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“Food and Love” – Joel’s Story

Haitian children who live in the mountains of Haiti and other poor villages do not get the love and affection that the majority of our children in the States receive. The reason is that life is so tough, so rugged and fathers and mothers are forced to work hard just to keep their children alive. They do not go to school, but instead work in the gardens, hoeing rocks, pulling weeds, washing clothes in the river, and caring for smaller children. Since food is so, so rare, children are often malnourished and if they don’t help, they will die.

Joel and his brother Miguelson came from the mountains of Bel-Fonten, or, as we nicknamed it, Coven. Their father had four children and his job was to “mow to the earth,” as they say in the mountains (work in the garden). He knows neither day nor night because all this father knows is work to keep his children alive.

The mother is Madamn Fanie St Pierre. She had abandoned her children, leaving this father to care for them. This area is so far, that you ride a mule or a donkey, and then take the rest of the way on foot. Their “home,” was just a little two-bedroom, thatched roof-hut. When the hurricane came, they had nowhere to sleep because the water had flooded everything in their hut.

This father, Mr. Emmanuel, has never cried over anything, but he has cried “many a tear” when his little boys could not find food to eat. Both little boys had to be taken to a Malnutrition Clinic (that we know of). This was a missionary friend of ours and the children thrived and did well. But, at last, the children became malnourished again, because when “special food was sent home for them, as outpatients,” they shared it with others and the little boys became malnourished again.

When Joel came to our Malnutrition Clinic here at Love A Child he weighed 7.5 kilos. His legs were swollen, and his skin was dry. The other day before they left, Joel weighed 11.5 kilos! His brother, Miguelson, weighed 12.2 kilos. They are in outpatient care now and their father can come each month to get their special food. And, we will also send a big box of Feed My Starving Children Food so that dad and the others can eat well. What a blessing! When someone sponsors a container of food, there are so many stories inside that “container of food,” and they all have happy endings!!

God bless those of you who sponsor the Malnutrition Clinic each month.

Sherry

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