Local group keen to help with Welcome Home Haiti mission next month

A group of 18 adults and youth from the Kincardine area is heading to Haiti next month to help a family move into their new home.

It's part of the Welcome Home Haiti program which provides safe, secure, and sanitary homes for Christian families in northern Haiti.

The team includes Ken, Nancy, Philip and Dana Craig, Bonnie Mair, Danielle and Luke McBride, Jesse Thornton, Chelsea Ferguson, Karen McLelland-Seal and Gerry Stephens, all of Kincardine, Laurie, Olivia and Alex Convay, Anne and Hannah Gratto and Tara Flood, all of Tiverton, and Marissa Parsons of Walkerton.

The group has been working for the past year to raise the $15,000 (U.S.) required to pay for the house which will be built by workers in Haiti. While there, from May 5-14, the team will finish the house and paint it and then help the family move in.

This mission trip is in support of Lerest Estima and her family who live in a stick structure that is leaning precariously to the right, with a roof made up of a patchwork of rusted metal pieces. Six adults and five children currently live in the house. Lerest and her husband accepted Christ in 2013 and she is involved in the Dorcas group at the church. Though they had been together for many years, they officially got married in 2014.

The foundation for the new house has been poured, and construction is under way. By the time the team arrives, it will be ready to paint. The Welcome Home Haiti program has a staff of 50 construction workers and these projects are a great boost to their economy, providing jobs for those who want to work.

While in Haiti, the Convay family will be visiting the two kids they sponsor, as well as the other 10 Kincardine-sponsored kids at the school.

If you would like to donate toward this project, contact Laurie Convay at 519-368-7980 or Laurie Convay on Facebook.

For more information about the project, visit the website at: www.welcomehomehaiti.com/family-profiles/profile/lerest-estima-matched--new-home-in-may-2016