To say Haiti is a difficult place to live right now does not do the situation justice. Yet by the grace of God, despite intense civil unrest, evacuations, and political instability, children in Haitian orphanages are still receiving medical care and vitamins from the Haiti Orphanage Medical Support (HOMS) program, founded and sponsored by Blessings International and directed by Debi Lammert, APRN-CNS, and operated in-country by Esaie Jean Louis.
Since its founding in 2016, the HOMS program has touched—and saved—many children’s lives. We sat down recently with Debi to discuss HOMS’ impact, and here are just a few of the precious boys’ and girls’ stories.
STANLEY – Forsaken as a toddler, now forming plans to be a doctor
By the time Stanley came to Jesus Name Orphanage at the age of four, he’d already been through more than most adults. After being orphaned, he lived with his grandmother, who soon passed away. He was living with two uncles who could not take care of him, and his health was far from good. With a belly swollen from parasites, he was also plagued with anemia and scalp fungus.
Jesus Name Orphanage is run by Esaie Jean Louis, and although they weren’t planning to take any more children, space was made for this hesitant, undernourished boy who wouldn’t interact with anyone but Esaie. Even Debi couldn’t get a reaction out of Stanley or coerce him to play. He’d stand in a corner with his back to her and the other children.
“We created a plan for him,” Debi told us. It involved getting rid of the scabies and worms, feeding him appropriately, and letting little Stanley become comfortable knowing he was safe, loved, and that he would be cared for and provided for regularly.
Debi returned to the orphanage a month or two later, and Stanley was nowhere to be found. The old Stanley, that is. The new Stanley was a much healthier four-year-old boy who ran around with the other kids and told everyone that God is good all the time.
“He became the little darling of the orphanage,” Debi said with a smile. “He perked everybody up— except if he was sitting there with his food. You couldn’t touch his food, because that was his food, and he knew if somebody had touched his food.”
Stanley is now almost thirteen years old. He’s “always been quite sharp” and is on-track with his schooling and grades—which is difficult for most students in Haiti, due to the instability. He practices his English with “Mom Debi” as often as he can via phone, and he wants to be a doctor when he grows up.
Just as we were putting together this newsletter, we learned that Stanley had appendicitis and needed a surgeon and a unit of blood. Both were proving very difficult to come by. After time and much prayer, Esaie sent an update saying Stanley had a successful appendectomy, and prayer was still needed for recovery. We’re thankful for the miraculous provisions. Please join us in praying for Stanley!
ABIGAELLE – From barely surviving to thriving
One of the values of the HOMS program is to use medicine as a way to open doors. As such, it’s only natural that some of the orphanages are in great need of what HOMS representatives bring, such as the compassion of Christ.
Abigaelle was living at an orphanage that was devoid of compassion. To look at her, you would have thought this eight-year-old girl and her friends were four.
“Those kids required intensive nutritional intervention. No matter what we did for them with medicines and deworming and vitamins and everything else, they did not thrive.”
Later, Debi and her staff realized why they weren’t thriving. “The babies were fed and the older kids were able to get food for themselves, [to] fight their way into it.” But these seven- to eight-year-olds were struggling to “fight their way in” to the food. “They would get slapped, they would get kicked. Sometimes they would get medicated or just put to bed because they asked for food too much. If they asked for food too much, they got beaten. And so, this group of kids never thrived.”
Three times, HOMS intervened and took Abigaelle to a malnutrition center, where she was able to gain some weight. But within weeks of being discharged, she was “wasting away again.”
The last time Abigaelle was sent to the malnutrition center, Debi and HOMS staff found strap marks on the girl. “We talked with that orphanage director and told him that we wanted to put her in Esaie’s orphanage so she could be watched. He didn’t want that. Many times, they like to keep some of these kids really malnourished so that they can get donors to give them things, or they have a certain number of kids, so they can say ‘I have this number of kids; I need this much money….’”
Through a series of events, Abigaelle was able to stay in Jesus Name Orphanage. But Esaie and the staff soon discovered she wasn’t at the third-grade level as they’d been told. Abigaelle couldn’t even spell her name.
But now, “she goes to school, she’s happy, she’s come out of her shell.” Abigaelle, Stanley, and another girl named Ketty are close in age and good friends.
What’s more, she’s growing. “Sometimes when they’re that stunted, they never grow…. She’s grown [about] 18 inches.”
“If she had gone back again [to the former orphanage],” Debi said, “she wouldn’t have survived.”
MYSON – He could have suffocated
Haiti Deaf Academy is a special orphanage that HOMS visits regularly. There are high levels of deafness in Haiti due to various factors, some of them being illnesses that cause high fevers and hearing loss in infancy. As such, not all children at Haiti Deaf Academy are orphans, but have been sent to the academy by family members who can’t give them the support and training they need.
A couple years ago, Myson, a five-year-old boy at Haiti Deaf Academy, was having airway problems, experiencing the high-pitched breathing known as an airway stridor, which is a life-threatening condition.
Since this required more than the materials HOMS uses, Haiti Deaf Academy and HOMS sought out local clinics, but they were unable to help. “The local clinics…said he was fine. Gave him medicine for wheezing—for asthma—which is not what he had.”
“We got him to another place,” Debi continued. He had a growth on his throat, which was caused by HPV, which his mother had not been vaccinated against. Myson contracted it and needed surgery.
“We got him to a place where he could have some intervention on his airway. But of course, [there was] a high interest in ‘How do we keep this from regrowing for him?’
“It was literally by the grace of God and multiple miracles that we were able to transport him to a place to get medical care. You can’t count on that happening every day of the week in Haiti.”
Fortunately, not only were HOMS and Haiti Deaf Academy able to secure treatment for Myson, they were also able to get him HPV vaccination to lessen his chances of future growths on his airways.
How HOMS is serving now
Presently, the situation in Haiti makes it impossible for Debi to oversee the HOMS program in-country. Instead, she regularly finds creative ways to get medicines into Haiti. Each shipment’s path can be different. Sometimes, shipments can go through the Dominican Republic and sometimes they’re able to be shipped or hand-carried in by personal contacts.
“It’s challenging at this time,” Debi remarked. “We use every available means to get medicines and vitamins to Haiti.”
The in-country HOMS staff is made up of Haitians, and they presently continue the mission by routinely serving approximately 500 orphans at eleven orphanages.
How you can be a part
Would you please pray for Haiti and the children HOMS is serving? During this dark chapter of Haiti’s history, we pray for God’s protection over the orphanages and HOMS staff. Please pray that the doors would always remain open for providing the medicines and vitamins to the children, and through it, the love and compassion of Christ.
Please also consider giving to the Medicines for Orphans fund, especially during our current Mix & Match campaign, where the first $15,000 in donations will be matched.
Enjoy this inspiring video in which Debi Lammert describes the personal impact of regularly being there for the kids.
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