Emotional reunion for Kiwi survivors of Haiti

Published: 12:13PM Sunday January 17, 2010 Source: NZPA

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An emotional reunion has been held in Miami between the New Zealand survivors of the Haiti earthquake and close family.

Emily Sanson-Rejouis and her bandaged two-year-old daughter, Alyahna, have flown to Florida from the Dominican Republic.

Sanson-Rejouis' husband, Emmanuel Rejouis, and their two eldest daughters, Kofie-Jade, five, and Zenzie, three, were killed in the Haiti earthquake on Tuesday.

Rejouis' sister, Anne-Louise, said they had arrived safely in Miami.

"They're fine, they're safe," she says. "We were all very happy to see them.

Alyahna has a broken leg and a few scratches but is "doing fine".

Alyahna was rescued by her mother from the rubble of the Hotel Karibe in Port-au-Prince, where the family was staying.

The bodies of Mr Rejouis and Zenzie have been recovered, but Kofie-Jade has still not been found.

Sanson-Rejouis' parents, Jennie Wilson and Roger Sanson, and sister, Rachel Sanson, flew to Miami to be with them.

Rejouis, who worked for the United Nations, had moved his job from Burundi in East Africa to his homeland of Haiti so he could provide his Kiwi family with a safer life, according to Jules Hobbs, a friend of the family.

She says Sanson-Rejouis was bringing their three children up alone in Nelson last year before her husband found them a "safer" way to be together, the Sunday News reported.

"Burundi is not a place to bring up children and his desire was always to find a position which would allow him to keep the family together. (Haiti was also an opportunity for) the children to experience the country he was brought up in and speak French as well," she said.

Hobbs' six-year-old daughter, Sofie, was best friends with Kofie-Jade and said Rejouis was inspiring, interesting and passionate, with a desire to do good.

Hobbs has set up a Facebook page to support the family.

An Ebay auction organised by artist Sarah Larnach, who is the step-sister of Sanson-Rejouis, and singer Ladyhawke to raise funds for Save the Children's Haiti emergency appeal has gone over $1100.

Larnach and Ladyhawke work together and the auction features a painting by the former and a jointly signed copy of what is said to be the hard-to-find first release of the Ladyhawke single Paris is Burning.

"I'm really pleased to be able to give the funds raised in this auction to Save the Children, in the knowledge that they are actively involved in Haitian relief efforts," Larnach said in a statement.

"Save the Children have assured me that the money will be used directly to aid children and their families in Haiti."

Auckland teacher Samuel Picketts, 59, who was on holiday in the Caribbean, has contacted his family to say he is not in Haiti and is safe.

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