Haiti earthquake victims still getting help from Canada
It's been five years since an earthquake shattered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti.
The tragedy sparked an outcry of support from Canadians. And for some groups, the work continues.
This month, New Brunswick's Brenda MacAlpine, team leader for Team Canada Healing Hands, is leading a team to Port-au-Prince to help children in need of wheelchairs.
The epicentre of the 7.0 quake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010 was 25 kilometres from the densely populated city of Port-au-Prince, capital of the poorest country in the Americas. It killed more than 230,000 and displaced 1.5 million people.
Over the last five years, MacAlpine has been collecting wheelchairs for some of the thousands of children maimed in the aftermath of the disaster. She's just shipped about 100 to Haiti.
She's now packing up the last one before she leaves for Port-au-Prince.
"It's one thing to be born not moving, but it's another thing to be moving freely and not move anymore and not have hope of a clinician coming to help you with a wheelchair," she says.
'It was a remarkable thing to see'
MacAlpine is part of a group of occupational therapists, doctors and other volunteers collecting and refurbishing wheelchairs in Canada.
The group then takes them to schools and orphanages in Haiti, making sure the chair properly fits each child.
MacAlpine will be checking in with one little boy who received a wheelchair two years ago.
Both his parents died in the earthquake and he was left paralyzed.
MacAlpine says the wheelchair changed his life.
"He wanted in it before we even got all the seating components on it, so he was watching the techs work on it as he was sitting in the chair. As soon as he was in it and they were done, he was off like a little athlete across hill and dale with the other kids that were healthy and running. And here he is pushing his chair. It was a remarkable thing to see," she says.
MacAlpine and 17 others will leave for Port-au-Prince at the end of the month.
