"Person to Person": Sean Penn's mission to rebuild Haiti

Sean Penn and Charlie Rose in Haiti / CBS News

Oscar winner Sean Penn could be living comfortably in California, but for half his time he trades comfort for a tiny plywood cubicle, not wider than a prison cell, in a group home for aid workers in Haiti, where he's committed to helping victims of a 2010 earthquake.

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"Person to Person": Sean Penn on anger and courage

On CBS News' "Person to Person," airing Friday, Nov. 23, at 10/9c, Penn tells co-host Charlie Rose how he was moved to help Haiti after seeing a January 2010 news report on the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated the country.

• Complete coverage: "Person to Person"

At the time he had just gone through a divorce from Robin Wright Penn and was uncertain what he would do next. He was horrified by the Civil War-like medical techniques being used on victims. "Here's an aspirin and now I'm gonna cut your arm off with a hardware store hacksaw," he recalls. "That was happening."

Previously, his son had suffered a traumatic brain injury and Penn remembered how morphine helped alleviate the pain. He couldn't imagine the suffering of those in Haiti without it. "And something just clicked," Penn tells Rose. "Haiti earthquake, amputations on children and others with no IV medications. And the joke I've always made is that an actor in Hollywood knows where to find narcotics, but not bulk narcotics."

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A peek inside Sean Penn's second home

Penn called well-connected friends for what he thought would be a short mission to Haiti to deliver medicine and medical personnel. What resulted would be a life-changing effort to help others in ways he never could have imagined.

"When you look down a city block of devastation and you see the pain and the death, you feel like, I can fix this," he says of his first impressions. He realized it was bigger than that after taking a helicopter tour. "It wasn't about fixing it anymore, it was about helping as much as you could."

In the first year he rarely left Haiti. Penn created the Haitian Relief Organization he's named J/P HRO, which now provides free medical services to about 8,000 patients a month. He's also launching schools, a community center and hiring Haitians to build homes to replace their damaged ones.

He lives with upward of 20 people in the same house. In the kitchen hangs a sign that reads, "Please don't take seconds until everybody has eaten. Thank you." A lone white suit hangs in his room, a necessity for his role as an Ambassador-at-Large of Haiti.

Working in Haiti has given Penn a chance to work muscles he knew he had, but hadn't had a chance to exercise in a long time.

"It's all lessons of surfing, I think," Penn tells Rose. "I know when I'm in the right position to catch a wave and I know when I'm not. And I knew I was in a place where I can do something."

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Sean Penn on investing in Haiti

Penn has spent millions of his own money on his work in Haiti. "Money's not even the answer how to fix this place," Penn tells Rose. "Belief in it. Where is the courageous company with any kind of social responsibility that is going to serve both the United States' interests and the Haitian human interest by bringing investment to this country, with all its magic possibilities? Where are these companies? Shame on those who aren't giving it a go."

Rose's visit with Penn will be presented alongside interviews with Grammy winner Alicia Keys, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his wife, Brittany, and Olympic Gold medalist Gabby Douglas on "Person to Person," airing Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, at 10/9c. Rose and Lara Logan are the co-hosts.

[chevyhotrod]

Sean Penn likes to work with Dictators, including Hugo Chavez.

Haiti is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic.

All one has to do is look at the Dominican Republic and compare it to Haiti and you will have your answer to "what is wrong with Haidi".

Exiled Brutal Dictator Duvalier Returns to Haiti
January 18, 2011

Duvalier, part of a father-and-son dynasty that presided over one of the darkest chapters in Haitian history, arrived on an Air France jet in a jacket and tie to hugs from supporters at the Port-au-Prince airport.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-202_162-7253546.html

In Haiti, former dictator 'Baby Doc' Duvalier is thriving
January 17, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/in-haiti-the-former-dictator-duvalier-thrives/2012/01/13/gIQAaYbM6P_story.html

Sean Penn campaigns in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez
10/5/2012

It's no surprise to find actor Sean Penn on the campaign trail these days. The two-time Academy Award winner is a strong backer of President Barack Obama with a history of putting his name and celebrity panache behind left-of-center causes.

