Abby McCullogh plans to return to Haiti in March. (CBC)

A Charlottetown college student who volunteered at an orphanage in Haiti last year is planning a return trip to help with relief efforts following last week's earthquake.

Abby McCullogh, 25, was originally supposed to be in Haiti on Jan. 12 when the 7.0-magnitude quake hit, but her plans fell through when a travelling companion backed out.

"It's kind of a bittersweet feeling because I don't know that I would have survived, but at the same time I feel like I need to be there," she said.

McCullogh said it was almost a week after the quake before she heard from friends in Port-au-Prince, where she had volunteered, and the news wasn't good.

'It captured my heart.'—Abby McCullogh

The orphanage sustained serious damage and at least two of the children were killed, including 11-year-old Niki.

"He's albino and he couldn't see; he was blind, and he was trying to get out of the door, but he couldn't find the doorknob and the wall collapsed on him and he was killed," she said, looking through photographs from her trip.

"We always chatted and he was carefree and always willing to do what he could for everybody else."

McCullogh plans to go back to the orphanage in March to volunteer and hopes to eventually teach there, once she gets her teaching degree.

"It captured my heart," she said. "There's just something about the people.

"We hear all the bad stories about the kidnappings, and the war that goes on, and the gangs and the guns. We hear all of that, but we don't see the people that take care of other people, we don't see the kids that are running around, and I saw that…I saw Haiti for what Haiti is."

Islanders look to adopt

Meanwhile, several Islanders have contacted the P.E.I. Adoption Coalition, wondering if they can adopt children from Haiti, said spokeswoman Tammy McKinnon.

She's glad people are eager to help children, but said it shouldn't take a disaster.

"It's important for people to be this caring and this compassionate at all times," she said.

"Haiti has always been in crisis. It didn't just happen last Tuesday. Last Monday they were in crisis with 380,000 orphans in Haiti and no one emailed me then to find out how to get these children."