A former Sutton High School student has flown back out to Haiti six months after visiting the disaster-stricken country.

Lindsey Reece-Smith flew out to Caribbean island in January with seven of her colleagues from aid agency Tearfund.

But this week, the 48-year-old Wokingham resident joined colleagues there as many of thousands of people are still struggling to recover and come to terms with January’s earthquake.

Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency which works with churches across the globe trying to help people in poverty and emergency.

The mother-of-three said: “I am going out for six weeks and will be managing HR, logistics and finance so I need to ensure that the systems for these functions are all in place.

“There is a sense of immediacy, time ticking past and that every day counts. Everyone living in Haiti at the time of the quake has been impacted.

“However, the Haitian people do seem remarkably resilient and are trying to restart their lives in as many ways as possible.

“In some ways the destruction looks worse now than 2 months ago. What were open spaces with tents are now covered with rubble.

The earthquake happened at 4.53pm on January 12 and the epicentre was approximately 25km from Port-au-Prince.

Mrs Reece-Smith said one of the main problems is the rising cost of prividing supplies and resources.

She said: "Most supplies are available in the towns, especially Port au Prince, but many people in Haiti did not have piped water before the earthquake and that has not changed.

"Water is often brought in with tanks or is bought on the street. There are many thousands still living in the spontaneous settlements (tented cities) and tents are not going to be easy places to live in during hurricane season.

"Haiti was a poor country before the earthquake and it is difficult to see rapid change after such a major disaster."

According to the International Red Cross, about three million people were affected by the quake and the Haitian authorities confirmed that 150,000 people have already been buried.

To donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) visit dec.org.uk or call 0370 60 60 900. To pledge to Tearfund call 0845 355 8355 or visit tearfund.org/ and click on Haiti.