A Warm and Loving Home for Samuel

Holt vice president Thoa Bui shares how child sponsorship in Haiti is helping a boy living in an orphanage.

This month, I want to share with you a story about a boy who lives in a care center we partner with in Haiti. His name is Samuel and he is about 13 years old. When I read this story, I felt so thankful for sponsors like you who help children like Samuel receive the love and care they so need and deserve.

I say Samuel is “about 13” because his birthdate is unknown. He was born in a small town north of Port-au-Prince, and was left as a newborn before the gate of someone’s house. The person who found him took him to a local orphanage, where he lived for the first seven years of his life. At this orphanage, he was neglected and mistreated. While many of the children in care had a brother or a sister, he had no one — and was often bullied by the other children.

When he was 7, he was among a group of 17 children who transferred to one of Holt’s partnering care centers. He had never been to school before and didn’t know how to read or write. But at his new care center, our staff in Haiti writes that “he found a warm and caring environment where the caretakers are well trained to create a home for children, particularly the abandoned ones like Samuel. Thus, he discovered a new world, and that one can be good and kind to one’s fellow human beings.”

At his new care center, our staff in Haiti writes that “he found a warm and caring environment where the caretakers are well trained to create a home for children, particularly the abandoned ones like Samuel. Thus, he discovered a new world, and that one can be good and kind to one’s fellow human beings.”

When Samuel transferred to the new care center, Holt’s team in Haiti also enrolled him in Holt’s child sponsorship program and matched him with a sponsor. With the monthly support of his sponsor, Samuel was able to attend school for the first time. The school is just a short walk from the orphanage, in a white stone building that overlooks the sea. At school, Samuel eats a nourishing lunch every day, and socializes with children who live with their families in the surrounding community. In this community by the sea, Holt sponsors support many children who live in poverty with their families — making it possible for them to go to school and eat at least one solid meal each day.

Samuel is sad that he does not know his birth parents, but at his new orphanage, he has found a family among his caregivers and the other children. The older children at the orphanage are actually protective of Samuel, who loves to dance and do acrobatics and dreams of becoming an athlete one day.

Our staff in Haiti says Samual “now knows the joy of celebrating.” The staff at the orphanage wishes to “thank Holt sponsors for their contribution, which made it possible … to create this perfect environment where children like Samuel are received and thrive, because they all can feel accepted, well nourished, well cared for and mostly feeling at home.”

Thank you for making it possible for your sponsored child to thrive in an environment where they are accepted, well nourished, well cared for and — most of all — feel at home. Whether they live in a care center in Haiti or with their family in India, Korea or another country where Holt works, you are helping to ensure they receive the love and care they deserve.