Time to Get Involved
Reprinted from: Today’s AC & Refrigeration News, February 2010
Early on, during the time of indecision by others, Maria realized she had the resources to quickly organize a plan of action. Maria’s company, ComfortStar is based in Miami. The shipping of AC supplies and equipment to the Dominican Republic is an everyday occurrence in ComfortStar’s normal business day. It seemed only logical for her to get involved in transporting food, supplies, and medicine for the Haiti earthquake victims with the resources that were at her disposal. She began securing items from anyone willing to donate and she immediately started sharing her warehouses, her trucks, her overseas containers and the efforts of her personnel with Casa Amor.
The airport in Haiti is capable of handling 144 flights a day. At the time of this article there was a backlog of over 1400 flights waiting to land in Haiti. Since the airport in Haiti is small and limited to the amount of traffic it can handle, trucking over the mountains between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince became her game plan. Containers were loaded in Miami, shipped to the Dominican Republic, containers unloaded onto her company trucks and then the 5 hour trip over the mountains to Haiti. While it was a time consuming process, Maria was frustrated by the people that were doing nothing and she pushed ahead. Now the plan is working. She is in need of water, rice, dried beans, bandages, children’s clothing, medical supplies, bedding, and of course money. Maria asked us to help spread the word of her effort to help the orphaned children of Haiti.
At press time the situation in Haiti continues to deteriorate. The child welfare system there was broken before the devastating earthquake struck, a casualty of poverty and ineffectual government. The earthquake intensified both problems as it shattered lives, drove hundreds of thousands of people into the streets and multiplied the number of children in dire need of care. There were thousands of orphans in Haiti before the quake and sadly now their numbers grow each day. They roam the villages barefooted. Most of these children’s parents have died or abandoned them. Big Sisters become “Mom” at an early age.
Worldwide nearly 144 million children across the world are orphans and every 2 seconds, another orphan dies from malnutrition. Every year, malnutrition is associated with the deaths of six million children under the age of five, 16,600 children will die every day.
Casa Amor is in dire need of funds for food. The Casa Amor websites states that for $10 you can feed an orphan for a month. For the Price of a nice meal at a restaurant ($120), you can feed one for a year.
For the amount you spent in Christmas Presents each year, you could probably feed the entire village!
Goods and supplies are being gathered for the children of Haiti in Maria’s warehouse located at 12860 NW South River Drive, Miami, Florida 33178. From there they are efficiently shipped to the Dominican Republic and then trucked to Haiti for distribution to the orphans.
