Kwéyòl

"When I heard this, my heart was falling apart for him."

Camp Savio, in Haiti, gave me an opportunity to glorify God by helping the youth there.

Despite having grown up in Haiti, until the opportunity presented itself, I had not had the chance to travel from the capital to Fonds-Parisien. I grew up in the capital, going to Catholic school all my life. At Fonds-Parisien, however, I found this experience to be very touching. This experience helped me to better teach my own children and help them understand how to help the needy children elsewhere, not taking things for granted.

When I got back home, I showed my daughters and my little boy a picture of a little boy name Kiki, who other kids were pushing away because he was often dirty and did not know how to speak appropriately for his age.

When I saw that other kids were pushing him away, I spoke to them and showed them how to better love him, include him, and the proper way to talk to him. I spoke with Kiki and suggested he try coming the next day with clean clothes. The next day, Kiki came to show me he had brand new pants and a new shirt - however, the clothes were not Kiki's; they belonged to someone else in the neighborhood. Kiki had taken them. That person came into the camp and rightly demanded to take back his clothes. Kiki had to give up the clean clothes and dress back into his dirty clothes again.

When I heard this, my heart was falling apart for him. I wanted to do something for him.

From that time onwards, Deacon Alpha, Rev. Polynice, the staff and I began brainstorming on how we could help Kiki. We discovered that Kiki was a homeless child, that his parents were incarcerated, that he had an aunt nearby but she was unable to support him fully, so Kiki lived on the streets. Deacon Alpha and I decided to reach out to some nuns to help us find ideas on how we can contribute to help Kiki.

Even though Kiki has been going through all this drama in his life, he still has a smile in his face. He continues to find this community a safe place, a refuge from everything else.

This humbling experience continues to give me strength and courage, and be thankful to God more and more every day in my life.

Gladia Fleurimond