Mother to make trip to help poor children in Haiti
By Aaron Moore
Published in News on July 19, 2011 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus file photo
Becky Minchew says she will spend part of her summer vacation as a volunteer assisting poor children in Haiti. She is also a local volunteer, helping with missionary work at the MERCI center.
With her husband on military duty and two children visiting their grandparents in New Mexico, it's the perfect time for Becky Minchew to take a trip to the Caribbean.
But she's not looking for white, sandy beaches or crystal blue seas. Mrs. Minchew is jumping straight into the tent villages of Haiti, where efforts to rebuild from the devastating 2010 earthquake are still under way.
Mrs. Minchew will leave in the next few weeks with a group of eight other volunteers from the Raleigh area, and they will stay in Haiti for 10 days.
And even though it will be dangerous, dirty work, Mrs. Minchew said she would do anything for children in need.
"Those babies don't deserve that," she said, describing the poverty in Haiti.
Mrs. Minchew said the tent villages are outside Haiti's "safe zone," and children with swollen bellies, often orphans, wander around naked there, foraging for food.
"I have two kids. I can't imagine them being in a Dumpster," Mrs. Minchew said. "I would want someone like me to help."
She said the volunteer group will help do construction on the Ryann Epps Home for Children, as well as supply poor children in tent villages with food and school supplies.
But first Mrs. Minchew has to raise the money.
Although she has already collected the $1,500 she needs to make the trip, Mrs. Minchew is still taking donations to pay for extra food and supplies to give to the Haitian children.
She has been holding weekly Friday car washes next to Firestone Complete Auto Care and Sears Auto Center off Berkeley Boulevard from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. All the proceeds go toward buying beans and rice to give to hungry children.
Mrs. Minchew said donations for food and other supplies can also be made to Unity Fellowship Church, and donors should note that the money is for her Haiti mission.