Review

Winter 2008 edition of "On Wisconsin" news magazine "for
UW-Madison Alumni and Friends."

Margaret Trost MA'87 of Berkeley, California, turned personal tragedy into a way to help others when she began visiting Haiti in 2000.  She was trying to regain some meaning in her life after the sudden death of her spouse, Richard Tanaka '82, from an asthma attack.

In Port-au-Prince, Trost saw a chance to help Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste create a lunch program to feed the many hungry chil-dren who inhabit this poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.  She raised $5,000 to launch it, and then set up the What If? Foundation (whatiffoundation.org) to proide ongoing support.  The program now seres more than six thousand meals weekly.

Making this dream a reality is only one element of Trost's new book, On That Day, Everbody Ate: One Woman's Story of Hope and Possibility in Haiti (Koa Books).   She also explains ho factors such as international pressures, market forces, the indifference of prosperous nations, and local corruption all crash down on the smallest of citizens.

Despite witnessing governmental turmoil, arrests of Jean-Juste, kidnappings, and batterings by hurricanes, Trost's work has taught her to trust in optimism.  As Jean-Juste says in Creole, "Piti piti na rive." or "Little by little, we will arrive."