Tony Boursiquot rushed home to Haiti to become a 'defender of the weakest.'

Tony Boursiquot flashes the smile known to thousands of poor children and others across Haiti as he negotiates his SUV skillfully over the rough roads of Port-au-Prince.

He is on his way to Jeanton, about 60 miles north of the capital city, to visit a school run by the US-based humanitarian organization Star of Hope. He has headed the Haitian branch of the group for the past two decades.

"Haiti is a suffering country," he says as he turns the vehicle into the school grounds. "I come from a poor family, just like these kids here today. The fact that I have had a chance to help Star of Hope has been a gift."

Mr. Boursiquot's lifelong commitment to helping the poor has also been his gift to his native Haiti. It has continued even in times of deep personal suffering, including the aftermath of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, killing an estimated 300,000 and leaving another 1 million without a home.

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It would be many terrifying hours, in fact, before Boursiquot, who was traveling in the United States at the time, would know that his wife and children were safe, and that his brothers and sisters had also been accounted for – except for one.

The country's main airport, in Port-au-Prince, was closed to commercial traffic immediately after the quake. So Boursiquot caught a flight to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. There he hired a van and a driver and headed for the Haitian capital, about a six-hour drive away.

Power had been knocked out, and thousands of buildings had collapsed. His heart was pounding as he made his way through the rubble to the building where one of his sisters, along with her two children, was presumed to be trapped beneath the fallen concrete. In the end they were not found.

Barry Borror, president and chief executive officer of Star of Hope, recalls that Boursiquot decided to "postpone" his own grieving to assist in that organization's initial response to the tragedy.

"He was truly concerned for the 4,500 children he worked with," Mr. Borror says.

Born in the village of La Vallee, in southern Haiti, Boursiquot was sent at an early age to live with a relative in Port-au-Prince so that he could find work and receive an education.

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