What a sweet, cute, 14-year-old, young boy. He is smiling, but it took many months before he learned how to smile. We were filming for our Love A Child Television Program, “up in the mountains” of Haiti, showing how hard the poor farmers work. The mountain men use a very heavy farming tool called a “wou.” It has a long, dry, heavy pole, and on the end is a “very heavy” type of shovel. But this was not a shovel. It was a wou, a heavy, long pole, and a very heavy shovel-like piece at the end. They raise it high and then “slam it down into a hole.”

I watched as the tough Haitian farmers worked with “rivers of sweat running down their faces.” I was horrified as I saw a small, little boy working with the men! Then, a big, heavy, muscular lady across the garden would yell at the little boy! The young boy was horrified! I realized that the little boy was being made to work hard. This child was a “restavek slave child,” and would have been one for the rest of his life! We knew we could rescue him, and we did! We took Jonas home with us, but his story is sad.

After we rescued Jonas, we took him to our orphanage. Our doctor examined him, but it was difficult. Jonas was “scared to death!” We took him home to the orphanage to eat, but he had never sat at a table! We sent him to take a shower, and he was scared to death because the water was falling on him, “from inside!”

Jonas’s worst problem was learning how to hold a piece of chalk and to learn how to write on a blackboard! Even holding a pencil almost made him cry. He could hold a heavy “wou,” but he could not hold a piece of chalk to write on the board! He could not hold a crayon to color, nor a pencil! It took him almost a year to learn this so that he could go to school.

Jonas still struggles in school, but he loves to work hard in our yard. He loves our two Rottweilers. He works better with adults, even more than with children. We all love Jonas! He is our “gift from God!” Thank you, partners.

Sherry