A Clearwater nonprofit is doing what it can to help those affected by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti.
- Future of Haiti Organization (FOHO) packed donation boxes Tuesday
- Boxes will be sent to organization's orphanage in Haiti, then distributed to area neighborhoods
- Boxes contain donated clothing, food
- Track Hurricane Matthew on Bay News 9
The Future of Haiti Organization (FOHO) worked on Tuesday to pack up donation boxes to send to the island nation.
“We have been collecting donated clothing, and as soon as we heard about the hurricane we started,” Future of Haiti Organization Vice President Leslie Hobbs said. “We bought all these bins at Home Depot and started packing them up right away.”
FOHO president Reggie Jean, who founded the nonprofit in 2000, moved to Clearwater from Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. His older brother still lives on the island.
“Even before this disaster, the country was disastrous. And now you have that added to it, we have a particular situation to handle there," Jean said.
Jean went on to say most Haitians don’t have enough money to buy supplies to prepare for the storm. He said most of the homes will be wiped away by the winds and water, and that the storm will destroy the majority of the country’s crops.
"The people are left with no money, no clothes, no home and that's the reason we are working on our humanitarian activities to see what we can do to provide clothes, provide food,” Jean said.
The donations are sent to the organization’s orphanage and then distributed to surrounding neighborhoods.
To find out more or to help with a donation, visit futurehaiti.org.