to Haiti —even if flights resume.
"I am still not be able to be very mobile, using a cane" said Zamor of his own physical condition. "I think I might be more useful being in Boston."
"Right now, I'm still trying get a hold of colleagues and the US board of Fondwa to begin a conference call to decide how we move forward. We'll ebuild eventually but right now the rescue is a priority.
"Theres no way to move classrooms because the whole town is destroyed," he said.
Fondwa was created in 2004 by the Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF) as a “university of the mountains” modeled on the successful University of Guantanamo (Cuba), according to Partners in Progress in Haiti. Its mission is “to train a new generation of citizens who participate with determination and conviction in the sustainable and integrated development of their country and to develop a sense of citizenship, where students place the needs of the community as high as their own.”
Zamor was hired to head the effort in 2008. He had previously served for three years as the executive director of the Catholic Charities Haitian Multi-Service Center in Dorchester.