In the past few years there has been no relief for the people of Haiti.

On January 12th, 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck resulting in approximately 230,000 people losing their lives, 40,000 of which were children.

One and a half million people were left homeless and 75% of the buildings in Port au Prince were reduced to rubble.

Then this time last year, there was an outbreak of cholera, which killed 4,672 people by March 2011.

And it was this outbreak that prevented Team Cayman, a group of fundraisers and humanitarians, from travelling to the stricken country.

Team Cayman for Haiti was originally founded last year by colleagues at the Butterfield Bank. One year on and some of the co-workers have moved to pastures new but their goal is still the same.

“We were obviously devastated by not being able to go last year but building homes for the less fortunate is something that has been on my bucket list for a very long time and I am very excited to be heading off this Saturday!” said Team Cayman member, Kat Walsh.

“We will be building houses as well as water and sanitation resources in Léogâne, a seaside town located 29km west of the capital Port au Prince.

“The town was at the epicentre of the earthquake, and over 85% of the buildings and nearly every concrete structure were destroyed. The damage was reported to be worse than the capital city, which is mostly what we saw on the news at the time.” she continued.

The team is going to Haiti with Haven, an Irish non-political, non-religious organisation working to build sustainable communities.

The organisation was founded in late 2008 by Leslie Buckley, Vice Chairman of Digicel, and his wife Carmel.

The Haven Organisation have just received confirmation from the local school in Léogâne that the team can bring gifts for the school as well as the local orphanage which has around 120 children that live there all year round.

The iNews team has been gathering their own donations, of stationary and clothes, for the children of Léogâne to send with Team Cayman.

“Local businesses have been extremely generous. Cayman Airways have provided free flights to Miami and back, Uncle Bill’s gave us steel toecap boots and camping equipment, Cayman Travel Services and Karen Lee in particular were invaluable in the organisation of the trip and George Town Hospital gave us all our vaccines for free,” said Taura Ebanks

“Our trip has been paid for by last year’s fundraising and the kindness of the local community. We still have some money left over and so when we get back we will be brainstorming new ideas to help the people of Haiti,” said Kat Walsh.