Haiti has always been 'home' to Bermuda resident Read Currelly.

He was born in Canada and now lives in Pembroke, but says he will always be Haitian at heart.

His parents moved the family to the Caribbean nation 30 years ago. They remain there today with the rest of their children, who now have children of their own.

And so, when Mr. Currelly learned of the magnitude seven earthquake that struck the island last month, he felt compelled to help.

The HSBC employee left Bermuda on Friday hoping his background in electrical engineering and information technology could be used by aid organisations working to rebuild the impoverished country.

"The first thing that I will be doing in Haiti is trying to get a school, which is being used as a makeshift hospital, up and running again from an electrical point of view," he said. "There is obviously the immediate need for medical assistance and digging people out of the rubble and things like that, but there are other needs that you don't think of right away like electricity and water; also the halting of food production and farming as well as the threat of a major disease outbreak.

Mr. Currelly is to work with charitable organisation Save The Children to improve communication ability on the island.

"Because communication is so bad in Haiti there have been incidents recently where, for example, two doctors show up at the same place when only one is needed. It is important to prevent this kind of thing so that aid is spread evenly to the people that need it."

The Currelly family had been living in Port Hope, Ontario. They moved to Haiti after they converted to the Baha'i faith.

"One of the tenants of the Baha'i faith is to arise and serve," he said. "So almost overnight my father sold the farm literally and moved us all to Haiti."

His father heads up the Unibank Foundation in Haiti a philanthropic branch of the large multinational bank.

"The Unibank Foundation, to me, makes a lot of sense because unlike the Red Cross and others which are excellent at disaster relief Unibank is more focused on rebuild efforts," he said. "They are a small organisation but what they can do is collect funds and direct them to other aid agencies and get them to focus where the need is most."

His family was not hurt by the quake, nor were their properties damaged. His brother-in-law was also incredibly lucky to be safe, according to Mr. Currelly.

"My sister's husband, who also happens to be a Rwandan genocide survivor, decided to take some time off from work on the day that the quake hit. This is extremely fortunate as he worked in the United Nations building which famously collapsed killing 200 people."

The rainy season is making things even more difficult, Mr. Currelly said, as people are still without housing and forced to sleep in puddles of water however: "Haitians are really strong people with incredible ability and they can get by with very little and survive," he said. "They have an amazing strength of spirit in my opinion."

Persons willing to help can send an e-mail: readcurrelly @gmail.com.