Andy's desperate to help Haiti effort
A VOLUNTEER who saw first-hand the devastating effects of three hurricanes on a Caribbean island wants to return to help with the aftermath of a recent earthquake.
Seventeen months ago, Andy Appleton flew out to help in Haiti after three hurricanes and a tropical storm hit the island within a month.
Now he is hoping to raise enough to go back out and help again.
During his first visit, as part of a team of volunteers on the Hands On Disaster Response programme, he helped around 100 families get back to normality after digging mud and floodwater out of homes and delivering water supplies.
Now, after being touched by further news reports of the earthquake which struck on January 12, leaving around 200,000 people dead, 300,000 injured and one million homeless, Andy wants to go back to do his bit.
Andy, 27, said: "When I first saw the effects of the earthquake on the news, I burst out crying. I didn't know how many people I knew had been killed.
"The building I had stayed in at Port-au-Prince had been destroyed. It really brought it all home. I just want to go back."
Andy, who lives with his parents Alison and Richard in Woodfield, Peterlee, is a keen traveller and he first went to Haiti in 2008 when he was living and working in Canada.
He flew out just after hurricanes Hannah, Ike and Gustav and tropical storm Faye had hit the island.
The former Shotton Hall Secondary School pupil said: "I have travelled extensively and thought I had seen poverty before but this was another level.
"This was a totally different kind of poor and the flood damage was really bad with mud because there are no trees on the hillsides and the rivers had overflowed.
"Water was literally two or three feet deep and there had been about 800 deaths."
Andy said his team used wheelbarrows, shovels and buckets to empty houses of mud and they helped to move around 400 tonnes of mud in the two months he was there.
He said when he left, there was "still masses to be done, but you could see a difference" and shops were starting to re-open and electricity was starting to come back on.
Andy said: "I can honestly say it was the most amazing experience I ever had. It was so physically exhausting, but we pushed ourselves to work as hard as we could."
Andy desperately wants to return to offer his help.
But as an East Durham College access course student who is claiming Jobseekers' Allowance and saving to go to university in September, he is appealing for help to pay for the 1,100 return flights and travel insurance.
Anyone who can offer a donation, or part-time work, can call Andy on 07964 825062.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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