Brothers reunite in Haiti after devastating earthquake

GET INVOLVED* If you would like to donate tents, send an e-mail to Georges Charles at gcharles@tva.gov.THE STORY SO FAR* On Jan. 12, a 7.0-magnitude hit Haiti, leaving more than 200,000 people dead and one million homeless.* An estimated 1.2 million Haitians need emergency shelter.* About 60 percent of those that need shelter have been provided with tents or tarpaulins, and the aim is to have reached everyone with emergency shelter by April 1.Source: United Nations News Centre

Just when Georges Charles had given up hope of ever seeing his brother again, believing he was lost in the Haitian earthquake, Mr. Charles received a call from a cousin in New York.

His brother was alive.

"It's the most stressful time I've ever been through. Every day I was glued to the TV, hoping I would see him," said the 31-year-old Tennessee Valley Authority engineer.

But by the fourth week, Mr. Charles had lost hope.

"I had basically given up all hope of finding him alive, but friends and family kept saying to me, 'Hang in there, no news is good news,'" he said.

Mr. Charles saw his brother last week during a one-week trip to Haiti with the local organization SCORE International, the first time he'd seen his brother and other Haitian relatives in 24 years, said Mr. Charles, who left the country when he was 7.

"I cried when I first talked to him, I was so happy, but part of me couldn't believe it," he said. "When you hear the number of people who died ... it was ecstatic that it was really him."

More than 200,000 people died as a result of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince two months ago. More than 1 million remain homeless and are in need of emergency shelter, according to the United Nations.

"The only thing he asked for when I told him I was coming was a tent," Mr. Charles said. "Tents are a commodity right now. (Even those donated) are being sold on the street for anything between $300 to $3,000."

His brother was in his home in Carrefour, a poor neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, when the earthquake hit, said Mr. Charles, but he managed to escape before the building collapsed behind him.

"He said he couldn't call sooner because everything was chaotic, they were trying to find each other first and survive," he said.

Georges' wife, Patricia, said she was very concerned when her husband said he wanted to go on the mission trip.

"You mainly only hear bad things of Haiti," said Mrs. Charles, who left Haiti when she was 13 years old. "People are hungry, there are no jobs and there's hardly any police."

Mr. Charles arrived in Port-au-Prince on March 5 with a group of about 15 Chattanoogans.

"What hit me (when I arrived) was seeing the needs of the people, how they were hurting, everyone is looking at you with eyes that scream for help" he said. "I felt sad but at the same time I felt there's still hope, this is not a country to give up on."

During the trip, he distributed rice, removed rubble, served as an interpreter and worked in an orphanage where he bonded with the youth whom he now calls "brothers."

"Despite everything, they were still full of joy and appreciated the fact that one of their own was helping them," said Mr. Charles, taking out a letter and a couple of photos the young men gave him before he left.

He said his brother and other relatives survive by doing odd jobs but, like most Haitians affected by the earthquake, they primarily rely on outside help.

His father, who lives in Florida, is planning a trip to Haiti in a couple of months to try to bring Jean-Marie back to the United States, he said.

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