Lone Survivor
Michelle L. OetmanOn the Ground
“Oftentimes I wonder if my mother has seen me but didn’t recognize me,” shared Ginny.
Born 16 years ago in the countryside of Haiti, Ginny’s mother gave her up at birth, and her father wanted nothing to do with her. Until age four she was cared for by a string of people she doesn’t remember, until she eventually ended up on the street.
At age four, a woman started talking to her on the street. Learning her story, she took her home and Ginny’s life improved for a while. “I got to go to school for the first time!” Ginny said. “But after grade 5, she stopped paying for my school and wouldn’t buy me any clothes,” Ginny recalled. About the same time, a man living in the home began abusing her. “He would beat me and come to me at night and try to rape me. I would scream but no one answered,” she said. “I was so scared that I stopped sleeping at night.” At age 14, Ginny told her surrogate mom what was happening and asked her to kick him out. “She didn’t so I was the one who had to leave. I moved in with a neighbor.”
Still unable to attend school, Ginny spent her day doing domestic chores in this new home. Even in a new home, Ginny couldn’t escape abuse. A relative of her new family started beating Ginny. Holding back many unjust details and painful memories, she simply summarized, “I’ve suffered a lot. No matter where I was I wasn’t comfortable like I thought it would feel like if you were at home. Throughout it all,” Ginny said, “I just wanted to go home, to my mother.”
“One day someone told me my mom had moved to Port-au-Prince and they gave me her phone number on a slip of paper. I immediately called her and asked if I could come home and she said yes. She also told me I had five sisters!” Ginny was overjoyed that she could finally go home and meet the mother she’d never known. She quickly made plans to visit her mom.
Tragically, the January 12 earthquake shattered those plans. Despite barely surviving herself, Ginny went to her mother’s home address as soon as she could. To her horror, the home she arrived at was now just a pile of rubble. “Day and night, I worry if my mother is still alive somewhere or if she died in her house. I came so close to meeting her and then this happened! Now, I really feel alone.”
Not knowing how long her mother had been living in Port-au-Prince, she now wonders if their paths had ever crossed over the years. She had no way to recognize her mother and is pained to think her mother may have seen her, but hadn’t recognized her! The earthquake crushed the only hope she had of ever finding her mother. “The piece of paper I had my mom’s phone number on was in my house and it’s collapsed,” Ginny said. “There’s no way I can find the paper now.”
With no place to go after the earthquake, Ginny made her way to ADRA’s internally displaced persons camp that formed in the Carrefour neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. It was here that ADRA workers discovered her, and now she’s part of ADRA’s child protection and post-trauma program.
“ADRA is providing food, shelter and psychosocial support to children who are alone, at-risk, and suffering from unimaginable loss,” explained Patricia Muller, ADRA’s post-trauma project coordinator in Haiti.
ADRA is providing several services for separated or unaccompanied children like Ginny, who are under 18. Child-friendly spaces have been created and a temporary guardian is assigned to each child, with the assistance of community and church leaders, to ensure they have shelter and care in a safe and secure space. They also have access to psychosocial support. Additionally, ADRA is working with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and other partner agencies to trace families, and reunite unaccompanied children with their immediate or extended family members.
Jennifer Morgan, who manages the inter-agency program, says the priority is identifying unaccompanied children and ensuring that they are safe and cared for where they are now, while efforts are made to trace their families. When people hear of separated or unaccompanied children, they often assume they’re orphans and many want to look into adoption. But Morgan warns otherwise. “Children have a right to be with their families. That is why it is so important to allow the reunification process to run its course,” said Morgan.
Ginny’s dreams for the future aren’t elaborate. “I just want to live good. I want to go to school and learn a profession because I want to survive.”
Ginny has relatives nearly four hours away; but she doesn’t know their names. Through the UNICEF network, and with the assistance of ADRA, there is a hope that she’ll be united with family and soon have a place to call home.
Until then, ADRA has introduced Ginny to another girl who is also alone after the earthquake. As they sat together they both agreed, “We stick together and look out for each other. We are each other’s family. And for the first time, in each other, we have found a sister. We are no longer alone.”
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