Burned Child

In America we take all kinds of precautions to protect our children. In Haiti they don’t have most of those precautions. Something as simple as cooking porridge can turn dangerous if we’re not careful. In our area here, the people don’t have actual stoves to cook on. They cook over hot coals on little make shift burners normally made out of a tire rim or scrap pieces of rebar. Either way, they’re very low to the ground and very dangerous for children. This was the cause of a very bad burn on a precious two year old boy named Jiggens. Somehow some very hot porridge got poured on him off their makeshift stove and burned him very badly. We now have to take him every morning to a burn clinic. His burns have improved dramatically but are still really bad and in need of daily care. It is heartbreaking to hear his screams of “It burns me! Mommy help me! Mommy let’s go!” as his little body full of exposed raw, burned flesh is soaked, treated, and redressed every day. We are so grateful for the women who work at the burn clinic that make a huge difference in the lives of all the burn patients they see. We are now able to treat little Jiggens at Lifeline part time and at the burn clinic part time. Unfortunately, his story is just one of many of little burned children here in Haiti. Praise the Lord his mother brought him to Lifeline for help. Thankfully, after much healing time, he’s going to be OK!