Jonas… Little ten-year-old Jonas had a rough life until we rescued him. In Haiti, when a child loses “both parents,” he will live a most miserable life! This child becomes a “restavek.” This word means “rest with” or “stay with,” but it really means “slave child.”

As soon as both parents die, that child goes to a relative to work “like a dog” in the heat of the sun. We accidentally came across little Jonas about four years ago, working in a field with grown-ups. He was lifting and using a heavy hoe called a “woo.” He was working with grown men in the heat of the sun, getting very little food each day. He had never been to school… never had a “Birthday,” and “never had anyone to love him!”

That day, we rescued him, put him in our truck, and took him back to “Love A Child.” He had his first “medical check-up,” his “first shot,” and “his first big plate of food!” He had his first “shower” (where water was coming from a pipe instead of the sky!)… He slept on his first bed, had his first big meal, and sadly enough, “his first hug!”

He had never been to school, so it was hard for him to hold a “pencil!” He could hold a heavy “woo,” but not a small pencil!

Sherry