After a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti and left 1 million people homeless, students in the United States wanted to help. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and school children around the nation partnered with Convoy of Hope to assemble and deliver nearly 50,000 hygiene kits for families in Haiti.
In the months since the earthquake, the kits have been distributed at schools, medical clinics, and mobile distribution sites throughout the country. Each kit included a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, a comb and a hand towel.
"Children were so excited to receive the hygiene kits," says Kevin Rose, international field operations director for Convoy of Hope. "Many of them valued them as much as the food they were given."
According to Rose, after the earthquake Haitians had to make new homes out of sheets, tree branches and any other materials they could scrounge. The flimsy homes offered little protection during hurricane season.
In the midst of devastation, the hygiene kits provided some much needed comfort. "A hygiene kit may not seem like a big deal to families in the U.S., but to families who lost nearly everything, the kits meant the world," says Rose.