Orphanage

We were fortunate to be allowed to visit one of the many orphanages during our time in Haiti. 

Zanmi Beni is not your usual orphanage.  It is a permanent home for physically and mentally disabled children established after the earthquake. Zanmi Beni means 'blessed friend' in Haitian Creole. The children now living at the home were living in the pediatric ward of Port-au-Prince's General Hospital prior to the earthquake. In a country where resources are scarce, having a disabled child is an arduous undertaking.  Many of the children were abandoned or left by their families at the hospital.  The hospital was damaged badly during the earthquake, leaving them essentially homeless.

The orphanage is working toward becoming completely self sustainable, an admirable goal in any country, but an especially impressive one in Haiti.  They have a mango and banana grove, garden full of little seedlings, feisty chickens, lazy turkeys, and a tilapia farm.  They are even recycling the waste from the tilapia to make fertilizer for their gardens. 

                

                   

The care givers at Zanmi Beni have some of the most giving hearts that I have experienced - something that is essential to their mission.  Unlike many orphanages, the children at Zanmi Beni are not up for adoption. They have found a permanent home.  There they will have the chance to complete school, a rare occurrence anywhere in Haiti.  I was told that a child is more likely to be forced into servitude than he or she is to finish sixth grade; only 18 percent of children are enrolled in secondary school.   The children at Zanmi Beni will also be taught a trade or skill to help to rescue them from the almost certain poverty and social ostracism that they would have faced otherwise.

 

They are currently in the process of building new dormitories for both the staff and the children.  Currently most of the staff live in tents or buildings on the property.   All of the children sleep in one building, metal cribs lined up in rows. 

I know that these children are in a very good place. They have opportunities here that they would not have otherwise be afforded.  Logically I know that.

Still, it breaks my heart.

We brought them crayons and notepads as gifts.  There was one little guy, Marcus, who completely stole my heart.  I tucked a crayon behind his ear, and he was dumbfounded.  He spent the next ten minutes handing me crayons and turning his head so I could put them behind his ear.  We could only get two at a time to stay without falling.  

The most heart wrenching aspect of the orphanage  for me was the nature of some of the disabilities.  Some children had severe disabilities like muscular dystrophy.  However several babies had a very curable disability like club feet.  It was challenging to see children who had been abandoned by their families and written off by society because of a condition that is easily treated in the United States.  I was reminded again how blessed I am.