Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010 • Student helps bring healing to Haiti’s children
Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010 edition of the Lassen County Times.
Sarah Quale spent three weeks in Haiti using music to help bring healing and hope to children, many who had been affected by a devastating 7.0 earthquake that occurred in January.
There is still rubble from the 7.0 earthquake that hit Port Au Prince, Haiti in January. Also pictured is a tent city.Quale, who is from Lassen County and played in the Susanville Symphony, traveled with five fellow classmates from Biola University, a private Christian school in Southern California where Quale is a junior and majoring in music.
“Haiti was a lot of things,” Quale said. “It was really difficult, but beautiful at the same time because of what Jesus did.”
A little Haitian girl eats some food provided at the Child Hope Lighthouse Orphanage. She is one of 30 children who lost her orphanage and lives under a tarp. Child Hope Lighthouse Orphanage does not have room for the children, but is trying to raise $20,000 for a facility for the orphans.The team worked with Indigenous Pitch, out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania providing relief camps held at North Haiti Christian University in Limbé, Haiti. Quale said Indigenous Pitch who provided relief efforts using arts and crafts and the Biola team added music to the program.
After the earthquake, people traveled from Port Au Prince to Northern Haiti, which Quale said has just as much poverty as Port Au Prince, if not more.
Haitian children “dance like crazy,” at the end of the day. The children were participating in a relief camp offered by Indigenous Pitch out of Pennsylvania, Pa. and six students from Biola University. The camp focused on art, dance and music. According to Sarah Quale, who was on the trip, many of the children have been dislocated from Port Au Prince after the 7.0 earthquake in January. Many, Quale said, are now orphans.During the second portion of the trip, the group worked at Child Hope Lighthouse Orphanage in Port Au Prince.
Quale said during her time in Haiti, she saw a transformation in the children that could only come from Jesus.
At the relief camp in Northern Haiti, Quale said of the children, “Many lost their families and you could see their sorrow.”
Haitian orphans receive gift bags containing hygiene items. According to Sarah Quale, the children are from a group of 30 orphans who lost their orphanage in a 7.0 earthquake in January. They live under a tarp, but receive food from the Child Hope Lighthouse Orphanage.She said they were quiet and reserved, but as the team continued to work with them, they began to open up and express themselves with art, dance and music. Ways in which Quale said the students had never learned about because there aren’t places to learn those things in Haiti.
The team also taught the children about journaling, their identity, their dreams and who they are in the community.
Sarah Quale teaches, Samson, a fine art student at North Haiti Christian University located in Limbé, Haiti.While at the camp, Quale said the team became friends with the fine art college students and the team gave cello and violin lessons.
“They were so eager to learn anything,” she said. “We watched the children’s faces light up as they touched, held and played a cello or violin for the first time in their lives.”
Quale also gave music lessons to children ages 4 through 14 at the orphanage in Port Au Prince.
Sarah Quale, who is from Lassen County but is attending Biola University, holds baby Jameson, a boy from the streets who comes to the feeding program offered by the Child Hope Lighthouse Orphanage.According to Quale the children at Lighthouse orphanage are not available for adoption but are raised to be leaders and lighthouses throughout Haiti.
“They were so full of life and crazy stories of how they got there,” she said.
Quale said Lighthouse orphanage is full and cannot take any more children, but the orphans serve food to the street children and provide activities for them three days a week.
“One hundred and thirty kids just pour into the place and for many, that will be their only meal,” Quale said.
Every day, the orphanage also provides food to 30 children who are from another orphanage.
Quale said the 30 children had lost their building during the earthquake and have been living under a tarp for the last six months.
The team visited the children’s tarp home and Quale said, “It was heartbreaking.”
She said the tent was small and the orphans were piled on top of each other while they slept.
The children do not have access to proper hygiene and a lot of them are sick, Quale said. They were provided with gift bags containing toothbrushes and other hygiene items, but Quale said the children didn’t know what to do with them.
When the children came to the orphanage, Quale said they didn’t want to do anything, they just wanted to be touched and held.
“We just fell in love with them,” Quale said. “That’s all they want. Human love isn’t enough for them, it’s the love of Jesus that changes them and brings them joy.”
She said it was very difficult to leave because the team knew the orphans expected them to come back the next day like they had during the week.
When the orphans would leave for the day, Quale said they would say “See you tomorrow,” in Creole.
Even though they are back in the United States, Quale said their work is not finished. She plans to go back in January for a follow-up trip and to see the children.
She said the team would also like to help get sponsorships to build a facility for the 30 orphans, Lighthouse orphanage is trying to raise $20,000 for the project. The team would also like to hire a guitar teacher for Lighthouse orphanage and to continue investing in North Haiti Christian University by providing them with instruments.
“My heart is still in Haiti and with those kids. My heart is broken for them,” she said.
Quale said when she got off the plane in Haiti, she was shocked by the poverty. When they flew out of Haiti, she said, “you see tent cities everywhere and it is so hot, I don’t see how people survive.”
When she returned, Quale said people asked her if things are changing.
She said there is still rubble and collapsed buildings and it seems hopeless because so much needs to be done.
“But when you meet people and hold those kids, you realize change is going to come one person at a time,” Quale said.
History behind the trip
When the earthquake hit Haiti, Quale said she and a friend felt God leading them to do a benefit concert in Haiti.
“But all of Biola got involved and it became a bigger thing than what we expected,” she said.
The event was held in March and Quale said, “It turned out beautiful.”
She said the art department made art to sell and the relief event brought in $3,000, which was given to Haiti Hope Fund, a Christian organization that supports North Haiti Christian University.
The team was connected with the fine arts director at the school, who had graduated from Biola and then she connected them with Indigenous Pitch.
“God was just putting all these people together, “Quale said of how the trip came together.
A donor provided a grant for Biola with the provision that it was used for sustainable projects and relief efforts in Haiti.
Quale said her team submitted a proposal in May and got the grant money.
She said the team had to pay for its travels and the grant money was used for the projects in Haiti.
