A fundraising event for Haiti was held Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Conference Room B. Seth Donnelly, a social studies instructor at Los Altos High School and humanitarian activist with the Haiti Action Committee was the keynote speaker, and spoke about the plight of the Haitian people.

Donnelly went to Haiti in 2004 to investigate the effects of a political coup that had occured.

“I think since the Haitians revolted, other governments and corporations are purposely exploiting them and making them poor,” De Anza College Student Trustee Isabelle Barrientos Vargas said.

Donnelly spoke about the news he had heard from his fellow activists on the ground in Haiti. “The airport is not functioning, so all the aid that is coming in is stuck there in the control of the 20,000 United States troops. “It is not getting to the people,” Donnelly said. “We are asking people to put pressure on Congress to get the aid out to the people.”