Two sisters from Ben Avon who live at the crumbling BRESMA orphanage in Port-Au-Prince are pleading for help to get a group of children emergency refugee status so they can come to the United States.

In a text to her husband Doug, Jamie McMutrie Heckman, 30, said she and her sister, Alison, 21, were living in the orphanage's yard with the children without food or water.

"We truly can't keep babies alive ... water contaminated. This is our only hope," she texted, using a stranger's Blackberry. "I want to make sure everyone understands we can't stay in Haiti and the kids will not live if they stay. Riots will start within two days."

Several blogs are keeping track of communications with the sisters and a family friend has started a Facebook page asking people to send petitions seeking help with the childrens' refugee status to their congressmen.

Jason Klanderud of Pittsburgh said he started the page last night around 10 p.m. after speaking with Jamie's husband and her brother, Chad, both of whom he's known for several years.

Since then, more than 300 people have joined the petition group, he said.

Jamie McMutrie moved to Haiti in 2006 to help at the orphanage. Ali joined her a year later. The sisters, both Avonworth High School graduates, intended to stay for a year.

"We quickly realized that the work here would never be done and have committed [ourselves] to staying here as long as we can be useful," Jamie McMutrie said in a telephone interview from the orphanage last month.

The children the sisters want to bring back to the U.S. are nearly through the adoption process and have families waiting for them, Mr. Klanderud said.

Former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said this morning that she has secured the help of a doctor who can examine the BRESMA orphans, has spoken with an immigration lawyer and is in contact with the owners of an airplane company to see if she can get a plane for the rescue mission.

Anyone wishing to make a donation directly to the BRESMA orphanage can do so by visiting www.centeroflife.net/haiti..

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