I first traveled to Haiti in 1999, when I was 17. I was on a mission trip with Partners with Haiti to help build the roof of a church. I returned to continue working on that church (which also ran a school) the following year. I was so moved by those trips that I started sponsoring a child through that organization. Her name is Joceline Exantus.

One of ten children, she lives in Cité Soliel with her family. In May 2003, I had the honor of meeting her and her family in person. I traveled with one of Partners with Haiti's leaders to her house, and had the chance to communicate to them what little I could with an embrace and a few words of thanks through a translator.

My meager donation goes toward funding her education, and providing her with at least one meal a day. Occasionally with her report cards I receive lovely thank-you letters from her, written in French or Creole, and translated into English for me by her teacher. I hope it gives her a chance higher education, or at least a future other than pennilessness or prostitution.

I have no idea if Joceline or her family is alive now, but I am praying every day that they are safe. The news that Cité Soleil escaped the earthquake relatively unscathed gives me hope, but I do remember that Joceline and her family lived in one of those all-too-common concrete and rebar houses that collapsed in the quake throughout Port-au-Prince.

If you have not done so already, please donate. Continue to pray. Read this book. There are several amazing organizations out there doing what they can. Give power to the hands that are healing and helping. Better yet, consider sponsoring a child, and make a difference in the lives of the children--the future--of Haiti.