Gina Duncan, director of the Healing Hands for Haiti Clinic on Rue Babiole, knows that pull. Her family left Haiti when she was 4. In her 20s, she returned, married, had a child and divorced, then married Lucien Duncan. Haiti has brought her great sorrow at times. And gifts of joy.

Perhaps the greatest gift is her daughter, 3-year-old Sarah. A man came to her one day carrying an infant, probably only hours old. He'd found twins in a garbage can, but he could only carry one baby.

Duncan took the tiny girl and sent him back to get the other one. It was too late.

Sarah, the survivor, now gleefully chases her older brother, Remi, through the rooms of the clinic, stopping to flirt with the American volunteers.

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For the first Healing Hands clinics, the group splits up. Occupational therapist Beth Cardell is among those who go to Wings of Hope, an orphanage. The others go to St. Vincent's, a school, orphanage and medical clinic.

At the end of the week, Cardell will tell you she wants to come back. That she must, to see how things turn out.

A little girl with autism caused her to change her mind. Eva Rose, only 4 years old, chews on herself for stimulation. She's worn her thumb raw from gnawing on it and then started in on her wrist. Restraints just make her frantic and further tear into the ravaged skin on her arms.

Cardell makes splints, designed to hold the child's elbows straight so she can't reach her hands. Cardell figures the girl will go crazy when they're put on, but she sits quietly. It's not a cure for autism. But it will give her hands time to heal and perhaps will turn her focus to something else.

In the United States, children in homes with the conditions like those in most of the orphanages of Haiti would be removed to foster care. In Haiti, the children are lucky to have a shelter overhead, though they may sleep four or more to a closet-size room.

Emphasis is placed on education. Volunteers like artist Herode Guirand or Dieuferie "Jeff" Losier visit once and are hooked, returning again and again to teach French or English, to work on math.

"They are hungry and feeding them is important," Guirand said. "But I believe that in learning French lies their freedom. Haiti needs a lot of things, but it starts with education. You can take their liberty, their land, even their culture. But you cannot rob them of the education they have gotten."

When American visitors come, the children — sometimes as many as 100 in a small building — smile shyly and sing "We Welcome You" in English. Language barriers fall away in a sea of smiles as they happily pose for pictures.