Nova Scotia RCMP officer helping out in Haiti following Hurricane Matthew

Patrick Desjardins is home in Nova Scotia for the holidays, but soon he’ll be heading back to Haiti where he’s been helping people recover from Hurricane Matthew when it hit the country in October.

The RCMP constable has been working in the Caribbean country since September.

“It’s another world. It’s one of the poorest country in North America. It’s tough to explain. You need to be there to understand the vibe, people, mindset,” Desjardins said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's another world. It's one of the poorest country in North America. It's tough to explain. You need to be there to understand the vibe, people, mindset," Desjardins said.

“Port-Au-Prince was built for 200,000 people. There’s about 3,000,000 people living in the city. There’s trash, trash, trash everywhere.”

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READ MORE: Canada allots $54M for Haiti disaster relief, long-term aid

Originally, Desjardins went to Haiti to help train police officers there. Not long after he arrived, Hurricane Matthew struck, leaving the region devastated.

The hurricane changed Desjardins’ mandate and he went from training police to escorting food into some of the hardest hit and most desperate areas.

“We were getting robbed almost every day by starving people,” he said.

“People were throwing rocks at us to stop the vehicle and they were stealing rice almost everyday.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We were getting robbed almost every day by starving people," he said.</p><p>"People were throwing rocks at us to stop the vehicle and they were stealing rice almost everyday."

WATCH: Aerial view shows widespread devastation in Haiti as death toll is over 800 

1:40 Aerial view shows widespread devastation in Haiti as death toll is over 800

It’s been more than two months since Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti, but Desjardins said the area still faces major challenges.

“They need food, they need clothing. They need a roof or a house because they lost all their houses after the hurricane. They need a lot of stuff.”

For Desjardins, one of the most challenging things was seeing children homeless and in need while working at a Haiti orphanage.

“It’s difficult. I have two kids on my own at home. One day I stood by an orphanage just on my own to see what it looks like and I was talking with the woman in charge and a little baby only eats once a day or every two days,” he said.

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After Christmas, Desjardins will return to Haiti to finish the rest of his deployment.

This time, he will be bringing 200 pounds of clothing and $1,000 that his coworkers in Nova Scotia have collected, to try and help more children.

READ MORE: Hurricane Matthew: Haiti will need ‘life-saving assistance’ to stop cholera crisis

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