FILE – Children are stayhing at a orphanage that was destroyed during the earthquake in Fontamara close to Port au Prince. (Photo credit: JULIEN TACK/AFP/Getty Images)
Reporting Peter Haskell
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – A group of first responders from 9/11 is continuing its effort to help others in need by leaving for Haiti on Sunday.
This will be John Viola’s 12th trip to Haiti as part of HEART 9/11. The retired fire captain is returning to help an orphanage.
WCBS 880′s Peter Haskell: Volunteers Bring Expertise And Hope
“We’ll be down there for several days this week, getting plumbing up and running for them so they have clean bathrooms and running water,” said Viola.
Viola says it’s always rewarding. “The kids are just great,” he said. “They’re around us all the time. They love us.”
HEART 9/11 was started by retired port authority cop Bill Keegan. He missed the camaraderie of his old job and the ability to help others.
“We also were missing that thing in ourselves where we give back,” said Keegan.
The group has pitched in after a number of natural disasters. Volunteers with the group have made numerous trips to Haiti since a massive earthquake devastated the country in January, 2010.
For more information, visit www.heart911.org.
3 Comments
This is more about the volunteers wanting to feel good than it is about them wanting to help.
The minimum wage in Haiti is about $5 a day; plumbers maybe $50 per day.
If the volunteers donate the costs of their airfare to the group in Haiti, they could use the money to hire a plumber and laborers, buy material, and do the work themselves. That would be a much less expensive way to put Haitians to work, help build their economy and get the kids water and bathrooms.
June 28, 2011 at 11:38 am
These people are doing God’s work, they deserve to be recognized for that. I’m sure the kids in the Orphanage will love being able to use the plumbing that is repaired by the volunteers of Heart 9/11. I wish the groups that seem to always be in the news fundraising using Haiti to do so follow the example of these good people and actually do something to help the people of Haiti like this group.
June 26, 2011 at 7:39 pm
They will probably be treated better there then they have been by our government!
June 26, 2011 at 2:41 pm