Léogâne , Haiti ( CNN ) -- Joanie Yestin walks through a small alleyway to what used to be home , now a pile of concrete and crushed belongings . A plastic flower arrangement still hangs on an exterior wall that did n't collapse in the earthquake . One wooden bathroom cabinet survived . Standing amid the rubble , Yestin , 23 , recalls that horrific day : She had just returned home from her job as a secretary at Léogâne 's Cool FM radio station and was preparing to take a bath when the earth started rumbling . She rushed out in time , stood with her mother and watched showers of concrete . When the ground became still , she went back in to search for her father . A block had fallen on him . He died almost instantly . After she buried him , after she found a small plot of land outside a local school to set up temporary shelter , Yestin thought about what she might do to mend her broken soul , her broken nation . She put on her salvaged Girl Scout uniform -- a tan cotton blouse and skirt and a green scarf twisted around her neck . Yestin , like many of Haiti 's almost 10,000 Boys and Girls Scouts , decided to contribute her share to the earthquake relief effort . `` It 's important to have Haitians involved in the recovery , '' said Georges Clement , the Scout leader in Léogâne . `` We want to help . '' Full coverage of Haiti earthquake . Since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in the 1980s , Haiti has created many civil society organizations and groups , but none has been particularly strong in the midst of political and economic turmoil , said Sophie Perez , the country director for the humanitarian agency CARE , which has worked in Haiti since 1954 . It was vital to involve grass-roots groups in the earthquake recovery process , she said , because local people are the ones who have the biggest stake in the future . The Scouts have one other advantage : They are young . `` It is important to involve young people right from the start , '' Perez said . `` They can learn values of solidarity and good governance . '' But as determined as Yestin is to help , this particular community chore is hardly easy for her Scout troop . In Baussan , a village near Léogâne , about 30 miles west of Port-au-Prince , the Scouts lined up to distribute essential hygiene items trucked in by CARE . Yestin and her friends broke out in a song about being together ; it was the only way to get through life 's tribulations . She smiled and laughed with the others . And yet not one among them had been unscathed by the terrible tragedy that befell Haiti on January 12 . Many had lost a family member or a home . By day , few are in school . By night , they sleep under the stars . No one 's lives are the way they were anymore . The missing , the found , the victims . Yestin handed out red , green and blue buckets filled with soap , toothpaste , towels . She tore open the plastic-on-foam mattresses and blankets to hand out to the needy . She tried not to think about her own loss at that moment . `` It was God 's will '' that her father died , she had said earlier . `` I will do my very best to help others because that is what I have been trained to do , '' she said about her five years in the Scouts . `` Up until now , I have n't really had the opportunity to help others . '' Yestin passed along one CARE bucket after another . She did not cry like she did when the earth shook . Or worry that her education was in peril . She had wanted to attend university , study communications . But it was her father who made a living as a mason . Who will pay her tuition now ? Who will support her 5-year-old nephew ? His unemployed parents depended on her for a few extra dollars . She often feels scared these days when she is alone . `` I love the way we work together , '' she said of the Scouts . So on this blazing afternoon , amid the despair of the needy , she simply took comfort .
Many of Canada 's largest Boys and Girls Scouts contribute to disaster relief . ` ` It is important to involve young people right from the start , '' CARE official says . Scouts help even though they have lost friends , or members .