Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Mercy and Sharing Orphanage

Today was a very hard day for me. I went to Mercy and Sharing, an orphanage that I had not been to before. I am pretty emotional (sad) tonight. While I was at the orphanage we were busily working hard to assess each of the kids and to measure them for their wheelchair/seating needs. I was definitely sad while I was there but I couldn’t let myself fully realize it because I knew I had to keep on working and making the most of my time there with the kids. However, as soon as we loaded the vans and drove away, it hit me. The needs are overwhelming at Mercy and Sharing and these were the worst conditions for any orphanage I have seen in Haiti.

There are about 110 kids at this orphanage. There are some “normal” kids as well as a large number of disabled kids, most of them severely disabled physically and mentally. There are multiple rooms in the building with bunk beds lining the walls. At least half of the beds in the disabled section had kids laying in them the ENTIRE time we were there. They have nowhere to sit them, so they leave them in bed all day long. Many are severely contracted and some are so bad that even if they had a wheelchair available to them they wouldn’t be able to sit in it unless they had surgery to relieve the contracted muscles (which obviously isn’t an option due to lack of access as well as lack of funding for such things). We took each child outside where the ambulatory kids spend the day to evaluate them for seating. It was as if they hadn’t been outside their crib in months. It was the saddest thing. Some of them did great, better than the orphanage staff ever thought they would. We were even able to get two of them sitting up independently in wheelchairs they had at the facility. That, while seemingly very small, was the highlight of our visit – seeing two kids soaking up the sun and everything in the environment around them like they’d never experienced it before. They did great. We only hope the orphanage staff will give them more of a chance in the future to prove that they can sit up and interact with the world around them.

We found out today that the wheelchairs from Wheels for Humanity are stuck in Haitian customs. We are disappointed, but at the same time we are busily preparing for them to arrive by doing all of the measurements in advance, an important task. That way, they can get the chairs distributed faster and more efficiently when they finally do arrive.

It was so incredibly hard to put the kids back into their bunk bed after we were done evaluating and measuring them. I definitely stalled in taking them back because I wanted them to have a little more time outside before having to go back into the dark, hot room full of flies for another indefinite amount of time. Many of them lay there all day self-stimulating by chewing on their hands and feet or banging themselves against the bed. Some of the kids there are so contracted that their limbs don’t even move when you pick them up. They are stiff as a board - literally.

They have very little resources at Mercy and Sharing. And I truly believe the wheelchairs that are coming from Wheels for Humanity will greatly change the lives of the kids that will no longer lay in bed 24-7.

We also took over 100 Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers to Mercy and Sharing. When we arrived, we didn’t know if we’d be leaving the diapers there for them because the kids were all wearing disposable ones. We didn’t want to leave the awesome Fuzzi Bunz with them just to have them take them apart and use them for other things like as washcloths or something like that. We wanted them to actually use them as diapers if we ended up leaving them there. So one of my teammates and I (though an interpreter) talked with all the “moms” (caregivers) to find out whether they would actually use them. They seemed very excited and said that they usually cannot afford disposable diapers so these cloth ones would be great! I was so excited by their reaction. That was another highlight of my day. Then I told them that the diaper company that donated the diapers would like some pictures of them on the kids. So all of the moms eagerly grabbed arm loads of diapers and quickly put them on the kids that were lying in the bed. It was great. Plus, cloth diapers will do wonders for the environment here in Haiti, as there is no trash system – it just gets put in piles, rivers, and on the side of the streets. We emphasized the cost saving benefit as well as the reduction in trash when talking to the moms. There is SUCH a need for the most BASIC education here in Haiti. It’s not that Haitians are ignorant, by any means. It’s just that they have no one telling them these things.

When we got back from the orphanage, a couple of us went up to the storage room where the 12 wheelchairs are that I got donated from several companies. One of them is being customized for a little boy that they diagnosed with Down's Syndrome at the clinic yesterday. It’s very exciting to know that it is going to someone special and hopefully we might be able to get the mother to keep him by making their life with his disability a little easier with the wheelchair. And several others are being held back for other patients from the clinic, which is exciting as well. We marked a couple for ourselves for the next couple days at orphanages. I am hoping we can get good pictures for TiLite, Convaid, and Snug Seat – the awesome companies that so generously donated. I am as happy as ever about these chairs now that we know the big shipment from Wheels For Humanity isn’t going to show up!

We return to Mercy and Sharing on Friday, tomorrow I am at another orphanage called Rainbow of Love (which is a nicer one than Mercy and Sharing, which is good for my spirits I think), and Thursday I am at Food for the Poor (yet another orphanage, which I’ve been to before and is also very hard emotionally). It will be an eventful next couple of days, I’m sure.

Thanks for checking in and have a great night! I apologize that this is a sad account of what we saw today. I am just being brutally honest about what I'm seeing and experiencing. I wish it wasn't true. We are doing our very best to help them one child at a time, even though it's just a little bit. I hope Healing Hands can become more involved with Mercy and Sharing given the situation we found the place in today. I will definitely be encouraging lots of further assistance in the future, that's for sure!

Love,

Erin

2 comments:

Grant said...

Thanks for making me tear up in the middle of class...what a great description of your day - keep them coming and PLEASE don't let yourself get too down...I can't imagine how hard it must be to have to walk away from such unfortunate situations, but know that you've done SO MUCH more than most people do (including me)...Oh - and please post pictures of the kids in the wheelchairs you brought over there when you have them...your post leaves me yearning for a positive picture (even though I know it would not be representative...)

Unknown said...

Do you have any imformation that I could use to send donations to that Orphanage? Mercy and Sharing Orphanage? Or any ideas of other orphanages that could really use donations. Thank you, Miguel
mcorderoharo@gmail.com