Help For Haiti
1/16/2010
January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck close to Port-au-Prince Haiti. It came right on the tails of devastating hurricanes, affecting the greatest human tragedy in modern history. The death toll numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with over a million being left homeless. Since then, the rest of the world poured millions of dollars into Haiti in a desperate attempt to help the suffering and homeless there, but even more tragically, greedy hands of corruption grasped the great bulk of that sum. As the rate of orphans went through the roof, allegations of child trafficking arouse, and the Haitian government instigated an immediate moratorium on adoptions outside of the country.
Our friends and previous beneficiaries, Foyer de Sion orphanage and Sion Fonds education-based charity, were right in the middle of the event. With 300 orphans in his care, the already bereaved orphanage director, Guesno (see comment below), watched helplessly as his wife and other family members were buried alive. Prostrate with the grief, he cried out, and almost missed hearing his wife’s muffled voice yelling, “Mardy, Mardy, I’m alive!” He managed to pull his wife from the rubble, and together they mourn the loss of siblings and a mother who perished in the same building, and the horrible unknown of their kidnapped son. But in spite of all that devastation, miraculously, every one of his orphanage children was spared, though the buildings were brought down around them. Thanks to generous donations like yours, the new orphanage was nearing completion, and Guesno was able to bring the children all under one roof.
