From Sherry's Journal

Haiti’s Orphanages – So Many Children

Haiti is home to hundreds of orphanages. Love A Child operates an orphanage in Fond Parisien, Haiti. Below you will learn more about the other orphanages we provide support for throughout Haiti.

“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.”

— Psalm 68:5-6

Pastor Claude's orphanage in LA Tremblay

 

The number of orphanages in Haiti runs into the hundreds. Many of these orphanages are well-run institutions, while others are mere shacks of tarp-covered huts. Christian missionaries who devote their time and resources to them run many of the orphanages, taking care of orphans is often on faith alone.

Heart of Haiti's Orphanage

 

It is estimated that there are nearly one million orphans in Haiti, while the estimated number of orphanages in Haiti is around 760. There were many children placed in orphanages after the 2010 earthquake, and now the number of children in orphanages totals 32,000. Where are all the other orphans? These numbers are often hard to verify, as there are few agencies that travel into the “Regions Beyond” to actually determine an accurate count. The Haitian Government believes these orphanages are mostly made up of children who are not orphans, but have at least one parent. There is also the problem of “Restaveks” (child slavery) that is Haiti’s silent secret. When a family can’t take care of all the children because there are too many mouths to feed, and they have no income, one child is often sold into slavery so that the other children can eat.

Restaveck children

 

There are some terrible orphanages in Haiti, where children often languish in dark rooms and on dirt floors, with little food and no health services. Many have mental or physical challenges and are neglected and abused.

 

There are many more orphanages that struggle to take care of the children in their charge. Many children end up in their care because the family just has too many children and cannot feed them all. Each month Love A Child shares the 8-10 containers of food that we receive monthly with many orphanages and missionaries here in Haiti. For each 40-foot container of food, Love A Child spends $10,000 in transportation fees. You might say this is a lot of money, but really it’s a small price to pay for 272,000 meals to feed starving children.

kids-holding-manna-packs

 

Each month, we receive food from our long-time partner Feed My Starving Children (FMSC). We are so thankful for FMSC’s valuable commitment. Still, the extent of the need here is so alarming that we are constantly making appeals for new partners with a heartfelt desire to help Haiti’s poor. After Hurricane Matthew, we are in even greater need as we provide disaster relief to even more communities. There are over 80 missionary organizations and orphanages with which we share this food for distribution throughout Haiti.

Food distribution to Haiti's Orphanages

 

Each organization arrives monthly in whatever vehicle they use and stuff all their allotted boxes of food into every nook. Only in Haiti would you see these very imaginative vehicles on the road, they are often the target of thieves and bandits who steal their food. We pray that they get back to their homes safely each month.

Food distribution to Haiti's Orphanages.

 

For many, our donation is all the food they have to eat throughout the entire month.

Missionazry nuns receiving food for their orphanage.

 

We often talk about the orphanages that we support with our food each month. Here are just a few of the organizations with whom we share our food. They are run by wonderful missionaries of many faiths. They are doing so much to save the children of Haiti. Not only giving them a hot, nutritious meal each day, but they also offer an opportunity for many of these children to go to school. Pictured below are the children from our Love A Child Orphanage.

Haiti's Orphanage Love A Child

 

Pastor Claude Mondesir, who we work with often, has two orphanages. One is located in La Tremblay and the other is in Léogâne. He is doing a wonderful job of protecting these children by making sure they have food each day, receive a good education and Christian guidance in their lives. Recently, our longtime friend David George, with the help of his partners, built an orphanage, a school and now they have nearly completed a new church. God has done some amazing work for Pastor Claude and his orphaned children.

Haiti's Orphanages - Orphelina Ebenezer

 

We love Pastor Claude! He is remarkable in his efforts to save the many orphaned and abandoned children of Haiti. Also, we thank David George and his partners for continuing to support Pastor Claude’s orphanages. David and his partners have saved so many children here in Haiti!

pastor-claude-orphans

 

These are our good friends from Heart For Haiti, Johan Smoorenburg and his wife, who are the founders and directors. They have a Children’s Village with 165 children, a Senior Citizens home, a great Bible School, and so much more.

