Calhoun group seeks help for Haitian child
©Published By: Calhoun Times
09/17/04
by: Deacon Balliew
I will never forget that day in the Roi Adventist Church in Haiti when I was meeting with parents of the community’s handicapped children.
I had made eye contact with a little fellow with Down’s syndrome. He couldn’t have been more than 3 years old. His sad looking face finally changed expressions when we made that eye contact, and he returned my smile. Every time I looked his way he was looking at me and smiling.
I could tell he was sick and weak from malnutrition; his hair had the reddish tint, and his swollen stomach was evidence that he was very malnourished.
I later found out that he was with a grandmother who was trying to care for three small children left in her care by her own children.
I will carry with me to my grave the memory of that little guy leaving the church turning completely around, looking at me, mustering a smile and a faint wave returning mine, still holding his grandmother’s hand.
That night I was in my bed thinking about the day’s activities while listening to those loud Haiti mountains night sounds; I didn’t know if they were being made by animal or fowl.
In any case I knew I had no desire to meet any of them in the dark. I went to sleep hoping that that little boy would be OK, knowing I wouldn’t be able to see him again until my next trip which would be several weeks away.
I have just received a letter from Roger Honor, our school director and will write as he wrote -- “One of the handicapped kids is dead. I spent a lot of money for him. His parent couldn’t even bury him. I did burial for him.” –
The child he was referring to was the little boy I had mentioned who was smiling at me.
My first thought was why? That little fellow will be remembered and be an inspiration because I know I was placed in that church to see his smile. I will have an everlasting memory of that child and a constant reminder that there are divine reasons for everything. How small I am and how much I need to listen for and understand divine guidance is hard for me to always do.
While in Haiti we are usually awakened around 5 o’clock in the morning by the children and their parents singing and laughing getting ready for school. Their school day starts at 6 o’clock.
Every morning my friend a six-inch lizard crossed the foot of my bed stopping to give me a look that I felt threatening, then heading somewhere I guess to try his luck catching a meal of some of the largest insects I have ever seen in my life.
I remember wondering if he was grown, and if he wasn’t I for sure didn’t want to see his parents crawling across my bed. I could have problems keeping my toes I thought.
Starting my day with a short prayer I always ask the Lord to help me with the situations I knew I was getting my self into. It dawned on me that morning that I hadn’t gotten myself into anything. The situation I was in now the Lord had placed me in; I was on His mission that He had placed me on and needed to ever be conscious of that fact.
I have stated several times before that I have been blessed to have worked with troubled children most of my life. I didn’t know what a troubled child was until we started going to Haiti.
And if the Lord will help keep us focused we will help as many of those little fellows as we can. And as in the past years working with our county’s troubled children we will need our community to help us to help troubled children in Haiti.
Our preschool there is a Calhoun/Gordon County project not sponsored by any other agency.
We have just graduated our first class of 23, 5-year-olds that will be entering the first grade the next school year. We wish them well and have been assured that we will know about their progress and maybe help a few of them as we become aware of their needs.
As I mentioned before we have to keep focused on our preschool.
Thanks to another true friend of our kids, another of our missionaries, Bill Childers, who has spent much time in Haiti, we now have 37 of our 60 children with sponsors.
Those sponsorships are so important because they help us pay our teachers and most important provide a meal each day for our 60, 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds. That one meal a day will help keep them from becoming malnourished.
We were told if we could feed them one meal of protein (which consists of rice and beans) a day there was a chance we could keep several of them from developing mental limitations caused by malnutrition.
Our children are the poorest of the poor in that area that have parents who have to struggle to provide a meal each day for their children.
We have begun our teacher training and hope to become a registered Haitian preschool of reference in two years. We have come a long way in our first two years and with our community’s help we will continue with the mission the Lord has placed us on.
That mission is to help those children when and however we can and to give them a chance to learn to read and maybe succeed in other areas.
Our mentor Mrs. Ivy Salomon’s statement we need to remember because of the children’s hopelessness and bleak futures. “When they learn to read they can then open their Bibles and read about the hope and wonderful future God has promised them.”
What a wonderful opportunity we’ve had presented to us.
Look at our Web site (thegroupof.org ) and see our Haiti challenge and please help us with the mission the Lord has placed our community on.
We are now asking you to help us with Jean Luc (pronounced John Leek) and the surgery he needs for his cleft palate.
Jean is one of our students, and the surgery is going to be vital to his future. As here in our country children make fun of children who are different. Working with other agencies we and friends are arranging to have the surgery done in Haiti but the cost we need your help with.
We are hoping he can have it done while the doctors are on their mission in Milot, Haiti in the next few weeks. Maybe someday he will be able to smile and not want to hide his face.
He is such a fantastic wonderful young boy that our family sponsors. Can we even imagine what the surgery will do to his self-esteem? You can find how and where to make a tax-exempt contribution by visiting our Web site, or send a tax exempt contribution to The Group Inc., 980 Sugar Valley Road N.W., Calhoun, Ga. 30701 or phone Deacon Balliew. at 626-5577.
We really need all the assistance we can get for our school and Jean Luc’s surgery.
Copyright: 2004 Deacon Balliew