March 29, 2024

Here to help

Students share stories from serving in Haiti

There’s just something that draws Clarke students to volunteering in Haiti every summer.

“The impact it made the first time was something I wanted to feel again,” said Jake Manternach. “It kind of has a gravitational pull that keeps you coming back.”

In late June, Manternach, 18, Kooper Brimm, 17, and Dustin Willke, traveled to Haiti with a group of nine people through Global Compassion Network. This included Brimm’s mother Sue, as well.

It was the third time in Haiti for Brimm, the second for Manternach and first for Willke. They worked in Les Cayes and Torbeck areas.

While there, the group built a Sukup safety grain bin home and worked at the Consolation Center Orphanage.

Inspired

Willke said Brimm was his inspiration to travel to Haiti for the first time, especially after seeing pictures of him working with little children at the orphanage.

“My passion is just to serve other people down there, and seeing what it brings to them. What happens to them after you’re done down there,” Brimm said.

“Yeah, it makes a big impact not only on our lives, but on theirs. It really does,” Willke added.

Haiti was devastated by a major earthquake in January 2010. As for the struggles the boys from Iowa encountered, it was the heat, as well as the emotional toll of leaving the Haitian people at the end of the trip.

The three young men recalled stories of asking girls at the orphanage how old they were, and one girl didn’t know when her birthday was.

Five years later

Even though it’s been more than five years since the earthquake devastated the island nation, Mother Nature is still wreaking havoc on the Haitian people.

“Right now, there’s a major drought going on,” Willke said. “They’re digging wells just to find water all the time for the orphanage.”

But, there is progress to be seen throughout the country.

Brimm’s mother Sue said group members who had been to Haiti in previous years noticed the nation’s capital Port-au-Prince is much cleaner, instead of seeing trash everywhere.

This time around, people can actually see the streets they’re walking on.

“The biggest thing is not to take anything for granted … like, even your birthday,” Brimm said. “ … Be selfless and always try to serve other people.”

While the young men each took turns answering questions about their experience, there was one question that brought the most definite and simultaneous response from the three of them.

The question was, “Will you go back again?” The answer was a resounding, “Yes!”