Community Corner: Bay Area Man Helps Rebuild Haiti
SAN MATEO (KCBS) - President Jimmy Carter, his wife and a team of volunteers traveled to Haiti recently to build homes in Léogâne the epicenter of the January 2010 earthquake.
This was part of Habitat for Humanity's 2012 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project.
John Tastor of San Mateo was one of the 600 volunteers who joined them to build 100 homes in Haiti. He was named one of the top 5 fundraisers for the organization having raised more than $15,000 for the effort.
KCBS' Connie C. Kim talks to John Tastor about his experience in Haiti:
Tastor says he felt called to go after the earthquake happened nearly three years ago. Now, for a second year in a row, Tastor helped build new homes for people who were displaced. This year he was able to meet the families whose homes he helped build.
"To actually see two houses that I had a significant part in building was very satisfying," Tastor shared. "The response of the people and the joy and the gratitude in these people that have been living in tents and corrugated steel shelters for three years, knowing that they were going to have a solid place to live... I walked away from that and got on the plane and five, six days later I'm still experiencing that joy."
To learn more about the Carter Work Project and to find out how you can get involved, go to www.habitat.org.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
