Haiti earthquake: relief for Ballarat family

SCENES of devastation from Haiti in recent days have had an added poignancy for one Ballarat family.Steve and Debbie Rasmussen raised three adopted children from the country, which was hit by a massive earthquake last week.At least 50,000 people are confirmed dead and it is feared as many as 200,000 have lost their lives in the disaster.CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE HAITI EARTHQUAKEIn 1985, the Rasmussens took in the first two of their three adopted children, Tim and Rebecca, through the charity Haitian Christian Mission.Two years later they adopted a third child, Jonas Ramone.For five days this week the family did not know whether Mr Ramone's birth mother and her family, who live in the Haitian capital Port au Prince, had survived.In November 2007, Mr Ramone, 28, travelled to Haiti to be reunited with his mother for the first time since he was adopted as a six-year-old."It was the most amazing feeling I had ever felt. It was just so natural," Mr Ramone told The Courier yesterday.The experience only made last week's wait harder to bear."By (Sunday) I think I'd had about as much as I could take," Mr Ramone said.But a phone call from his biological sister to say the family was okay lifted "a huge weight" off his shoulders."It was a heck of a relief, I can tell you. We always thought they were fine, but it was just the not knowing."Rebecca Rasmussen, who was adopted when she was six-days-old after the Ballarat couple found her starving in a hospital, has been doing her bit to help. A back-up singer with reggae band Blue King Brown she recently sang in a concert at Margaret River, where proceeds from merchandise sold were donated to the Haitian Christian Mission."For me it's just amazing to hear so much awareness of Haiti," she said."The country has struggled and they have been very poor for a long time."While their adopted children have grown up and moved out of home, Mr and Mrs Rasmussen have travelled to the troubled country four times for mission work.Many friends have sponsored children through the family's involvement."We haven't got details of any of those children at the moment - whether they have survived or not. We're still waiting on word of that," Mrs Rasmussen said.Now the family wants to help in any way possible."Your first reaction is you just want to get in a plane and go. That is our long-term goal."At the top of their list is to get help for a doctor paid for by the mission, who survived the earthquake but whose house was destroyed.