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Kentwood woman, 22, plans move to Haiti
Mallery Thurlow plans to build orphanage there
Updated: Sunday, 07 Feb 2010, 7:47 PM EST
Published : Sunday, 07 Feb 2010, 7:05 PM EST
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) -- A West Michigan woman just returned from a three-week stay in Haiti, but already wants to go back -- permanently.
Mallery Thurlow plans on moving to the impoverished country to start an orphanage. The 22-year-old has had a passion for Haiti since she was a teenager, she told 24 Hour News 8 on Sunday.
When she was 16, she visited and loved it.
"First day in the country, I called my parents and said I was never coming home," Thurlow said.
Her heart has been there ever since, she said. Thurlow founded the Haiti Foundation Against Poverty, which has an office in Grand Rapids and a school and clinic in Haiti.
When she learned of January's earthquake, she was devastated.
"I knew when I heard the words 'earthquake' and 'Port-au-Prince' that it was going to be a disaster," Thurlow said. "It's a desperate situation. The thing with Haiti is that there has never been enough."
Shortly after the quake, she received a phone call from her boyfriend who was in Haiti. He wanted to make sure she was OK in Michigan.
"He held the phone out to a school of 150 children that were screaming underneath and their parents sat around that school and cried for three days until it went silent and all the children died of dehydration," Thurlow said. "He was terrified that this was a worldwide phenomenon -- that the world was ending."
About a month since the earthquake, she said, the situation continues to worsen.
"The situation has been getting more and more desperate rather than getting better since the earthquake with the lack of food and water," she said.
Currently, she's eager to help and is in the process of looking for a home in Haiti. She'll be back by the end of the week.
"These children have changed my life forever and I would give my life to them," Thurlow said.
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