Many of the students were still wrapped in Red Cross blankets when they arrived home from Haiti in January. Many of the students were still wrapped in Red Cross blankets when they arrived home from Haiti in January. (CBC)

Some students and church leaders from B.C.'s West Kootenay region who were evacuated from Haiti following the earthquake in January are getting ready to return next month.

Six members of the Kootenay Fellowship and three students from Mount Sentinel high school will fly to Haiti in August.

In January, 23 Grade 12 students, teachers and volunteers from the South Slocan high school travelled to Haiti to help set up a farm in a local community.

About three hours after they arrived, the massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck, killing thousands and destroying much of the infrastructure in the country.

'It felt like we could have stayed and helped out more.'—Student Ryan Ricalton

The students spent several days at the Grand-Goave mission outside the capital of Port-au-Prince before Canadian troops finally transported them to the Canadian Embassy. They were eventually airlifted out.

Their rescue made national headlines, but group leader Pastor Jim Reimer said they couldn't forget the Haitians they left behind.

"When you go through an experience like that there is something that is changed in your heart," said Reimer.

"I know I am going to be emotionally touched when I get there. We were under high alert, high stress for five days. The Haitians have been under this for six months," said Reimer.

3 returning students to help youths

Ryan Ricalton, 17, is one of the three students who will return with the group. He said he feels the need to return and help the survivors of the earthquake that they left behind.

"I wish I'd have done more when I was there," he told CBC News.

"It felt like we could have stayed and helped out more. I know that wouldn't be realistic, but I just had a lot of empty feeling when I came back," he said.

Ricalton said he and the other students will focus on helping children and other youths who are suffering from post-traumatic stress, and do some rebuilding work at the mission where they stayed.