September 9, 2016

But Jesus said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”

— Matthew 19:14

 

‘A World Fit for Children*’

‘Sou latè yon riz pou timoun yo’

 

 

In 2006, UNICEF called for a Child Alert for the nation of Haiti stating, “Survival is the greatest challenge for Haiti’s children: Making it through the first year of life, however, does not ensure survival. In no other country in Latin America and the Caribbean–and in only a few in the developing world outside of sub-Saharan Africa—is a child more likely to die between the ages of 1 and 4 than in Haiti.”

 

There is a food crisis in Haiti and it is everywhere we look. Widespread malnutrition throughout the country has pushed this food crisis beyond the breaking point. Hundreds of children are dying every day! Malnutrition and diarrhea are the leading causes of death among Haiti’s children.

 

Bobby and I have lived here for 25 years, and we have never seen it this bad. Each day as we go from one village to another, we are faced with an overwhelming amount of children suffering from malnutrition and starvation. The faces of these poor, starving children break my heart.

 

Many of Haiti’s poorest areas are in what we call the “Regions Beyond,” and are accessible only by donkey or on foot, and it is where hundreds of children are dying of malnutrition. Rural families already struggling with soaring food prices in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, have nowhere to turn to try to feed their children, and their cries haunt me every day.

 

Malnutrition has so many faces. This is what “kwashiorkor” malnutrition does to children. It bloats their face, swells their arms and feet, and sometimes, their skin actually splits open from the swelling. They are “protein-starved.” They eat things like corn and flour with water, but no milk or protein. This causes their stomach to swell up like a “pregnant woman.” This type of malnutrition is the most severe and kills hundreds of children each day in Haiti.

 

We see so many cases of both kwashiorkor and marasmus malnutrition here. We try to reach out to these impoverished families, but sometimes we are too late to save a child. Last year, a most heartbreaking case of marasmus malnutrition came to our Jesus Healing Center in July. Jean-Robert, a 16-year-old boy, came to the center with his mother showing severe malnutrition, complicated by diabetes. We tried desperately to save him, even bringing him into our Love A Child Orphanage and feeding him hot, nutritious meals. Four months later he passed away. His mother took his body home and buried him in the village cemetery, where he rests today among other little coffins. Here our young missionary Kaeli stands with his mother to grieve their loss.

 

We are seeing more and more village cemeteries filled with so many little coffins (Ti sèkèy). Death by starvation has become an epidemic here in Haiti. The rural areas are suffering the most. The remote villages are so difficult to reach, and the people have no access to immediate medical care for their children.

“Are all our children going to die?”

— Oswald Durand (Haitian poet, 1840-1906)

 

What we are seeing now is that the whole family is becoming sick because of the lack of food. The parents are often too weak to go out and find food, or make a little bit of money so that they can buy food at the roadside markets. Often the oldest child is left with the burden of taking care of their sick mother and the younger children. This is such a heavy weight to put on any young child.

 

Having no health care in the “Regions Beyond,” most of these families resort to voodoo and the local witch doctor to heal them. Most parents outlive their children because of malnutrition, though I don’t think that will be the case for Madamn Mariedelle, who also suffers from asthma. Her boyfriend fashioned a voodoo charm to heal her, but unless we can get her medical help soon, she probably won’t survive.

 

So what will happen to her five children? The cycle of poverty, hunger and malnutrition will continue as her 10-year-old daughter, Natalie, will have to find a way to feed and care for her four siblings.

 

There are many desperate families who come to our Jesus Healing Center seeking help. Their children are severely underweight, so the doctor assigns them to the Malnutrition Center.

 

These are the faces of starvation. Several of these children have already passed away and some of the children are currently in our Feeding Program. The best way to reach out to these children and their families is getting them into our Malnutrition Center where they can be closely monitored each week and we give them the food they need to save their child.

 

Our Malnutrition Center is a safe oasis in the middle of this land of poverty and starvation. It is the best way we have to break the cycle of starvation by educating the mothers and giving them nutritious food to bring back to their families each week. Some of the mothers will walk two hours one-way to receive a sack of food, and we are then able to monitor the health of the children. They do this because it may be the only food they will have for the week.

 

Overwhelming poverty, economic strife, and yearly natural disasters have created a bleak future for the children of Haiti. Due to extreme poverty, many parents are forced to abandon or sell their children because they do not have the ability to feed, care or educate them. There is currently an orphan epidemic in Haiti, with over 400,000 children living without parents. How do we reach out to all these children? Through our Feeding Programs at our Love A Child Schools, which includes 18 schools with over 8,000 students. For many of these children, it will be their only meal that day.

 

We distribute food to over 80 organizations, which includes missionary groups and orphanages around Haiti. But we need your help today as the need has increased tenfold because of the famine.

 

There is so much we can do if we work together. Love A Child receives food shipments each month to feed millions of children. We receive highly nutritious Manna Packs from Feed My Starving Children that are donated to Love A Child, but we need to get the food from Minnesota to Haiti, through customs and then trucked to our Kingdom Connection Warehouse in Fond Parisien. This only happens because of our partners like you, who give to our Feeding Programs and our Child Sponsorship Program. We want to thank our sponsors Joyce Meyer Ministries—Hand Of Hope and Pastor Jentezen Franklin and your partners who sponsor two of the containers. We also want to thank all of you, our partners who have so generously sponsored the other eight containers each month with your monthly donations. This is how we work together to save lives in Haiti. Just look at Nelson, he is one of the children your sponsorship has saved. This wonderful child will grow up to one day do great things in Haiti.

 

Please prayerfully consider becoming a partner, as the need is far greater today than ever before.
Your support will save a life!

“Every gift counts and no gift is too small.” Your gift of $20, $50 or any amount would provide hot, nourishing meals for hungry children. The “widow’s mite” is precious in the eyes of Jesus. Please, hear the “cry of the poor,” and “do something” today. And when you do, God will bless you for “considering the poor!” (Psalm 41:1-3)

Please call our office at 239-210-6107 and let a staff member know that you want to help.

God bless you,

Sherry

 

 

*UNICEF

For updated information from UNICEF