VENICE, Fla. — The search for a kidnapped American mother and her daughter has ramped up in Haiti.
Alix Dorsainvil, a nurse from New Hampshire, was with her daughter when they were taken from a school owned by a ministry in Port-au-Prince where she worked.
The U.S. State Department has issued a "Do Not Travel" advisory in the country and ordered non-emergency personnel to leave.
This recent kidnapping is yet another symptom of growing security concerns in that county after several armed gangs have laid stakes to various parts of the county, particularly in Port-au-Prince and its neighboring outskirts.
Several local mission groups provide assistance and aid to various communities in Haiti and know all too well about the dangers in the area.
One missionary tied to the Tampa Bay area organization Agape Flights helps get supplies to Haiti and said they know they could be targets and are not exempt from danger.
"The gang violence has made my life miserable and this has been going on since they killed President Jouvenel Moise," said Mark Stockeland of Haiti Bible Mission.
Stockeland moved from Ohio to join his wife who is from Highlands County. He has family in Fort Myers and Sarasota.
He has lived in Jeremie, Haiti for 15 years operating the mission's program.
It can take his team between six to eight hours to get to supplies from Port-au-Prince.
As the last two years have seen a rise in violence and kidnapping, he's stepped up security to protect the vulnerable mission compound and escort vehicles.
"I have a bulletproof SUV and we have to pay armed guards and Haitian military armed SWAT with AK-47s and AR-15s to take us to Port-au-Prince because it's too dangerous to go through ports," Stockeland said.
Due to the nature of missionary work, which involves immersing into local communities and interacting with various levels of local institutions, as well as dealing with the logistics of transporting valuable basic resources and supplies, staff members are often a moving target.
"For me, it just makes me realize that every time my kids go downtown, I just need to make sure that there isn't some informant, you know, calling somebody and saying, 'Hey there's a white kid here, there's a family here.' But I always have to be ready and that puts a little stress on me just knowing that at any moment, something could happen," he said.
"Kidnappings and abductions are not unusual these days and honestly really, Port-au-Prince is known as the kidnap capital of the world," Allen Speer, CEO of Agape Flights, said.
The Venice-based Agape Flights is dubbed a lifeline for the missionaries in Haiti because of its multiple supply and shuttle runs to the island country.
"Gangs typically target someone that they think has either influence of money or a combination of both of those things. They plan it, they target these people and then they are looking to be funded in some sort of way," Speer said.
Last year, a mob that was frustrated with the gang violence and lack of political will by police and local leaders to curb their activities took their plane for one belonging to one of the local gang leaders and set it on fire.
"We really try to help our missionaries understand that they have to be very cautious in their movements but they've been called to be there and so many of our long-term missionaries who have been in Haiti for 40-plus years understand there is still hope for Haiti," he said.
Kenya's president wants to send 1,000 police to help neutralize the gangs and keep the peace.
"Security allows the Haitians to thrive and allows me and my family to do what we're called to do from the Lord, to help serve the people and so, if they come in and help provide security, that's a good thing," Stockeland said. "The Haitian people are hurting but it also takes a toll on us because the money that we would have used to help people, it's costing us three times more to do what we used to do."
Agape Flights sends at least two weekly supply flights to Haiti to replenish the missionaries with things like medicines, food, clothing and care packages from family and friends.