T
he Orphans of Pignon
When we were living in the Dominican Republic running a hostel a few years ago with our Haitian amigo Romel Laguerre, we began to learn something about him that was extremely awesome. From every pay check that he earned he would keep the bare minimum for himself and the remaining funds were then sent to Pignon, Haiti. There the money was received by Pastor Francois Delange, Romel’s cousin, who runs the Calvary Cross Orphanage.
We loved the idea that someone could be so self sacrificing and wanted to see the orphanage for ourselves so that we could get an idea of how we too could help them. This is what we discovered:
First we learned that the orphanage fed 24 children
every day. Unfortunately we also learned that out of those 24 children the orphanage only had room to house 12 girls overnight. The reason for this is because there is only one bedroom so far and they don’t like to let the little boys share a room with the little girls for obvious reasons so the boys have to find elsewhere to sleep. Some of them are even forced to sleep outside.
The bedroom for the girls is basic and has a few bunk beds, some of which have mattresses, but a few of them are just wooden slats covered with blankets.
The orphanage has an outdoor kitchen which consists of a small wood fire to cook all of the meals. This kitchen has nothing but a blue tarp to keep out the rain.
The bathroom is also outdoors and has been under
construction for quite some time so there is no roof, door, or plumbing.
The government of Haiti decided more than 8 years ago that they wanted to build a main highway through Pignon (even though it is three hours away from anything in the mountainous jungle) and did so by bulldozing most of the town. Houses were completely destroyed along with the electrical system that was once in place. Because of this the town of Pignon is in shambles with no electricity or running water.
On the left is a house that was once whole, but now lies
destroyed by the government commissioned bulldozers.
On the right is a photo of the solar panel used by the orphanage to power two basic lightbulbs which last a few hours at night. Long enough to braid the girls hair before bed while they eat their porridge.
