This summer we launched our Family Hope program to address a major influence in the break-down of families in Haiti and around the world–poverty.
Many people suffer daily in Haiti. Poverty forces families into making difficult decisions, and some parents feel that their child would have a better life in an orphanage. The heartbreaking reality is the majority of children in orphanages around the world, including Child Hope, have families. This creates tremendous psychological trauma for the child. Each scenario is different. Each family has their own crisis story. As we strive to provide orphan care in a way that reduces the demand for future orphan care in Haiti, we are looking to reconcile and reunify the families of the children. This is especially important as children “age out” of institutional care.
Since this summer we have been working with Haitian social workers and we were able to locate and supervise family visits for 22 of our 27 children. The responses we have been getting–from both the children and their family–have been very positive! This past weekend, we invited families to participate in a family photo shoot. For many of the families, these are the only photos that exist of them with their children.
