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Just before noon one day in November 2010, Michael Peirone, a physician assistant from Barrie, Ontario, watched a young lady walk into the medical clinic in Carrefour, Haiti that was set up by a LIFE Team from Global Aid Network (GAiN).

He couldn’t help but notice that she was carrying a small package that was folded in a tiny green knitted blanket. The bundle was placed on the bench beside her and it didn’t move. As soon as Michael saw her, his blood went cold. He was certain that inside that blanket was a baby who had died.

Michael continued to treat patients, one after the other, and watched as that lady slid the package further and further down the bench to the front of the line. “I began praying in my head, ‘God please don’t let that woman bring me a dead baby, please!’. I had hoped that the doctor that was set up at the table next to mine would get that patient instead of me.”

When her turn came, the lady picked up the bundle and came to Michael’s table. Like everyone else she sat before him and shared about the headaches, sleeplessness, and infections that she had been suffering since the January 12th earthquake. With no words, Michael then reached out and took the bundle from her lap. “It felt like it must have weighed three or four pounds, most of it blanket weight,” shares Michael. “I placed it on my lap and unwrapped it.”

Inside was a baby boy with a green knitted cap that matched his blanket. His name was Desir and he was born at 24 weeks gestation (normal is 40 weeks) to this lady’s sister. Desir was the tiniest human being Michael had ever seen. “He looked like a bird, with arms smaller than my fingers and a head that fit easily into the palm of my hand,” recalls Michael.

At this point, Desir still wasn’t moving. “It was a miracle he was even alive,” shares Lindsey Schacter, GAiN’s LIFE Team Manager. Michael placed his stethoscope on Desir’s chest and heard both a strong heart beat and clear lungs. Yet, Michael still knew that he was at risk for brain damage, infections, lung disease, eye disease and numerous complications. To add to the severity, he was unable to feed normally.

Desir’s mother had gone to the hospital for a few days after his birth, but left soon after because she was afraid to be alone at the hospital.

Michael convinced the lady to get the baby’s mother and he, along with one of the interpreters and Lindsey, took them to a Red Cross field hospital. Despite Michael’s interpreter being friends with the administrator, the hospital would not see the baby because the mother had previously left the hospital against their advice. She had forfeited the right to be treated.

Instead of driving home, the team went directly to a public maternal hospital. For the next few hours, Michael begged and pleaded with five different people to get Desir to see someone. At one point, a doctor gave him a quick checkup but told them to come back the next day to get the baby fully examined.

When the clinic opened the next morning, the team was ready to drive the family to the hospital. But to Michael’s disappointment, they never saw the Desir or his mother again.

“All I can do now is just pray they went there on their own,” shares Michael.

As the team left Haiti a few days later and Michael reflected on this profound moment, he hoped that this family felt deeply cared for and loved while they had been with him.

While Lindsey Schacter, the LIFE Team Manager for Global Aid Network, and Walter Isaak, a LIFE Team member helping with the construction at the Ca-Ira orphanage, were sitting outside a construction store in Leogane, Haiti, a put-together gentleman in his thirties approached them and started talking.

With decent english, the man began to tell his story. His house had been destroyed in the January 12th earthquake and his family had been killed. Left with very few belongings, he had made a temporary shelter out of a tarp.

To make matters worse, the shelter he had grown accustomed to over the last ten months, along with the little he had owned, was washed away by hurricane Tomas that occurred on November 5th, which was just three days prior to the chance encounter with Lindsey and Walter.

Thankfully, a pastor had given him food the day before, but this man was hungry and desperate. He only had a five gourde coin in his pocket, which was equivalent to about ten cents USD, and had sat outside the construction store all morning wondering what he was going to do for shelter.

Lindsey sat there with her backpack filled with all sorts of things that she  thought were important. Yet, here was a man who had lost everything! “I didn’t know what to do,” shares Lindsey. “The unfortunate reality is that his story was the same as thousands of others and how did I know he was telling the truth.”

Sitting there confused and skeptical, Walter and Lindsey talked through an appropriate response to the situation. After a few minutes, Walter simply leaned over and told Lindsey, “sometimes it’s better to err on the side of generosity”. This was the confirmation she needed. It was a phrase that Lindsey vowed she would never forget.

With a shift in her heart and a desire to reach out and demonstrate love to this man, both Lindsey and Walter went inside the store and pulled together $20 US between the both of them.

