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Coolmine coach to visit Haiti

Brendan O’Brien a former player and now a coach in Coolmine Rugby Club will be travelling to Haiti next month with the Haven Community Foundation. Brendan has issued the following appeals for the stricken Caribbean island.

“As you will have seen on TV in recent weeks, the people in Haiti are the poorest in the western hemisphere and the vast majority of Haitians live in abject poverty. If things were difficult already, the earthquake that occurred there on Tuesday 12th January changed the country dramatically. A few hundred thousand have died and the lives and communities of many more have been devastated with the situation being described by the UN as the worst crisis in decades. For some insane reason Jackie and I have decided to do something on the ground to help the people there – an Irish charity group called Haven Community Foundation (called Haven for short) is actively participating in the rebuilding of communities in Haiti and we are joining a group of volunteers to participate in the ‘Haven Build it Week’ in Haiti.

“In April we will travel to Haiti to help build homes and community facilities that will bring hope for some of the poorest people in the world. Along with the other volunteers we will live on site in basic accommodation i.e. a camp site, and will take part in all activities that go into the running of the camp as well as the construction of the new homes including roofing, plumbing, painting, medical, catering, water distribution, etc. The site where we will be building the houses has recently been confirmed. We will be building in the city of Gonaives, north from Port Au Prince (which we think is outside the immediate earthquake risk zone!).

These poverty stricken towns/cities outside Port Au Prince are been further impacted by the flow of people from the capital. As part of our commitment to the building programme our target is to raise €10,000. Approximately €2,000 of this covers flights, accommodation, food and water for the duration of ‘Build it Week’. The remainder of the funds raised will go towards building materials for the houses that we will build during ‘Build it Week’. All funds raised go directly to the provision of houses for the people of Haiti. This is where we hope you can help.

In support of our fund raising efforts we are holding a 70s-80s music and dance night in Castleknock Tennis Club on Friday night 19th March at 9pm. We hope you will be able to rustle up a couple of the gang and together with spouses will make a great night’s craic. “

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