Heart For Haiti Orphanage

 

We just love Johan and his wife and respect them so much. What a wonderful organization! They receive our monthly food distributions to missionaries and we greatly admire their integrity, compassion and the wonderful work they are doing for the poor here in Haiti. We recently installed a new playground in their Children’s Village. The kids were so excited!

Haiti's Orphanage - Heart For Haiti Children's Village

 

These are some of the children at Hope for Life Children’s Home, which is located near Port-au-Prince. They provide a loving and safe home for orphans and vulnerable children. They recently completed a new dormitory for the orphans.

Haiti's Orphanage - Hope for Life Children's Home

 

Look at these precious children at Mephibosheth House, which is a special needs home. We share our food with this small orphanage of twenty-three children and young adults located in Port-au-Prince.

Mephibosheth House - Haiti's Orphanage for children with special needs.

 

Orphelinat Notre-Dame du Perpetuel Secours is a sustainable orphanage for Haitian youth, located in Croix des Bouquets. It was started in January 2010 in response to the many children who were abandoned or who lost their families after the earthquake.

Haiti's Orphanage - Orphelinat Notre-Dame du Perpetuel Secours

 

Pastor Jean Fega Supreme is feeding these children at the Christian Covenant Home Orphanage. Some of his children have suffered from anemia and malnutrition, but they are doing great now! Thank you again, partners, for “sharing with the hungry children in Haiti!”

Haiti's Orphanage - Christian Covenant Home Orphanage

 

There are 300,000 children living as Restaveks in Haiti. The children you see below were “Restaveks,” or “slave children” here in Haiti, who now have a better life through the Restavek Freedom Foundation. We love sharing the food God has blessed us with, especially with ministries that help many of these children. We share two containers of food each month with many other ministries like this. We have to raise the funds to pay for the cost of shipping and transportation funds for each container, which total $10,000. We trust God for a miracle each month!

Haiti's Orphanage - Restavek Freedom Foundation

 

In the poor village of Fond Michelle, a widow woman named Sister Adeline cares for about twenty-five orphaned children. She is raising all these children without any help under a church “tarp.” She also runs a school with only one schoolteacher. Here they receive new school backpacks that were donated by Carl Barraco and his firm, Barraco and Associates. Thank you for supporting education for the children of Haiti.

Sister Adeline's orphans in Fond Michelle

 

Sister Adeline is a woman of God who is raising all these children by faith alone. We pray that the Lord speaks to someone’s heart to sponsor a new orphanage and a church for Sister Adeline and her children soon!

Sister Adeline's orphanage in HAiti

Sister Adeline is in the middle between Sherry and David George with the black headscarf and dress

Great News! We just learned that Sister Adeline and her orphans have received a great miracle thanks to some of our loving partners. They will soon have a first-class orphanage!! This will take some time because we will need the land surveyed first, but this will happen soon. God will have the Glory for what He has put in place for the poor! Thank you, wonderful friends and partners! Be watching for updates! Is there anything too hard for God? No, never!

julie-children-fond-michelle

 

These are just a few of the orphanages that we share our food with each month, and some have been with us for many years. We know we will continue to expand our outreach to additional groups as we learn more about them. Thank you to all our partners who have contributed over the years. We are so grateful that so many of you have the love and compassion to help us bring, not only food and clothing to the poorest of the poor but some hope and dignity to these wonderful people of Haiti. We could not continue our work here without all of you. We work to ease the suffering of thousands of children providing 1.6 million meals to hungry people every year.

Please prayerfully consider becoming a partner in our Feeding Program.
Your support will save a life!

Donate Now - Make A Difference in Haiti
If you would like to make a contribution, please consider a monthly donation of food. It makes such a difference in the lives of these poor people.

If you would like to speak directly to one of our staff members, please call: 239-210-6107 or email us at: info@lachaiti.org.

God Bless you,

Sherry

 

 

 

Posted in Sherry's Journal