A week after the anniversary of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, U.S. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, as a member of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, visited Port-au-Prince on Monday to assess U.S. aid investments in the country's post-earthquake rebuilding efforts.

The senator, along with wife Jeanette Rubio, stopped by the Institute for Human and Community Development, an organization dedicated to help recovering "restavec" children (children forced into child labor to support families). The children greeted the senator and his wife with gifts and songs.

"To be able to witness that, especially kids that come from the kind of background that these kids come from, and who are so hopeful about what they can be and what their country can be, and the future," said Rubio to Calvin Hughes of Local 10 News, "It is an emotional thing, and one of the real rewarding parts of this trip."

Rubio also met with President Michel Martelly, Prime Minister Dr. Garry Conille, and representatives from the private sector and non-profit groups to appraise the country's rebuilding progress.

The Senator made this official visit a week after signing his support to a bipartisan petition among Florida politicians, campaigning for U.S. visa reform to expedite the processing of family-based and low-skilled, temporary employment visas for Haitian immigrants.