Written by Doctor Junior Etienne.
After her parents passed away, Erlande Esperance lived in Zabricot at La Gonave with her grandmother. Erlande Esperance’s only hope and only support was For You Haiti. Erlande had a terrible skin ailment.
One of our drivers, Carmy, saw her all alone seating in the dust, people avoiding getting too close to her saying her disease is probably contagious or evil. The driver immediately stopped the motorcycle. She has blisters, and itchy swelling wounds all over her scalp and body.
“Where are your parents?” Carmy asked.
“I don’t have any sir.” She replied.
“Do you go to school?”
“ No sir.”
“Since when did you have this skin problem?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
And this is when people start coming, forming a circle around the little girl and Carmy giving urgent information about her to our medical team.
Her parents died when she was one or two years old, and the grandmother is the only person Erlande has in her life. Now Erlande is about 9 years, we cannot say certainty because we have never found her birth certificate.
In less than 24 hours, For You Haiti sent a car to go get her and brought her to our office where she received all the medical care that she needs. Regularly, FYH sends her to dermatologist appointments in the mainland/PAP and the medical team periodically goes visiting her house to make sure that everything is going well.
Erlande’s dream has always been to have a normal life, like all the other little girls of her age, going to school and be happy! We have been so delighted to be a small piece of her recovery puzzle. Thanks to For You Haiti, Erlande Esperance is in 3rd grade now. I think we can call that a victory in our mission of changing a life!