Tag Archives: Haiti

A Corofin woman will spend this Christmas in Haiti volunteering with orphans, while on holidays from the NGO job she started this summer. In July, Jacinta McGuane took up her new role as general manager with Camara Education Ltd, an organisation dedicated to using technology to improve education and livelihood skills in disadvantaged communities around the world. In 2010, Jacinta decided to leave her teaching job in Dublin to volunteer in Dominican Republic, on the other side of the island of Hispañola. After a year as a special education volunteer with charity Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (our little brothers and sisters) she moved to the Haitian branch of the same organisation, Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs, in September 2011. Jacinta spent the past three years as a special education volunteer in St Helene. There, she developed and ran a special needs project with local staff, catering for children with learning, emotional, physical and behavioural difficulties. Alongside that, she was visitor and …

WHITEGATE resident and volunteer with NGO Amurtel, Didi Ananda Prama Driscoll returns to Haiti this month to continue her work with those displaced by the 2010 earthquake that devastated Port Au Prince. Didi has been visiting the region each year over the Christmas period hoping to bring some joy to those who have been devastated and thrown into poverty since the earthquake struck four years ago. “I was last there a year ago to see how all the children in the children’s home were doing and trying to figure out a programme to increase the amount of protein that these kids could get because that’s what they are missing,” she explained. The charity developed a Moringa plantation that year and Didi is now returning to see how this is developing. “Moringa is a tree and its leaves are really rich in protein. The interesting thing is it tends to grow in very dry areas and in areas where people are …

Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Pat Breen is this Tuesday beginning a three-day humanitarian visit with Trocaire to Haiti. Deputy Breen’s itinerary includes a visit to the Institute of Technology and Development in Gressier, a Trocaire partner involved in post-earthquake housing projects. While there he will officially hand over the keys of the new housing units to the beneficiary families of this Trocaire supported inaugural housing project. Deputy Breen will also visit the Canaan Camp for Internally Displaced persons to see the plight of people still living in tent cities, travel to the Cluny Sister school to see the situation of education in Haiti and support from Irish Cluny sisters for reconstruction work of schools in Haiti and meet with NGOs, EU and UN Representatives and Members of the Haitian Bishops Conference for an overview of the current post earth quake recovery and development efforts. Before departure, Deputy Breen said, “The 2010 earthquake had a …

WHITEGATE resident and volunteer with NGO Amurtel, Didi Ananda Prama Driscoll returns to Haiti this December to help continue her work with those displaced by the 2010 earthquake that devastated Port Au Prince. This is Didi’s third year working with Amurtel in Haiti and on this trip she will spend two months in Port Au Prince, where she is hoping to develop a project growing spirulina, a super protein food. “There are still 250,000 people in camps. One and a half million lost their homes in Haiti during the earthquake. We work mainly with women and children and we still have schools and our children’s homes have expanded. We now have two children’s homes, one in Port Au Prince and also another on the border with the Dominican Republic. We still have programmes with women, where we do microfinance. That’s where we give them a little money and they see what they can do with it, for example if they …