Cliff's story

Ten-year-old Cliff

When we met our "Love Haiti" students, they were living in a Tent City in Port au Prince.  Many had lived there for three years.   Since then, the government took back the land, offering the residents a small financial subsidy to move.  Most of the students and their families stayed in Port au Prince, but a few moved.  In October, we visited  all of the schools, but had not had a chance to visit their new homes yet.

This is the crossing to get into Carrefour from Port au Prince. 

We were directed in several different ways trying to find Cliff's home.  This was one of the neighborhoods we traveled through.

Ten-year-old Cliff moved with his family, four brothers, his mother and father, to Carrefour (very unusual for a Haitian child to live with both parents).  Carrefour is a "commune" of Port au Prince, but the drive makes it seem far. Carrefour is mostly residential with a population of 460,000 residents.

It was laundry day for many residents of Carrefour.

The day we went to Cliff's school the principal said that he had been hit by a motorcycle while walking to school.  She did not know how he was doing, so we set out looking for Cliff and his family.    It took awhile, but we finally found his home, and we were happy to see that he was OK.  He was not bedridden, but limping and in pain. Although he continues to be in some pain, he is attending school and  doing well academically.  

We searched for Cliff's brother who attends a different school.  School was letting out and we were greeted by happy faces.