Ramaah Sadasivam: Co-Chair of the Humanitarian Aid Legal Organization (HALO) at the University of California-Davis, Davis, CA
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published March 12, 2007
Rebecca Unzicker
<<In the aftermath of the hurricane's devastation, Sadasivam walked away from her New Orleans apartment and everything in it. Nothing could be salvaged. She transferred to the University of Southern California when all classes at Tulane were closed indefinitely.
When she returned to Louisiana in January 2006, it was seeing the confusion and devastation in New Orleans that helped fuel Sadasivam's determination to study law.
"I saw people in need of help, and I heard about the huge legal crisis and wanted to help people hands on," Sadasivam said.
"Material things are not important anymore. As long as you're safe and your family is safe. They're just material objects. If you don't have them, you don't have them," she said, adding, "This profession seems like the perfect profession to give back to people."
Now a first-year law student at the University of California at Davis Law School, Sadasivam believes a career in law will enable her to help individuals in need and to make a difference in the community.
Within a few weeks of arriving at law school, she spoke with three other students who wanted to plan a trip to New Orleans to provide pro bono legal assistance to the community. That meeting led to formation of the Humanitarian Aid Legal Organization (HALO). The organization's stated purpose is to plan, implement, and raise money for an alternative spring break trip for law students. This year, HALO will partner with the Student Hurricane Network, a non-profit, student-organized network dedicated to assist in solving the legal problems created by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. HALO will send 11 of its members to New Orleans to provide pro bono legal aid services to those residents in need of legal assistance.
<<Students from both groups will travel to the Gulf Coast and be paired with local legal agencies and law firms to provide free legal aid to residents. Definite work assignments are not yet known, Sadasivam, HALO Co-Chair, reported.
"Our work will range from researching housing titles to help individuals reclaim their homes to interviewing prison inmates whose records were lost or destroyed by the hurricanes," she said.
The students are primarily first-year law students, but there are a few second- and third-year students as well. All of them hope to make a difference in the community by contributing their spring break to helping the hurricane victims.
Q.
What do you do for fun?
A.
I enjoy traveling, reading, and working out.
Q.
What CD is in your CD player right now?
A.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Q.
What is the last magazine you read?
A.
People
Q.
What is your favorite TV show?
A.
The Office and 24
"This trip to New Orleans will be our first legal alternative spring break trip, but we hope that this inaugural trip will lay the foundation for us to have yearly volunteer trips that provide pro bono legal aid to those in need," Sadasivam said.
Looking back on the bedlam that was Hurricane Katrina, Sadasivam said she believes everything happens for a reason. She believes that student organizations provide law students with the opportunity to explore interests and passions outside of the classroom.
"Participating in student organizations as a law student is a great way to meet people who have similar interests" she said. "But, more importantly, it is a venue for law students to come together and work towards a common goal."
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