Today was a long and emotional day. We started our day at Apparent Project. What an absolutely amazing organization. I was completely in awe and inspired by this visit. The woman who started this had a vision that she wanted to help women by providing them with a job so they could care for their children. The staff makes rolled paper beads, jewelry, metal art and other crafts. She began this this journey with 4 employees six years ago and is now up to 300! She not only provides them with a job but pays them several times the minimum wage so that they can adequately provide for their children. She also offers free onsite daycare where the kids are given love and nutritious meals while their parents work. One of the best things about the way she runs her business is the way she holds her employees accountable. The items the artisans make are held to a high standard which provides them with responsibility for their work. Below is statement from Apparent Project's website.
"Our name reflects our passion: We want to see Haitian families stay together. Skill development and employment addresses the needs of families before they are at the point of desperation, driven to give their children to an orphanage because of extreme poverty. After all, the vast majority of Haiti's "orphans" have not been orphaned by parental deaths, earthquakes, hurricanes, or floods, but are children of living parents who gave them up simply because they knew that an orphanage could feed their child. Lagging adoptions, overcrowding, and lack of accountability has made many orphanages less than adequate homes for children, who often develop severe emotional problems such as reactive attachment disorder. This is why we think of our artisans' guild as an "un-orphanage." We are finding creative ways for Haitians to be self-employed so that they can take care of their own children with dignity and joy. To read more about our mission click here, or explore our artisan program here."
General Hospital wasn't at all what I expected. It was a tent-type building, which housed two rooms. There were around a dozen small babies in the first room we visited. Their cribs were crowded into the room with just enough room in between the cribs for the mothers to sit. Some of them were extremely thin and small for their age. One little girl who was eight months old felt no heavier than a newborn. We held some of those babies for a while and then moved onto the next room where there were small babies and also older children. I asked an interpreter to help me share the gospel with one 14 year-old girl with the sweetest smile you ever saw. As it turned out, she already knows Jesus. We gave gift bags and water to most of the kids and parents in the room. Please pray for all of them, but mostly for a two-day old infant we saw with an extremely large head and a very severe cleft palate, who is in a hospital that probably won't be able to treat either of her abnormalities.
We visited the Home for the Sick and Dying, where there were 60+ babies with only one young lady taking care of them. We immediately began changing diapers. Then, when their food was ready, we fed the hungry little ones. Since many hands make light work, it didn't take long. Then we had the joy of holding some of them. They loved being clutched tightly to the chest when being held. They loved it so much that they hardly moved at all; they just soaked up the love. Some of the men in our group played with the toddlers, who were stationed in a different room. It seemed as though what we did at the home was just a drop in the bucket compared to the need, but because it was done in Jesus's name and because the children were prayed for, great things may be accomplished.
If there was one thing we have learned so far, it is that God can accomplish great things that start small.
Do small things with great love,
Colleen and Bridget
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