When we announced the need in Haiti, many donors stepped up to give! For everyone who becomes a new monthly donor today, SPIRIT will give a water filter to help a family in Haiti have clean water.
On the morning of August 14, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the crisis-plagued nation of Haiti, causing widespread damage and overwhelming already strained hospitals and infrastructure in many regions. Fortunately, our sister ministry World Concern has been on the ground in Haiti for years and they quickly began to evaluate the need in order to help. As donations come in, they will give clean water, food, and shelter to the devastated people living without them.
When you give, families like Astrelle’s will be helped. She was outside of the house she shares with nine family members, getting ready to go to the market, when the earthquake hit. Mercifully, her grandbaby woke up and began to cry just moments before the quake and the baby’s mother brought him outside. But Astrelle’s parents were still asleep inside.
Trying to get to her parents, Astrelle was thrown down by the earth moving, hitting and injuring her head on the ground. She looked up and one of the walls of the house was crumbling, burying her parents.
“After the tremor we had to pull them out from under the rubble and they were both injured,” Astrelle said, recounting the chaos. Unable to take her parents to the hospital, she did her best to treat their injuries.
Despite extensive damage to the home, the family felt they had no alternative but to sleep inside while Tropical Storm Grace dumped rain on southern Haiti. Caring neighbors gave Astrelle some salvaged metal sheets and tarps to help protect them from the storm.
World Concern was the first to reach Astrelle’s remote village, located near the epicenter of the earthquake. Now the collapsed walls of her home have been replaced by tarps in an effort to protect the family from rain.
“This is the first time since the earthquake happened that an organization has come to visit us,” said Astrelle’s daughter. “Hurricane Matthew had severely damaged our house, and no one helped us. We repaired it with our own means, but now the situation is beyond us and we don’t know what to do if no one comes to our rescue.”
Clean water is one of the most urgent needs in Haiti right now. Today when you become a new monthly donor, SPIRIT will give a water filter to bring clean water to a family in Haiti.
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