Carbondale, Ill. - It's been more than a year since an earthquake leveled the Haitian capital of Port Au Prince and recovery from the disaster has been challenging.

While billions of dollars have been raised and pledged to support humanitarian missions, a professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale wants to make sure Haiti's children will have the access to education needed to turn around their long-troubled homeland. To that end, Prof. Uche Onyebadi of SIUC's School of Journalism, is organizing a weeklong fundraising effort to equip a students' resource center in the Haitian capital.

The fundraising efforts will be highlighted by a symposium focused on international news media coverage of the disaster and its aftermath to be held 7 p.m. Thursday in Ballroom D of the Student Center. Among the scheduled speakers will be three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who will share their experiences covering the quake.

SIUC's College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, students, faculty and staff from other colleges and departments are promoting the event and several other SIUC colleges and campus groups are offering support. The planned student resource center is also being supported by Haitian Ministries, a not-for-profit Christian organization headquartered in Connecticut with more than 25 years of serving Haiti.

Onyebadi said this week's goal of raising $40,000 is part of a larger plan.

"Our main objective is to see if we can build a school," Onyebadi said. "We want to start with an after-school resource center where (Haitian children) can do homework and have access to computers and books."

More than 200,000 are estimated to have been killed in the quake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter magnitude scale. An estimated 100,000 buildings, including many schools, were leveled in the Jan. 12, 2010 disaster.

While any and all humanitarian efforts are keys to helping Haiti rebuild, Onyebadi said that education should not be forgotten. Education, Onyebadi said, will be important in the years that come.

"Yes, you can give them food, you can give them blankets, that's fine," Onyebadi said. "But, we're looking beyond the immediate in what happens. ... We are calling it reconnection through reconstruction. We are trying to connect with the people through reconstruction and part of the reconstruction is education."

Funds raised this week will be used to purchase and maintain computers, printers, desk lamps, pojectors, desks, dictionaries and other school necessities.

Donations are tax-deductible and can be made to the Haiti School Fund at SIU Credit Union.