Modson, a Prisoner of Pain of Hunger
Recently Bobby and Sherry and their team in Haiti found a village high in the mountains called Lalo. Bobby wrote:
“I don't even know how our workers found this village. It is so, so, far out and over awful roads. But when our workers came back and told us this story, we delivered food to this village. We had to go through very unsafe areas to get there. We will take food there every chance we can, but we must be very careful due to the gangs in Haiti now.”
Here’s the story they sent us of one of the children from that village. His name is Modson.
Modson is 9 years old and has seven other brothers and sisters. His father is a peasant farmer. He has a tiny little piece of land that is dry and rocky in an area where there is little rainfall. The garden seeds he uses are not first quality; he has taken them from crops that were not healthy.
None of the children have ever been to school, because if the family cannot afford to eat, they cannot afford to go to school. Modson and his mother leave the rest of the family to go search for small sticks to sell, called bwapin. If they can find them laying on the ground, he and his mother will take them to the market and sell these small sticks. The Haitian poor use these to start their fire. They do not return until 5:00 or 6:00 pm in the evening, so the children have been all day without food.
Meanwhile, Modson's father tries to go across the Border into the DR to look for work, but the Border was closed due to COVID-19. His father tried another job, carrying things on his head. But the family still suffered for lack of food, because he made very little money.
Modson said one day he and his mother went out and picked wild leaves to make a Haitian tea. She finally got all the leaves and cut them up to sell and headed for the market, but she got so discouraged trying to get there that she threw all the leaves away. There was no food that night.
The family hasn’t seen their father since the last time he left to go look for work. He hasn’t returned...
Now Modson makes salt water soup for himself and his siblings. He goes and gathers wild leaves, he fetches water from the river, then boils them together with a little salt. It has no nutritional value, but fills their tummies for a time and helps them feel like they’ve had something to eat that day.
Modson's life is deep inside the mountain. He has never left the mountain to go outside or try to find work outside the mountain because he is afraid. The mountain is his world, and all he knows.
Little Modson said, "My life is like tribulations and pain. We are prisoners of pain and hunger. Sometimes we wonder if anyone knows we are alive."
In Haiti, nearly one-third of all children under the age of five suffer from stunted growth. And more than 100,000 children suffer from acute malnutrition. They are dying of hunger. This is why, for over a decade, Jentezen Franklin Media Ministries has sponsored 272,000 meals each month to feed Haiti’s poorest. You can be part of this life-saving outreach!
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