A Catoosa mother and daughter are headed for Haiti Thursday to help those living in ruins.
Connie Tolbert says she decided she was going to make the trip to Haiti with her daughter Monday. She started telling Facebook friends what she was collecting. So far, she's raised more than $1,000 in monetary donations and multiple bags of supplies.
Six and a half year-old Averie is a quiet little girl and plays with her dolls just like any other. But the town she's from in Haiti, where 77% of the population already lives in poverty, Hurricane Matthew stole even more.
"The death toll, as we understand it from people on the ground, is well into the thousands," Averie's grandmother Connie Tolbert said.
Averie came to Oklahoma two years ago. Her mother still keeps in contact with her orphanage, Canaan Christian Community. It is located in Monstrous, Haiti. Averie's mother and grandmother will make a stop at the orphanage when they leave for Haiti this Thursday to help those affected by the monster storm.
"Where we are going is an overlooked area," Tolbert said. "It's the small remote areas that are harder to get to and so a lot of the times the don't end up with anything."
They're taking a lot of supplies with them.
"Toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, flashlights, tents and tarps," Tolbert said.
"We'll be packaging relief packages an we'll be sending them to Petit-Goave," Averie's mom Jordan Clevenger said.
The duo has already seen pictures of the destruction from friends.
"They've lost everything," Clevenger said. "I mean they didn't have much before in the first place, but now I mean they've lost everything."
In those hurting people in Haiti, Clevenger sees her daughter, and she can't sit idly by.
"She didn't go to the orphanage whenever she was born, so she was one of those kids who was hungry," she said.
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