Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sophie's Choice - Haiti Today

So you maybe thought I was exaggerating about my experience in Haiti?

This article is from CNN today.

(CNN) -- Some mothers choose what their children will eat. Others choose
which children will eat and which will die.

Those mothers forced to make
the grim life-or-death choices are the impoverished women Patricia Wolff,
executive director of Meds & Food for Kids, encounters during her frequent
trips to Haiti.
Wolff says Haitians are so desperate for food that
many mothers wait to name their newborns because so many infants die of
malnourishment. Other Haitian mothers keep their children alive by parceling out
food to them, but some make an excruciating choice when their food rationing
fails, she says.

"It's horrible. They have to choose among their children,"
says Wolff, whose nonprofit group was formed to fight childhood malnutrition.
"They try to keep them alive by feeding them, but sometimes they make
the decision that this one has to go."


The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. declared in his Nobel Peace
Prize acceptance speech that "I have the audacity to believe that peoples
everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies." Four decades later,
King's wish remains unfulfilled. The global food market's shelves are getting
bare, hunger activists say -- and it will get worse.

... "It's the most difficult thing I've ever done," she says.
"You realize how absolutely blessed you are by the fate of your soul coming down
the chute in the United States of America," she says. "You wonder: Why
did this happen to me and not to them?'

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jensboys,

Did you see last Sunday's episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

That show just about broke my heart

This family adopted four boys from Haiti and they kept saying how happy they were because in Haiti children are starving to death :(

On the show, they got to help pack up on an airplane tons and tons of toys, school supplies and food for children in Haiti.

Just watching the mother just break down, a different child was hugging and holding her everytime the camera showed them packing up the airplane...the children were crying and holding each other because they were sooo happy that the children in Haiti were getting food toys and school supplies.

Those boys are going to go back to Haiti and help the people there--that is their goal when they become men.

Just broke my heart, they showed a dumpster where children were scrouching for food and dirty water to drink.

Thinking about it hurts my heart.

Vanessa said...

My heart aches for all the mothers around the world who have to make these devastating choices!!! This is why each of us needs to take an active role in helping all the children we can around the world! My destiny of change right now is Guatemala but one day I will be able to think more globally by traveling the world and providing hope to many!!

Di said...

We are so rich.... maybe not by North American standards but by world standards so very rich. We have neighbours who are waiting for the red tape and hoop dance to end so they can bring their 2 boys home from Hati. They are going with full suitcases for others there in January, hoping to bring their boys home. This is their 3rd trip with that hope....

Unknown said...

I did (as did my whole family) see that Episode of Extreme Makeover. My kids have numerous friends that are Haitian born (Canadian / American adopted) and it was interesting for them to see it.

Haiti changed my life. Trying to impart that to my kids is a different process ;)