Headed to Haiti soon... all of us!

(This article was written by Alicia Yost from The Middletown Patch.  The full article can be found here -- )


The Zipf family is no stranger to world travel. After all, they’ve criss-crossed the globe from Hong Kong to Ethiopia, in most cases working tirelessly to help the poor and orphaned.


And they don’t just do a country lip service, they make lasting investments. They’ve adopted two wonderful boys from Ethiopia and often talk of plans to move there in the hopes of furthering their efforts in being the voices and agents of change.


Back in January, Amy, the matriarch of the family, traveled along with their 7-year-old daughter Sasha to Haiti. They spent their time working in a medical tent and trying to make a water filtration system out of five-gallon Lowe’s buckets fashioned into water filters.


The trip was gripping for Amy who says people are still in desperate need of medical care that is not readily available. So much of Haiti is still in shambles after a catastrophic earthquake that rocked the country on Jan. 12, 2010.


That was 18 months ago and yet people are still living in tents and children are still living in overcrowded orphanages and eating porridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner.


“These people are practically in our backyard," says Zipf. “It’s less than a four-hour flight from New York.” Upon return, Amy immediately started making plans to go back to Haiti, this time with her husband and four children, ages 10, 7, 5 and 4.


On Aug. 8, they are partnering with an organization called Go Haiti and heading back to Haiti, where they will work for three weeks. They will be supporting orphan care, helping to build and service a medical clinic, supporting a new agricultural project, helping to access clean water and helping to build a sustainable organization in hopes of making an eternal impact.


They hope that this trip will “help their children understand the global nature of our world and encourage them to advocate for people and change. Also, to experience life in a way that is beyond ordinary.”


They family hopes that their trip will be a great success and is looking forward to making a long-term commitment by both continuing to work and encouraging their family, friends and community to not forget the beautiful people of Haiti.