Halifax Communauté Nouvelles

NEW WATERFORD — Despite the difficult living conditions in Haiti, Breton Education Centre teacher Heather Kearney says her visits there in summer are a highlight of her year. Development in Haiti has been hampered by politically unstable governments and foreign intervention for much of the 20th century. The country also suffered after a series of tropical storms hit the area over the last few decades, culminating in a devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed hundreds of thousands of people and left more than a million homeless.

A true Canadian never minds pulling a few weeds. In a cathartic act of kindness, the Better Together gang along with a few of their friends waved the flag Monday in a sesquicentennial good deed. They got tough on dandelions and pigeon droppings in a pre-election day cleanup at the Rosary Garden at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Cole Harbour. The church at the corner of Flying Cloud Drive and Forest Hills Parkway is a polling station for Tuesday’s provincial election and it was decided the garden was in dire need of a quick makeover.

This month, the CBC Do Crew is heading to the Eastern Shore to give Hope For Wildlife a hand. A January storm brought high winds and heavy rain to Nova Scotia, damaging several enclosures at the animal shelter. The Do Crew's work will be done outdoors and includes repairing enclosures, digging trenches and shovelling gravel.

Hasmeet Singh Chandok has helped raise close to $300,000 for charities and humanitarian causes, sits on a United Nations committee for interfaith harmony, co-founded the internationally known Maritime Bhangra Group, and started the first Sikh student association in Atlantic Canada. But despite those and many other accomplishments, he’s humble and reluctant to be in the spotlight.

Sympathy and safety was on the minds of the more than 200 people who met Wednesday at Al Rasoul Islamic Society in Bedford The gathering was prompted by an outpouring of support from non-Muslim community members after Sunday's shooting at a Quebec City mosque, society vice-president Hossein Mousavi said.

A veterans’ support group is taking to the streets in Halifax Saturday. Veterans Emergency Transition Services Canada will hold their Boots on the Ground campaign to search for homeless veterans in need of help. Taking part in Saturday’s walk is honorary colonel Barb Stegemann and her partner Mike Velemirovich, who will hand out comfort items and assist veterans in crisis.