By David Henry | Volunteer Public Health Coordinator
The Maison de Benediction continues to do outstanding work! One recent, particularly powerful success story comes to mind:
Robinson was one of our very first children in the Maison. He has a neuro-muscular disability, and one day his mother stopped bringing him to the Maison. We weren’t worried at first, because this is a fairly regular occurrence. Families go to the countryside to visit relatives, or relatives come to visit and take care of the children for a while. But Robinson didn’t come back. Because his mother doesn’t have a permanent address, we couldn’t track her down. We were able to find his estranged father though, who said he had sent Robinson to Port-de-Paix to live with relatives there.
On a visit to a local orphanage some months later, we found Robinson again. He had never left the area. He was hardly recognizable. What was once a happy, plump child now was a neglected, emaciated, atrophied shell of a boy. We have no idea how long he had been confined to his crib, how infrequently he was held or even fed. We were deeply troubled by this.
One of our community health workers managed to find Robinson’s mother, who also thought he was in Port-de-Paix. When we told her what had happened, she broke down. She couldn’t believe what had happened to her son. At this time, she had just given birth to another son and was living with his father, who was physically and emotionally abusive. Because of her situation, she couldn’t leave and was fearful that this was how she would always live.
However, that is not the case. Because of supporters like you, we are able to help Robinson’s mum. We’ve rented a room for her long-term in Quartier Morin and help her with a monthly stipend to ensure she and her children are well-fed and clothed. Once again Robinson stays three days each week with us at the Maison! His bright, smiling (and once again plump) face is a blessing to us and a constant reminder of what we can do with your help.
We can never fully express our gratitude to all of you who help make our mission possible, and we hope you’ll continue to partner with us so that success stories like Robinson continue to happen at the Maison.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
