“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother; (which is the first commandment with a promise;). That it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
— Ephesians 6:1-4
Haitians are steeped in family values, religion, and superstitions. Most Haitians, whether they are rich or poor, place great importance on family life. Poor families, who live in the remote mountainous regions struggle from generation to generation, but the family always comes first.
Children in Haiti suffer because of hopeless poverty, and a food crisis that has plagued their country for a decade. It has become generational with little hope in sight for so many Haitian children.
Haitian children are considered gifts from God. Because they are so cherished, the whole family and, sometimes the community, feel responsible for raising the child. Women in Haiti will go hungry so their children can go to school, and mothers will feed the children before they eat.
For the children of Haiti, who have lost that family connection, life is hard, and often very cruel. There are about 800,000 children, between the ages of 5 – 17, in Haiti today who are enslaved as a Restavec (child slave). When families can’t afford to feed their children, they send them to friends or relatives, hoping they will have a better life. But most of them end up working long hours and never get a chance to go to school.
Many children have to work to help their family survive. They fetch water, wash clothes and dishes, and try to find food or anything to eat. Often, the older children become the caretakers of their younger siblings, and the mother too! For the children, it leaves no time to go to school. Mothers lose hope as they can’t afford to send their children to school, and they know that an education is their only way out of this poverty.
Young Haitian boys tell us about their everyday lives in the village of Fond Cheval, “I wash dishes, grind cornmeal, collect water, and look for sticks to build a fire for my mother.”
Many children end up in an orphanage because one or both of their parents have died or abandoned their family. We reach out to many of these orphanages by sharing the food that we receive from Feed My Starving Children. There are over 750 orphanages and missions, big and small, which try to take care of thousands of children who are starving, abandoned or lost, throughout Haiti.
Just to be a child in Haiti…
These poor children are growing up in Haiti, where it is a struggle for survival, and many of these children do not make it beyond their fifth birthday. Children are abandoned, severely malnourished, and abused. Children are living in the garbage dumps in the slums of Cité Soleil, scrounging for food or anything they can sell to buy food. This is how they live their whole childhood.
With the support of our partners, we were able to build new orphanages in several areas, like Ebenezer Orphanage, with Pastor Claude Mondesir, and our most recent project that we just dedicated for Madamn Adeline and her 25 orphans in Fond Michelle. Thanks to our Love A Child partners, their lives are going to change. This is their old church and where some of her orphans had to sleep too!
Madamn Adeline’s 25 orphans have been living in a tiny shack and sleeping on top of each other on pieces of wood. We are so thankful to our sponsors, Dr. Pat Webster, and Debbie Click and her friends for funding this project.
Can you even imagine what it is like for these wonderful children to now have real beds to sleep in, a clean place to eat, and a chance to play like children? They will soon have the opportunity to go to church and a school too. To see children run and climb in their beds when they have never had a bed in their lives was unbelievable and we give praises to the Lord!
Look at this little cutie! This was how he looked when he first got in his new bed. Thank you partners for all that you do to bring hope and love to these little Haitian children!
We wish we could save every child. In the past six months we have taken in additional children at our Love A Child’s Children’s Home. These are the latest little ones here at our children’s home. We found Joshua abandoned at our front gate, severely malnourished several months ago. Kenzy’s mother died during childbirth and left him nearly dead. Then there is Samuel, who was brought to us by the Social Services Department here in Haiti. His mother could no longer feed or care for him. We found Noah, who was abandoned, beaten, starved and left to die, at our front gate. Most recently, little Wendy (a boy), who we also found abandoned at the front gate, his condition was very lethargic, malnourished, and his arms and legs were just like spaghetti, no muscles. He had some teeth so we felt that he could be about one and a half-years-old, but was no bigger than a six-month-old. His father left him at the front gate because he didn’t want him. Five beautiful children who were just thrown away…
It is amazing what food, love and giving can do to help malnourished children here in Haiti. The best way to help the children of Haiti is through our Child Sponsorship Program. Not only do we feed and educate sponsored children, but they will receive medical care as well. Whenever possible, we try to keep the children with their families. So when you sponsor a child, you are also helping that child’s family to survive. Let the children be children; no child should be abandoned and left to die. Please consider helping the poor children of Haiti, and help them live more healthy and happy lives.
Child Sponsorship is a great way to help a poor child here in Haiti.
For just $24 a month, you can provide food,
a Christian education, health care, and most of all, love.
Pray about sponsoring a child. You may give securely online, or if you would like to speak directly to one of our staff members, you may contact our Love A Child Office at 239-210-6107, or you can also email us at [email protected] and change a child’s life, forever!
God bless you all for caring so much about the children in Haiti.
Sherry