Raleigh and Dylan Jenkins in Haiti visiting the site for A Child’s Hope
ABC Home and Commercial Services is dedicated to charitable work in our community.
Charitable work in the Houston area is a fundamental value for our family business. But did you know that ABC also sponsors humanitarian work done in communities abroad? ABC Home & Commercial Services Owner, Raleigh Jenkins, is a founder and member of the Board of Directors for A Child’s Hope. The goal of this non-profit organization is to provide a safe, loving, spiritual environment for Haitian orphans who were impacted by the devastating earthquake in 2010.
The Earthquake
In mid-January of 2010, a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti near the capital, Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince is home to over 900,000 people. After the initial earthquake had subsided, it was followed by two weeks of aftershocks that further-wounded an already vulnerable region.
Due to the sheer magnitude of destruction, no one knows just how many lives were lost. Officials at the US Agency for International Development estimate that up to 85,000 may have died. The Haitian government estimates that there may have been many more deaths and that some 250,000 private homes collapsed. Many schools and pre-existing orphanages were destroyed. For those who survived, their lives were left in shambles.
ABC Home & Commercial Services Responds to the Crisis in Haiti
You may be wondering why a pest control and home services company based in Houston, TX would be involved in humanitarian aid in a foreign country. After the earthquake, the whole world responded to the disaster. Many members of the National Pest Management Association, including Raleigh Jenkins and ABC, stepped up to the plate. The ABC team flew to Haiti on multiple occasions to help quell the spread of pest-related illnesses to displaced families, some of whom lived in cramped encampments after the earthquake. Mosquito-borne diseases are already a problem in the Caribbean region, and these conditions were worsened by the devastated urban infrastructure.
The carnage of the earthquake and the people left behind had a profound effect on the ABC family. A Child’s Hope was founded to help house and educate children displaced by the earthquake. The organization’s mission is to provide an environment of love, safety, and spirituality for these children, aged between five and ten years old. The “Academy” is a place where professional staff can work to instill education, family, religion, and Haitian cultural pride in these young children.
ABC is in the process of building the schools and growing the organization. Our staff recently flew to Haiti to help with the building. See the photographs from ABC’s recent trip to Haiti to support A Child’s Hope.