They bought a bright blue tarp for $15 US, agreed to give the gentleman the remaining five US dollars for food, and Lindsey gave him a sandwich-size Ziploc bag of trail mix that she had in her pack.

His reaction relieved any doubt that Lindsey was feeling about his story. “The gentleman looked at this tarp like it was gold,” shares Lindsey. “His eyes filled with tears as he hugged the two of us and cradled the tarp like a treasure.”

After telling him that God loved him, Lindsey couldn’t say anything for a few moments but instead watched as the man slowly walked away, still holding his tarp and staring at it in shock. “That moment, his reaction, is something that continues to stick with me,” shares Lindsey. “To me it was something so simple, yet to him it was a home.”

The Ca-Ira orphanage, situated in Leogane and established in 1988, receives and cares for orphans and children in poverty. The two-story building that housed some of the children was completely destroyed in the January 12th earthquake, killing five orphans and two of the staff members. The school center that sheltered 220 pupils and 20 teachers as well as the church also collapsed in the quake.

Today, the center has 75 children and 15 staff members; and is temporarily housed outside of Port-au-Prince in Tabarre, on a small property which has been given to the orphanage for two years.  The girls sleep in a small 50m² temporary wood shelter with the boys while the staff members live in tents. In total, the property on which the orphanage is currently situated is less than 90m² and lacks proper sanitation facilities.

Prior to the earthquake, Haiti was a country of extreme poverty with up to 80% of the population living below the poverty line and 54% in extreme poverty.¹ The January 12^th earthquake killed over 220,000 people and left an estimated 100,000 children orphaned. More than 6,000 schools and hospitals collapsed as the earthquake destroyed the majority of Haiti’s infrastructure. Close to the epicenter in Leogane and Jacmel, the collapse of up to 90% of all buildings has exacerbated the situation of the millions of Haitians who were living in poverty prior to the earthquake.  In light of these challenges, there is a great urgency to support Haiti in the long-term rebuilding process.

During the first six months in the emergency phase, Global Aid Network (GAiN) sent in

•  38 medical teams with 1,043 medical personnel that treated more than 20,154 people

•  conducted 12 trauma training seminars for 2,242 people

•  conducted 165 distribution events benefiting 363,000 Haitians

•  distributed over 11,800 water filters

GAiN then moved into the rebuilding  phase and provided over 650 tents for temporary shelters, constructed a 5,000-square foot warehouse for the staging and distribution of aid, and built a volunteer center to house teams that come to help with the construction.

In addition to these rebuilding efforts, GAiN decided to help the Ca-Ira orphanage. Improving the current living conditions of the orphanage is definitely the first step. However, GAiN plans to also

•  rebuild the orphanage, staff homes and schools

•  ensure the children’s education, spiritual and social formation

•  create a health center for the service of the children and the inhabitants of Ca-Ira

•  develop a center for vocational skills training

The project will have considerable positive effects in a country where children are extremely vulnerable and face many forms of discrimination. In addition, the city of Leogane, which has 3,000 residents, will also benefit from this project, as the school is also open to students from the neighborhood. Above all the Ca-Ira orphanage, school, church and health center will contribute to the establishment of a social framework for children and help decrease the risk of juvenile delinquency, violence, prostitution and social inequalities within the community.

If you would like to get involved, contact us today!

¹https://www.cia.gov

Haiti Update

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We are already beginning relief efforts. Our local contact for Haiti, Esperandieu Pierre, is operational on the ground and deeply connected to a distribution network of churches and volunteers in the country. Esperandieu, who was out of the country at the time of the quake, is en route to Haiti with immediate financial aid.

GAiN is ready to deploy eight containers, each totaling $100,000 (CAN) worth of emergency relief supplies to Haiti. These containers are packed with food, medical supplies, water purifying tablets and other emergency response provisions. The cost to ship each container is $15,000. Six additional containers will be packed and shipped as soon as possible.

While early reports estimate the death toll could top 100,000, GAiN is coordinating efforts to help immediately and long‐term in Haiti. GAiN’s disaster response specialist, a trauma counselor and a Canadian GAiN representative will move into the country as early as Friday to help ongoing efforts as the needs escalate.

As the team in Haiti begins to mobilize,we are in need of urgent financial contributions in order to respond to the needs of the Haitians. Give today!