Mullingar Garda recalls the heartbreak of Haiti's poor

"We were in an orphanage and a pregnant girl, no more than a child herself, came up to me and said 'will you be the mother for my child'. I was numb, I had to just walk away, it was just heartbreaking."To the girl who asked this question, Mullingar-based Garda Toinette Kerins, a stranger, had absolutely everything. This is just one example of the absolute poverty and dire situations witnessed by Tonette in Haiti late last year, where entire families survive from month to month on a single dollar.One in twelve Haitian children die before their 5th birthday; a child dies there every hour from malnutrition and nearly half the population does not have enough to eat.Three months before the devastating earthquake destroyed most of the capital Port au Prince, local Guard Toinette Kerins travelled to Haiti as a volunteer with Haven."We, Kevin Dunleavy, Mick Dunne, Padraig Jackson and myself, headed out in October. Padraig and Mick are both carpenters and Kevin is an electrician. They had heard of the work being done by Haven building homes for people out there living in terrible poverty. Before I went out there I knew nothing about Haiti," explains Toinette.Haven was founded by Leslie and Carmel Buckley at the end of 2008. Leslie is a successful businessman and co-founder of the Digicel mobile phone company. His business interests brought him to Haiti for the first time in 2004 and he was really horrified by the level of poverty on this island in the Caribbean. Haven has an intensive "Build it Week", where teams of volunteers go to the island to build homes and it also trains and employs local Haitian people to build the homes all year round.Saying she knew nothing of Haiti until she agreed to take part in the intensive "Build It Week", Toinette says the people's poverty is difficult to describe."There is massive poverty. The people just have the clothes on their back and nothing else. They live in huts, where the mum and dad share a makeshift bed and the children sleep on the ground."There is nothing to eat, you look around and there are no cats, no rats, they have all been eaten. When we were there a member of the security team had to rescue one of the dogs from being put into a pot by people who were starving. They earn money selling fruit, or washing clothes but it is literally one dollar for a month's work and that all goes on feeding the family," explains Toinette.Friends of Toinette, Garda Hogan and Garda Walsh have organised a marathon Turbo Cycle to raise funds for Haven's relief effort. Three bikes will be cycled continuously in the courtyard of Belvedere House, for twenty four hours on St Valentine's weekend, powered by members of Mullingar Gardai. Midlands Tri club and friends. People who would like to support the fundraising effort can either sponsor the cyclists or make a donation."You see things very differently when you return home from Haiti. We throw out more food in a day than they would eat in a month. So you start to become aware of not wasting food. Coming up to Christmas really highlighted the differences to me, the massive extremes. We really have so much and we do spoil ourselves. People say to me 'you have to live your life' but I now appreciate everything more."The local people work hard side by side with Haven volunteers out in Haiti and are happy in spite of their hardship and are grateful for the work that is done for them."It may not be a rich upbringing but they try to have a happy upbringing. When we were there, they were so grateful for everything we did. The houses had flushing toilets which was a completely new phenomena for them. But they were working too and doing difficult tasks all day. Like for example all the sand for the plaster had to be sieved and local men sieved the sand all day which was gruelling," describes Tionette.Haiti is part of the island of Hispaniola and shares a border with the Dominican Republic. It is about one third the size of Ireland but has a population of 9 million."Haiti and the Dominican Republic are one piece of land. You literally cross a river and on one bank the people are poor and starving and on the other side people have mounds of money on the same island," says Toinette.Sponsorship cards for the marathon Turbo cycle are available in Mullingar Garda Station and at Belvedere House. There will also be a collection on the 13th and 14th of February.