But what is starting to raise eyebrows among Americans is Penn's campaign blessings for another friend in another country: Venezuela's Marxist President Hugo Chavez, who will face the voters of his country Oct. 7 in a race the whole world is watching. In the past week, Chavez's strong-armed assaults against opponent Henrique Capriles & one of which resulted in the death of a Capriles campaign worker and the wounding of two others following a rally & has made the Venezuelan election particularly incendiary.

Coupled with Chavez's own 14-year record of intimidating political enemies, denouncing U.S. opponents, and forging alliances with America-haters from Havanna to Tehran, his behavior in his re-election makes one wonder why any American would campaign for him.

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/10/05/sean-penn-campaigns-in-venezuela-for-hugo-chavez/

[audemus]

Thanks for the geography lesson, your third grade teacher must be very proud.

The "moral" American method of politics and social justice is hardly the litmus test when it comes to how a country should conduct it's business. At least Chavez is out in the public view, and not hiding behind doors telling $ 50,000 dollar a plate supporters what his true feelings are.

Say what you will about Sean Penn, but when was the last time you saw a Lindsay Lohan or a Chris Brown willing to live amongst the most poverty stricken in a nation the rest of the world seems to have forgot...trying to make a real difference in the lives of people who desperately need someone to care ?
At least respect that.

[judymar14]

Millions have been collected around the world for these people. Why shouldn't they have helped themselves. Un-educated or not, it doesn't take a rocket science to figure out what needs to be done. Who is stealing the money from the Haitians this time, same as before, they're own government. No, not shame of other countries, shame on the Haitians. There should be enough of those millions to pay skilled workers to go there and show them how to sort their country out, more than enough people in Haiti to do the heavy work.

[sabniz]

it is unbelievable that after so many years of the disaster, there're still no massive residential buildings built there, and people are still living in camps. all those donations and rescue missions didn't seem to work well for those people.

love Sean Penn, but still the reality is not so bright there. does he really know what should be done there, not just a temp relief mission?

what's wrong with Haidi?

[chevyhotrod]

Sean Penn likes to work with Dictators, including Hugo Chavez.

Haiti is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic.

All one has to do is look at the Dominican Republic and compare it to Haiti and you will have your answer to "what is wrong with Haidi".

Exiled Brutal Dictator Duvalier Returns to Haiti
January 18, 2011

Duvalier, part of a father-and-son dynasty that presided over one of the darkest chapters in Haitian history, arrived on an Air France jet in a jacket and tie to hugs from supporters at the Port-au-Prince airport.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-202_162-7253546.html

In Haiti, former dictator 'Baby Doc' Duvalier is thriving
January 17, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/in-haiti-the-former-dictator-duvalier-thrives/2012/01/13/gIQAaYbM6P_story.html

[ryanduggan1]

Why is Haiti perpetually screwed up? They are for decades constantly in line for one handout or another. Japan has earthquakes, they are a prosperous well educated civil country. It comes down to the lack of character of the individuals that make up that society.

[ryanduggan1]

Why is Haiti perpetually screwed up? They are for decades constantly in line for one handout or another. Japan has earthquakes, they are a prosperous well educated civil country. It comes down to the lack of character of the individuals that make up that society.

[Zippy_Doo]

Love Sean Penn and what he is doing for Haiti.

[Veaney]

Greed is coming on the haitians, they want 100,000 dollars to each cholera victim.
It's in spanish, you can google it or read in spanish. You'll get the point.

http://www.almomento.net/articulo/121793/Nuevas-evidencias-contra-ONU-por-colera.

[nazcap]

Sean Penn is worth a thousand Bonos. Keep up the good work, Sean.

[jimbryho]

word.