I can't believe I've been back from Haiti for a week now...my heart is definitely permanently broken for this country and the beautiful people there. I've decided that the best way to share my growth and experiences is to tell stories of Haitians that have touched my heart...here's the first story.
This is the story of Ismaola (is-MAY-la), a little girl I helped fit for a wheelchair and gait trainer during my trip to Haiti. She and her father shine out the love God has for us, in a way not often lived out visibly in the States.
Ismaola is seven years old, and she has a developmental disability called cerebral palsy. Even though most children her age can talk, walk, run, and play, Ismaola cannot. She can sit up unsupported, roll over, and has a rough, croupy cough.
Her father brought Ismaola to our Wheels for the World seating clinic in Saint Marc, Haiti, north of Port Au Prince, along the coastline. In a country where most families can't afford to care for their children and leave them in the street or on church doors to fend for themselves, Ismaola was different. I'll never forget her blue gingham dress and patent mary jane shoes. Many of the children I worked with didn't wear diapers because their families couldn't afford them, and their parents didn't seemed concerned when their kids were soiled. But Ismaola's father presented her with a pristine appearance - he knew she was beautiful and wanted her to know, too.
I think about how hard it must be to raise a child with a disability in the US, with generally easy access to medical care, therapy, and specialty equipment. Then I try to picture how hard it must be to raise a child in Haiti, when you as a parent are struggling daily to survive. Honestly, I can't imagine it, let alone raising a child with major physical and emotional special needs in a country so broken and poor, a child who will always need a protector and caregiver. What humility Ismaola's father displayed, to bring her to our clinic to get her help she needed and that he could not provide.
It was evident to us that Ismaola's father loved her, in a tangible way, and she knew it, despite her disabilities. Ismaola cannot communicate verbally, but she knew her father, and locked eyes with him whenever he spoke to me or the interpreter.
We all know the voice of our Father, whether we have built a relationship in which we can communicate with Him or not. Something inside of us resonates with Him, knows Him, that shows His glory and image. I've been reading the Gospel of John since I returned home, and that thought seems to stand out in his awesome writings.
As beautiful as Ismaola's story is, I'm not sure about it having a happy ending, despite the awesome equipment our team fabricated for her, and the chance she and her father had to hear the Gospel.
In all of our work in Haiti, we only saw 2 adults with developmental disabilities...they simply do not survive in Haiti's survival-driven culture. As a complication of their disability, they are more suspectible to infections and diseases that would be easily treated. However, since these individuals cannot assist in supporting the family in earning food or income and become too heavy to carry and care for, many families make the difficult decision to stop feeding the person and allow them to die. Or their caretaker may become sick - malaria, typhoid, cholera, intestinal parasites, car accidents - and they have no other family members to care for them.
Is this Ismaola's future?
I hope and pray not, but only God knows. My heart continues to break for the people of Haiti, especially people living there with all kinds of disabilities. Without a doubt, these beautiful people bear the image of God. I can't look at pictures of Ismaola and her father without seeing Christ looking back at me, whether they know him personally or not.
My heart is broken for the way the survival culture has forced people to devalue life, to give people and children like Ismaola less dignity than they deserve as people made in the image of God.
I hope Ismaola's story breaks your heart in some way, as it has broken mine. Please consider praying for the people in Haiti living with disabilities or caring for family members with disabilities. Please pray for change in the Church to serve these people in need, and for change and a sense of hope in Haiti.
This is the story of Ismaola (is-MAY-la), a little girl I helped fit for a wheelchair and gait trainer during my trip to Haiti. She and her father shine out the love God has for us, in a way not often lived out visibly in the States.
Ismaola is seven years old, and she has a developmental disability called cerebral palsy. Even though most children her age can talk, walk, run, and play, Ismaola cannot. She can sit up unsupported, roll over, and has a rough, croupy cough.
Her father brought Ismaola to our Wheels for the World seating clinic in Saint Marc, Haiti, north of Port Au Prince, along the coastline. In a country where most families can't afford to care for their children and leave them in the street or on church doors to fend for themselves, Ismaola was different. I'll never forget her blue gingham dress and patent mary jane shoes. Many of the children I worked with didn't wear diapers because their families couldn't afford them, and their parents didn't seemed concerned when their kids were soiled. But Ismaola's father presented her with a pristine appearance - he knew she was beautiful and wanted her to know, too.
I think about how hard it must be to raise a child with a disability in the US, with generally easy access to medical care, therapy, and specialty equipment. Then I try to picture how hard it must be to raise a child in Haiti, when you as a parent are struggling daily to survive. Honestly, I can't imagine it, let alone raising a child with major physical and emotional special needs in a country so broken and poor, a child who will always need a protector and caregiver. What humility Ismaola's father displayed, to bring her to our clinic to get her help she needed and that he could not provide.
It was evident to us that Ismaola's father loved her, in a tangible way, and she knew it, despite her disabilities. Ismaola cannot communicate verbally, but she knew her father, and locked eyes with him whenever he spoke to me or the interpreter.
We all know the voice of our Father, whether we have built a relationship in which we can communicate with Him or not. Something inside of us resonates with Him, knows Him, that shows His glory and image. I've been reading the Gospel of John since I returned home, and that thought seems to stand out in his awesome writings.
As beautiful as Ismaola's story is, I'm not sure about it having a happy ending, despite the awesome equipment our team fabricated for her, and the chance she and her father had to hear the Gospel.
In all of our work in Haiti, we only saw 2 adults with developmental disabilities...they simply do not survive in Haiti's survival-driven culture. As a complication of their disability, they are more suspectible to infections and diseases that would be easily treated. However, since these individuals cannot assist in supporting the family in earning food or income and become too heavy to carry and care for, many families make the difficult decision to stop feeding the person and allow them to die. Or their caretaker may become sick - malaria, typhoid, cholera, intestinal parasites, car accidents - and they have no other family members to care for them.
Is this Ismaola's future?
I hope and pray not, but only God knows. My heart continues to break for the people of Haiti, especially people living there with all kinds of disabilities. Without a doubt, these beautiful people bear the image of God. I can't look at pictures of Ismaola and her father without seeing Christ looking back at me, whether they know him personally or not.
My heart is broken for the way the survival culture has forced people to devalue life, to give people and children like Ismaola less dignity than they deserve as people made in the image of God.
I hope Ismaola's story breaks your heart in some way, as it has broken mine. Please consider praying for the people in Haiti living with disabilities or caring for family members with disabilities. Please pray for change in the Church to serve these people in need, and for change and a sense of hope in Haiti.
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