You know that on February 12th, a little miracle named Gabe was born to a sweet 15 year old girl named Sabrina. Not yet two weeks old, and already suffering the affects of being born in a 3rd world country.
The living situation for Sabrina is less than stellar right now, and we are praying fervently for a solution to help this sweet child to care for her own child. Living in the home of the baby's fathers family, she is chastised and treated badly a regular basis. While you and I might think that physical environment, the mud and dirt house is appalling, it is actually quite normal in Haiti; but the emotional environment? NOT ACCEPTABLE...
The father of the baby is Guilion. He is 29 years old, doesn't work, and insists on living off of the welfare of others. 29 people... that is near twice her age....(Dezod) He has a sister, Mariana, 21, that lives where ever she can get fed. While Sabrina was still pregnant Mariana decided to beat Sabrina up, simply because she was living there and eating. After intervention from our staff Mariana decided to leave and squat in other homes. A few days ago she returned, and demanded that Sabrina leave.
This leaves us in an incredible predicament. While cultural "rules" dictate she can not just be kicked out, it does not mean that staying there is the safest place for Sabrina and Gabe to be.
The home she is in is not ideal anyway. Gabe's grandma has no common sense or sense of protection for her grandson. She doesn't have an understanding of nutrition and how important it is for Gabe to nurse from his mama, or how important it is for Sabrina to eat well to be able to nurse Gabe. She is a very poor mentor, and not caring for Sabrina or the baby. Just one small example would be: The baby doesn't need to drink breast milk, he needs crushed up crackers and water. Yes, this happened, and thankfully Rithza was visiting when Sabrina was trying to feed this to her week old newborn.
Some have asked, why can't you just put her in the house on the widowage? Well, let me try and paint a picture for you, as there are several reasons why this isn't the best for Sabrina, and Gabe also....
First, and most importantly she is 15 years old. She is just a child herself, and does NOT have the skills to live on her own. She is not yet capable of caring for herself, much less herself and a newborn. Our permanent widow that lives on the widowage has a job outside of the widowage and is not there to care for these two full time.
Second, Sabrina does NOT know what true love is. She doesn't understand what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. She believes she loves Guilon. When we were still in the planning stages of the widwoage we spent a LOT of time with local village leaders, pastors, and spirtual mentors, drawing up a vision and also a contract for any widow or single mother that would ever be living on the property. Remember that we do all things through Christ, in HIS likeness. One rule is that NO MEN would be allowed to spend the night in the widowage. We actually even have ALL visitors men or women screened before allowing entrance. This might seem overly strict to many, but please remember we have women and children living on the property. This is to honor God by remaining abstinent while unmarried, but also to protect everyone living on the property. We could not even fathom letting men that may be predators living near our precious women and children. Because Sabrina is 15, and still in love with Gulion, we can not trust that she would not let him in and let him stay with her. The other issue is she is not old enough to even legally understand and sign the contract to live there.
Third, She has no personal belongings.. The expense to furnish a house right now is not in the budget. Any money coming in for Sabrina right now has to be used to cover her urgent needs first; food, health, medicine.
Sabrina has a mother, who lives a little way up the mountain. Not to far up to not get to a clinic if needed, but far enough away that it would be costly and very time consuming to move her in with her mother. Her mother is also currently pregnant and living in a hut with other children that she is also struggling to feed. This is not an ideal fix, but we know that she would not be harmed physically if she were to move home with her. Worries would be if she would be feeding Gabe and getting the nutrition she needed to feed Gabe. We would also worry that any food that we brought to her would be resold or taken by other family members. Also, communication in case of an emergency would be not immediately, as phone service is worse, and Sabrina does not have her own phone.
So, what are we doing? We can NOT just leave her in a situation where she would be put out on the street. This is where we need you and your prayers. Sabrina tug at your heartstrings? Share her story. This is what we are thinking/praying for right now.
Ideally we would love to find a foster situation for Sabrina. Please pray for a good christian mother that would be willing to take in Sabrina and Gabe. Willing to help her care for herself and the baby, teaching her self care, baby care, and Jesus.
Pray for a sponsor/sponsors for Sabrina/Gabe to cover expenses. We can not rely on Guilon to provide for these precious girls. We are praying for $100.00 a month to help cover the cost of food, basic needs/toiletries, and medical expenses.
Pray that after we get Gabe and Sabrina situated that we also have a sponsor/sponsors willing to help get Sabrina back to school, giving her hope for a future with a way to sustain herself. Wouldn't it be great if we could get about $60 a month and send her back this fall?
Please pray for the Lord to show a way for me to get to Haiti, soon. To help Rithza with the logistics of getting Sabrina where she needs to be, and to also help support and encourage. It has been almost an entire year since our Haitian staff have had any physical American presence to offer support and encouragement. My family and I have been in a financial crises ourselves and so I am relying solely on support to make this trip happen. A little perspective is that when we first started I was able to go down at least once a quarter. This was/is necessary even when we don't have situations like we do with Sabrina, just to do paperwork, bring admin supplies, check on projects, and stay accountable to our donors. It has been almost a year.... our staff needs us. Pray that if this comes through that the child care and pet care that would be needed at home would be available as Jeremiah is working out of state right now.
We also just learned today that Sabrina has something going on with one breast, not sure what at this point, but please be in prayer. We can not afford formula right now, and we need her to be a healthy nurser.
Please consider praying and sharing Sabrinas story. If your heart is being tugged, and your are being lead to help in any of the above areas, payal is the fastest way for us to get the funds to our account... Please comment on your donation what it is for, Sabrina Needs, Sabrina School, or Tanja's trip.
Here is the PayPal link:
https://PayPal.me/710foundation
Blessings to all,
Tanja