POT AU PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) — Players from NFL’s Washington Redskins were in Haiti on Monday (October 10) to help in aid relief for the impoverished country after it was hit by Hurricane Matthew, killing some 1,000 people.
Members of the American football team sent a plane of medical supplies to the Haitian capital to be delivered by wide receiver Pierre Garcon and defensive end Ricky Jean Francois.
“We are here basically to help provide medical supplies for our family and friends that are dealing with the devastation of Hurricane Matthew. We tried to provide some IV, medical equipment that we had in our training football facility. We had some extra stuff which our owner let us take it from our personal use, to bring it down to Haiti to give back to our family, to our country and to the people that we care about,” said Garcon.
Both players are of Haitian descent, and Garcon reportedly still has family in the country.
Francois said that Haitians are of tough stock and will eventually overcome.
“Hopefully everybody sees what is going on here and not just wait for the news and pay attention to what we have got going on with the natural disaster. It isn’t anything bad, nothing that we can’t handle. We are of Haitian descent and we came up strong and we are always going to stay that way. I’m happy that me and Pierre had the chance and came here. I’d like to thank Dan Snyder (team owner) most of all because without him this wouldn’t be possible,” said Francois.
Washington are 3-2 and currently are in third place in the NFC east division.
Garcon told media there is room for improvement.
“The season is going well. We’re happy where we are at but we can obviously get better. Being here obviously gives us a reality of life and what is more important in life than football. We have the opportunity and are blessed to play football. Football has given us the opportunity to being in Haiti,” he added.
The players hope their quick visit to Port au Prince will shed some light on the problems the Caribbean nation is facing.
Nationally the hurricane took the lives of some 1,000 people in Haiti and authorities fear the death toll will continue to climb.
As flood waters begin to recede locals are now faced with the difficult task of making ends meet and averting a cholera outbreak.
Matthew is the strongest hurricane in the Caribbean since Felix in 2007. It is currently wreaking havoc in the United States where it has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone.