First round-trip for Missionary Flights International to Haiti since February

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) — Missionary Flights International touched down at Treasure Coast International Airport in Fort Pierce, completing its first roundtrip to Haiti since February 29.

CBS12 News reporter Katie Bente spoke with passengers coming in as they cleared customs here earlier Tuesday evening.

Passengers had mixed emotions. While many of the American missionaries said they’re grateful to have made it back safely, some Haitian residents flying in to visit or on a visa said it’s heartbreaking seeing what’s become of the place they call home.

Annexe Souffrance is studying in the U.S. on a student visa. He had gone home to visit loved ones in Haiti when the gang-fueled violence forced airports to shut down.

“It was hard. At first, they said they weren’t going to fly in the next 30 days. Now we are here today I'm very excited for that,” Souffrance said. “I would say I had mixed feelings like I had to leave my family but also I was so excited to come back here because I have a lot of people waiting for me here.”

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Souffrance is one of nearly a dozen passengers who traveled to America on Missionary Flights.

“It's been a few weeks now and we've had our hands tied, not able to fly in there and we've been hearing please you know, can you come get us and we weren't able to do that,” Joe Karabensh, President of Missionary Flights International, said.

The non-profit has been helping bring food and supplies to the island for decades, delivering a whopping 8,000 lbs. worth each flight.

“We actually work with about 600 different Christian nonprofit organizations,” Karabensh said. “They’re working in areas of schools and hospitals, clinics, churches, orphanages, and so we're able to bring people and provisions and so there's about 2,000 people a year that fly on us.”

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While the airport in Port-au-Prince remains closed due to safety concerns, Cap-Haïtien International Airport is once again operational, but with mandatory clearance ahead of time.

For Haitian resident Christla, traveling to America is the only way her 15-month-old boy Owen can see a pediatrician.

She said Haiti is and will always be her home, but it isn’t the same place she remembers growing up in.

“A lot of things in my country right now makes me really sad. Because Haiti is my, my life,” the woman told CBS12 News. “You know when you see your country where you're supposed to live, go to school, see some friends become like this is sad. It’s sad.”

Missionary Flights International plans to make its next roundtrip to Haiti on Thursday, where they’ll drop off another load of supplies and pick up roughly a dozen more people.