And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
— Mark 10:13-16
Growing up as a child in Haiti, life is a daily struggle. These poor children, no matter what their age, if they can walk, they can work. They have so much work each day it is like watching them grow up as adults in the body of a child.
We visit many poor villages around Haiti, and in each village, we see children working all day alongside their parents or alone. The young children are the most vulnerable to being exploited as cheap labor and as someone’s possession. This is the Truttier Waste Disposal Dump near the giant slums of Cité Soleil; it is the largest landfill site for garbage, including medical and human waste, in all of Haiti. Hundreds of children are living here trying to survive by scavenging through the garbage for food or something they can sell.
There are an estimated 400,000 children without parents in Haiti. Many were lost in the earthquake; some go off to find work, never to return. Some parents just abandon their children because they can’t feed them. The children often end up with relatives as Restavec (child slave), or just sold as slaves to unscrupulous human traffickers. Theirs is a savage existence in a brutal world.
Many of the children that live in some of the poorest villages such as Sapaterre, the land of mud cookies; the Truttier Waste Disposal Dump; or the salt flats of Gonaïves, never get an opportunity to go to school, rarely get a hot meal, and suffer from many childhood diseases that can often be cured with over-the-counter medication, but the families have no money for food, school or health care, and the children must work all day.
Every child is a piece of God’s artwork. Living here in Haiti, we have grown to love the children even more; they are hard working and suffer many nights of hunger. The children who have lost their parents suffer from loneliness and pain. We can’t do everything, but we can all do “something” to help feed them and give them hope.
Most Haitian children have “jobs to do” each day, which does not leave enough time to go to school. Just think about the chores your children do each day, and then compare them to what Haitian children must do each day just to survive:
Going out each morning to find water for their families;
Many gather wood to make charcoal or to build a fire;
They need to make the cooking fire each morning;
Boil the water for cooking, if they have any food;
Washing all their family’s clothing;
Grinding grain for their family meal;
Or pounding corn for a meal of corn meal;
Washing dishes;
Tending their family’s animals;
Searching for food, and items they can sell to buy food.
In some of the villages, they can barely survive on what the land around them can provide. In Sapaterre, it is the clay. The whole village is involved with the secretive business of making Bon Bon Tè (mud cookies). It lies in the Central Plateau of Haiti, where food is so scarce that the village children must eat these mud cookies, and they are selling them in the street markets. Even the littlest children are put to work.
The youngest children break up the rock that is brought up from the clay mine.
The young girls process the clay and water mixture and get it ready to be made into “dough.”
An older girl mixes water, a little salt and oil to make the batter. Then the cookies are laid out to bake in the sun.
For the children growing up in the area of Gonaïves, many of them must work in the salt flats to bring home a few gourdes each day to help support their families.
This is very hard, grueling work in the hot sun every day to mine salt out of these flats.
This salt is then taken to local markets and sold.
Love A Child does everything it can to reach out to all these children who suffer each day. These children want to go to school so much, yet most poor families cannot afford to send their children to school. There really isn’t a public school system in Haiti, like there is in the States. Almost all schools, especially in the rural areas of Haiti that we serve, are either Christian schools or private schools. Through our Child Sponsorship program, you can help rescue these young children from a life of illiteracy, starvation, and early death. We can’t do everything, but we each can do something.
All these children are so eager to receive sponsorship as it means an opportunity to go to school, receive one hot, nutritious meal a day, and medical care. Child Sponsorship is one of our most important outreaches. It’s hard to believe that many of these cuties go home to mud huts and some worse than that. This is by far the best way to feed and clothe the poor children here in Haiti. Child Sponsorship gives these poor children the chance to not only survive, but to also have a good Christian education and love, knowing someone cares about them. So many children now have a very bright future because someone like you cared enough to help a child in Haiti.
Each day, hundreds of poor Haitian children leave their mud huts, and their “empty bowls” to walk across the mountains to a beautiful Christian school! They have hot meals, a Christian education, medical check-ups, and most of all these children have sponsors who “really love them.” These children will someday change lives, and maybe even the world.
Pray about SPONSORING A CHILD today.
God bless you all for caring so much about the children here in Haiti.
Sherry