You’ve heard us say it before, and you will hear us say it many times again.
Families Belong Together.
Children don’t belong in orphanages. This we know for sure.
Haiti has an orphanage problem, which we’ve written about in the past.
Somewhere in the last 50 years, tragedy and natural disasters and well-meaning missionaries spurred the creation of so many orphanages, that, when we wrote about it in 2016, Haiti had more orphanages per square mile than there were McDonalds and Starbucks stores in the state of Maryland.
With orphanages around every corner, parents in challenging circumstance began to believe that perhaps the orphanage could provide more resources for their child than they could.
We witnessed this first hand.
Many of you know our origin story well. “Jenn and Amy met at an orphanage…”
It was an experience that taught us two important things: first, 80% of children living in orphanages in Haiti have living parents and second, orphanages aren’t good for children.
By speaking to those parents, we learned that most just wanted an opportunity to earn more money and grow more food.
What they really wanted was not to relinquish their children at all, but rather to provide for their children fully and go to sleep every night under the same roof.
And that’s why Second Mile Haiti was born.
What started as a vision to keep kids out of orphanages has now been fully replicated. We now operate from two locations within Haiti—with both campuses offering the same services. Both campuses 100% committed to helping parents care for their children and go to sleep every night under the same roof.
Our model at Second Mile Haiti is working, and it needs to be replicated in mass proportions throughout developing countries, in place of orphanages.
Imagine for a moment that you are the parent to a child. If anything terrible happened to you and your partner where you were no longer here to parent, would your next choice for your child be an orphanage?
Probably not. We would guess that your next several options would be family members. The same is true for people in Haiti.
In Haiti, there are sisters, brothers, grandmas and grandpas who can, will, and do take the children of deceased loved ones into their hearts and homes.
When provided with medical and nutritional care for the child and educational support for the adult, children can recover from illness and thrive with their parents or their next of kin.
We see it happen everyday!
Second Mile Malnutrition Treatment Centers and Maternity Centers are equipping families with the tools, skills and information that they need to care for their children and stay together as a family.
Our programs create jobs; Second Mile Haiti employs 80 individuals, all Haitian citizens.
The caregivers we’ve invested in are becoming business owners and growing their own food; they’re helping to prevent food scarcity and changing their communities for the better.
These are lasting effects with the power to change the trajectory for generations to come.
We’ll say it again because it’s that important. Our model at Second Mile Haiti is working, and it needs to be replicated..
Investing in the caregivers IS the solution.
To date, we’ve helped more 2,000 families rehabilitate their sick children and remain united as a family unit.
We’ve helped another 9,600+ families through prenatal and postnatal care, setting a strong foundation for a healthy future.
And we’ve helped another 3,000+ women and families prevent or delay pregnancy through family planning.
There are brighter days for Haiti ahead, and we believe that they will come when care is given to the community as a whole. These weekly newsletters are reminders to you that we are still here, doing just that.
Thank you for being with us in our effort to keep families together.
As Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has."
Together, we are making a difference.
Sending love from Haiti
❤️