Bristol scouts switch focus to help Haiti victims

Scouts packed shoppers' bags in Tesco at the weekend to raise money for the people of earthquake-hit Haiti.

Eighteen members of the 26th Bristol Scout Group from Westbury-on-Trym helped out at Tesco in Eastville on Saturday and Sunday.

They had originally been given permission to collect donations for a planned skiing trip to Italy but decided 50 per cent of what they raised would go to the Haiti appeal.

District Scout leader Stephanie Cowling, 42, said: "When we've done this sort of thing in the past we've raised between £700 and £800 but I think we'll raise significantly more this weekend.

"When people saw we were raising money for Haiti they were giving us notes rather than shrapnel. They were putting in pound coins and even £20 notes.

"A couple of them thanked us for collecting because they said they didn't know where to donate."

The Scouts will donate the money raised through Shelter Box, which sends plastic boxes filled with essential equipment for a family of up to 10 people to use while they are displaced or homeless.

The Scouts were packing bags on Saturday as a man was rescued alive from the rubble of a hotel 11 days after the Haitian earthquake.

Wismond Exantus, in his 20s, was pulled to safety in front of cheering onlookers – telling rescuers he survived by drinking cola, beer and eating cookies.

Earlier, the United Nations announced the Haitian Government had declared an end to rescue operations.

● Rescue team SARAID (Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters) was due to return home on Saturday after being one of the first organisations to travel out to Haiti.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service firefighters Rob Davis, 38, from Bath, and Paul Incledon, 37, from Hanham, were part of the nine-man British team that flew out to the Caribbean island on January 14.

The team was tasked with helping co-ordinate other international rescue teams and to search collapsed buildings for people trapped in the rubble after the disaster.