In My Veins

In April 2008 I escaped Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, as rioting escalated and smoke from burning barricades filled the air. I was part of a media team travelling with Compassion Australia, there to see their aid work in one of the world’s very poorest nations. We were meant to be there for about a week but were evacuated within 48 hours of arriving due to the rapidly changing situation. Some Haitians had died and many more had been injured. We had been far too close to some of the rioting for comfort.

We had a very difficult journey to the airport and at times we were in very real danger. We finally hooked up with some armed police who escorted us to the airport. We were to fly to Dominican Republic but the flight was cancelled. The airline was not prepared to fly into Haiti. Later that day we finally made it out with another airline.

One of the other media representatives on that amazing trip was Aaron Hamilton who left his work in radio after returning to Australia to become Compassion Australia’s National Youth Coordinator. ‘Az’ now travels around Australia talking in schools, churches and youth groups about the changes that young people can make in our world. He passionately believes that the battle against poverty can be won if we only have the will to act.

In My Veins is a youth initiative of Compassion which is making an impact in equipping young people to create a fairer future for those in developing nations. You’ll see a lot more of what Az is doing at the website.

He’s currently in Perth and as part of his visit to Western Australia he dropped in to the studio during my radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM. You can hear our conversation and get inspired by the stories of our younger generations by clicking the play button on the audio player below.

(By the way, the photo in this post is Az and myself in Dominican Republic as part of the trip in 2008)

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR020911_1330.mp3]

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