Each day in Haiti is different. And most days are difficult for the families with whom we work.
The work of Haitian Families First helps during those difficult days, weeks, and months.
For the hundreds of people we’ve reached through our years of service, difficult days are now a little lighter.
I want to tell you a very personal story about Fabiola. She is the reason Haitian Families First works in Haiti. She’s the reason families come first.
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As her eyes adjust to the dark of the two room home she sleeps in, the roosters crow outside the door. In Haiti, the roosters wake up before the sun too. She navigates her way outside to cross the path to the community shared toilet.
Inside the home sleep her sisters Tayna (8) and Kristmath (10), brothers Charles (12) and Orons (1), and her grandma and grandpa, Mr. and Mrs. Pierre.
Fabiola never knew her father. Her mother suffered from Tuberculosis for many, many years. She was never able to afford proper medical care, and when we met the family the disease had taken control. We took her to several clinics and hospitals, but no doctor was able to help her.
As the family slowly stirs, Orons makes sure that he is the first one taken care of by wailing for his bottle of milk. The incredible love and care he receives from his siblings and grandparents has left him a little bit spoiled. Fabiola pours the filtered drinking water from a 5 gallon jug and perfectly measures it the way Jamie showed her, mixing in two full scoops of powdered formula.
His mother had been unable to breastfeed because of her disease, leaving Orons far below a healthy weight as a baby; his cheeks were puffy from malnourishment.
His grandparents and big sister were doing everything they could think of to take care of him, feeding him bread soaked in water with sugar, mashed beans and rice. They gave him all they could afford to give him.
Fabiola picks up Orons and holds him close while feeding him. She sings to him softly and runs her fingers through the little bit of hair on his head. It is her last few moments of calm before the day really begins.
Fabienne drags Kristmath and Tayna from their beds, and shouts to Charles to wake up. The kids run to the community shower to rinse off quickly before pulling on their school uniforms—yellow collared shirt under a jumper or dress shorts, white socks and black school shoes. The girls pull each others hair up into a few ponytails and grab their backpacks. Fabiola gets herself ready while making sure that Orons, who recently learned to walk, stays out of trouble.
The four walk to school together, Fabiola intervening now and then when the younger girls argue or tease one another. On the way, they drop Orons off at his in-home daycare. When they arrive at school they part ways, each head to their respective classroom.
She loves to learn, she loves the opportunity to go to school, something she never thought she would have. She sometimes daydreams of what she is going to be after she finishes school, leaning toward being a nurse because she loves to take care of people in need.
Before her mother passed, when she was very sick, the director of an orphanage down the street approached Mrs Pierre offering to take in Orons and Tayna. They were certain that they could place the youngest two children in families somewhere outside of Haiti. For the older three kids it would be much more difficult. So there was no space for them in the orphanage.
When it was clear that the children’s mother would not live much longer, Jamie and Ali, met with the family.
In their native language of Kreyol, they asked the entire family what they wanted to do.
Did Tayna want to go live in an orphanage? Where there was promise of a bed to sleep in, two meals per day, education inside the walls of the orphanage? Tayna said she was scared, and that all she wanted was to be with her grandparents and her sisters and brother. Fabiola spoke up, telling Jamie and Ali that she could help take care of the baby, and that none of the kids went to school so they could all pitch in and help.
Mrs. Pierre explained that working full-time to support the family still left them short many days, and that she noticed baby Orons was not growing the way he should have been. That perhaps giving up the younger kids would leave more on the table for the older three? Fabiola cried listening to her grandmother explain what she planned to do.
The McMutrie sisters explained that Haitian Families First wanted to do whatever it would take to keep the family from suffering any more loss.
They would provide powdered formula for Orons, along with training Mrs. Pierre and Fabiola on how to prepare and properly use it. They would provide a supplemental stipend for extra food for the older children. They would help to identify a local school and enroll the kids immediately. And they would organize child care for Orons during the hours when he needed care.
What do we have to do, she asked, for you to help our family so much? Jamie replied that all they had to do was promise to work hard in school, and to take care of one another.
Fabiola, Charles, Kristmath, and Tayna walk home from school at the end of the day, careful to stay out of the way of passing cars and motorcycles which, in Haiti, always have the right of way. They pick up Orons who excitedly tries to call Fabiola’s name when he sees her. Together the five children walk home where they find Grandma preparing their afternoon meal. They change into comfortable clothes and sit down together to tackle their homework. Two days per week a tutor comes to help them in the subjects they struggle with.
They help one another, and of course at times they argue and fight, and bicker with one another.
They kick a soccer ball, braid each others hair, read books, color pictures. When Fabiola lies down in bed with Tayna on one side of her and Kristmath on the other, she feels happiness she wasn’t sure she would ever feel again. Her homework is finished, her belly is full, and most importantly her family is close.
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