Words from the Founder & Executive Director, Charkmika Schuster:
My second post-quake trip to Haiti was in 2011. It was disheartening to witness over 120 orphans go without regular meals. In delivering gifts donated from America to these children, I failed to realize that toys and educational tools were not a priority. These children had lost their parents in the devastating earthquake just a year prior and are now forced to struggle with meeting their basic needs for food, clean water, shelter, and access to hygiene products. These unmet needs fuel and perpetuate the multiple physical ailments and untreated diseases that afflict these children. Presented with the opportunity to make just a small difference in addressing these challenges was a humbling and enlightening experience. This entailed a trip to the weekly downtown market, swarming with countless Haitians all working hard to sell whatever they could obtain to make a living. After I negotiated the local rates just to get a supply of basic food for the orphans, it still was nowhere near enough to extend beyond meeting short-term needs.
The needs continue to remain vast and unmet. There were daily unanticipated obstacles faced in providing direct care to our patients too, most cycling around a lack of food, medicine, and basic hygiene resources.
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
(Matthew 25:40 Holy Bible, King James Version)
