Rachel Zimmerman

I want to tell you a story. We hear so many times about what goes wrong in Haiti. The atrocities of the developing world. Some of us live more closely to it than others. We hear of children being sold to orphanages for $70 US. We hear of babies, children, adults dying because of lack of medical care and lack of access. We hear of hospitals shut down and on strike for 5 months at a time. We hear of a mother killing her own new baby because her baby is starving and the mom is destitute, out of options, and has lost hope. We hear of well meaning families from around the world adopting children who have a mom and a dad here in Haiti. We hear of orphanage directors (local or expat) abusing children, even killing them, and working the system to benefit. We hear of an economy that is struggling and yet many NGOs import all of their resources rather than supporting the local economy here. We hear of mothers not breast feeding their children because of a lack of education. We hear of ...

This world that we live in is ripping me up. I can't imagine how God feels because He sees it all and knows it all. I see just a pin point of the world's suffering and it's enough to spiral me into a depression. I live in this world where children are sent to orphanges because their parents can't pay for an education. These desperate parents don't understand the vast consequences of their actions. I live in this world where 'orphanage directors' often known as 'pastors' pay for children to live in their orphange, traffic children, and exploit children to attract white people to partner with their orphange in order to make money. I live in a world where people are not able to get adequate healthcare and are turned away from hospitals in the midst of labor, severe trauma, when they are dying or simply 'not sick enough.' I live in a world where two girls in the orphange close to me are severely malnourished, sad, depressed, and chronical...