I've always wanted to make a difference in the world and help people less fortunate. This year is ringing in a mile-stone birthday for me, so I will be fulfilling a life-long dream of doing hands-on charity work, if only for 1 week. October 30th I will be flying to Haiti with a 300-strong group of volunteers through Haven, an Irish charity working exclusively in Haiti. We will be working side-by-side with a Haitian team, building houses for families in Gonaives, an area devastated by a hurricane in 2004 and again by Hurricane Hanna in 2008. Some residents have been living in tents since the first hurricane hit the area.
The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti's infrastructure, economy, and security was badly compromised even before the earthquake in January, 2010. Haven started working in the country in 2008, building homes in rural areas to alleviate the remarkable poverty found there. Our team will be building up to 80 new homes for Haitian families. I am asking for sponsorship to complete this endeavor. I will be blogging before and after my trip...you can read my blog at http://christina-sendmetohaiti.blogspot.com.
Unfortunately, as I will be in a very rural part of the country and working like mad the entire week, so will not be able to meet and practice with Haitians at the dojo in Port-Au-Prince. But if any of you get the opportunity to visit Haiti, there is a dojo there. Their webpage is http://www.dojodai.com.
You can make a donation on mycharity.ie here.