This is baby Oleson.
He's four weeks old. My friend Sarah brought him to me after the Canadian military brought him to her. Oleson was brought by his grandma (pictured here).
Oleson's mother, a single mother, died shortly after his birth, orphaning him and three siblings. Grandma now has the task of raising these four children. She's also a single mom, but mostly of older kids, who (thankfully) can help with the raising of these newly orphaned children.
Joy in Hope has started a small scale formula/baby food program to help TRULY orphaned babies so that they can stay in their extended families. I feel like I have to emphasize "TRULY" orphaned babies because of the breastfeeding stigma/formula status issue here in Haiti (which I will delve into at a later time in another post-- quite interesting actually). Oleson is the 3rd baby we've started in the program... hoping to post more soon about the other two.
I gave Grandma two big tubs of formula as well as a couple of new dresses (thanks to the Utah team) for Oleson's sister, Krislove, age 8 (pictured here.)
As you can see, she's got spunk. She's cute and funny, which melts my heart, especially in spite of all her life has been in the past 2 months. They are due to return for more baby supplies on March 8... If they come back, I will let you know how they are doing.
