Once the helped, now the helper
A woman in Haiti is paying it back by paying it forward
In January of 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of people died, hundreds of thousands more were injured and over one and half million were displaced from their homes. It was devastating.
In 2015, social entrepreneur and global humanitarian Mallory Brown went to Haiti. She soon found herself at Canaan, a sprawling settlement for disaster victims on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. At the time, over 30,000 families were living there without running water, electricity or sanitation services.
While at Canaan, she met many amazing people and heard their powerful stories that will stick with her for the rest of her life. She was inspired by their resilient spirit, in spite of the fact that they’d been in this temporary home for years. But of all the people she met, one woman really stood out.
Chantale is a single mother of five who was forced to abandon her home and take her family to Canaan. Mallory was so touched and moved by Chantale’s story that she got inspired to create a fundraiser for the family to help them out of their very troubled situation. It was the first time that she had raised money for anyone online. And using the power of the crowd — she raised over $10,000 in just 24 hours.
“It felt like winning the lottery.” — Chantale
Two years after first meeting Chantale and helping give her and her family a new start, Mallory went back to Haiti to see how they were doing. She’s proud to report that Chantale and the kids are healthy and happy. All the kids are in school, Chantale is working and she’s even been able to start saving money.
“Everything has changed. Now they can eat and drink well, because we have a bad life before. Before my children were malnourished because we could not eat well.”
The $10,000 truly did change their lives. And it’s freed up Chantale to think of ways that she can pay the generosity she received forward. One of the ways that she plans to do this is by adopting a local disabled girl named Saraphina. But she doesn’t have enough resources at the moment to feel comfortable adopting her.
“I want to help kids like Sarafina. I consider Sarafina as my daughter, I will give her everything I have.”
So working with Haiti Mama, a nonprofit organization that provides a community-based service alternative to restore dignity and hope to families, Mallory and Chantale have set out out to raise the funds needed to complete the adoption and change Saraphina’s life forever in her new, loving home.
Chantale and her family’s life was immeasurably changed thanks to the generosity of strangers who wanted to help give them a fest start. She now wants to pay that generosity back by paying it forward and giving a family to a girl that no longer had hers.
For more visit: https://www.crowdrise.com/haiti-pay-it-forward
Decent Humans is a series of stories spotlighting the incredible community we witness on CrowdRise doing amazing things for good. By sharing their stories of aid, altruism, and passion we hope others will be inspired to live a charitable life.
