Wed | May 15, 2024

‘We did it!’

Health facilitator proud Jamaica could help abandoned Haitian kids

Published:Monday | April 29, 2024 | 12:08 AM
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A volunteer placing glasses on a table at Jacob’s Ladder during the Indian High Commission’s health camp at the facility.
Carl Gilchrist
A volunteer placing glasses on a table at Jacob’s Ladder during the Indian High Commission’s health camp at the facility.
A nurse tending to a resident at Jacob’s Ladder.
Carl Gilchrist
A nurse tending to a resident at Jacob’s Ladder.
A doctor tending to a resident at Jacob’s Ladder.
Carl Gilchrist
A doctor tending to a resident at Jacob’s Ladder.
Father Ernest Chikwata, administrator at Jacob’s Ladder.
Carl Gilchrist
Father Ernest Chikwata, administrator at Jacob’s Ladder.
Deana Flinn (third right), who represented Custos Norma Walters, with the medical team that served Jacob’s Ladder, courtesy of the Indian High Commission.
Carl Gilchrist
Deana Flinn (third right), who represented Custos Norma Walters, with the medical team that served Jacob’s Ladder, courtesy of the Indian High Commission.
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Chairman of the Jamaica Cancer Society St Ann St Mary Chapter, Deana Flinn, says she is proud that Jamaica was at the forefront of the move to relocate abandoned Haitian children affected by the uprising in the troubled, neighbouring nation.

Flinn, a justice of the peace who represented St Ann Custos Norma Walters during the Indian High Commission’s recent medical camp at the Mustard Seed Communities’ Jacob’s Ladder in Haddon, and who is also a licensed pharmacist, was overwhelmed upon seeing the extent of the disabilities of some of the children.

“We did it!” she remarked as she was interviewed by the media.

“My heart is full being here, when I entered and saw some of the disabilities. The children that are being seen now are actually from Haiti, where, through the collaboration between the Haitian government and Mustard Seed, these children came from an orphanage in Haiti; and because of the violence happening in Haiti, they reached out to Mustard Seed. The story behind it is just mind-boggling, but it happened, and we did it. Jamaica, we did it! And I’m just so happy that the Indian pharmaceutical community reached out.”

Fifty-nine children and 13 caregivers arrived in Jamaica last month and are being housed at Jacob’s Ladder.

She later told The Gleaner: “We likkle and we tallawah! It’s heart-warming to know that I’m Jamaican and we’re part of that, where we are recognising the needs of another country and embracing that. It’s all of us combined, the Indian High Commission recognising the need when Mustard Seed reached out to them.

“I’m really proud. This moment is a really proud moment for me; it takes a village, and it’s all of us. We just love each other and care for each other and be compassionate to each other, and we’ll be a better Jamaica for it.”

Carl Gilchrist