MONSIGNOR Gregory Ramkissoon is convinced that had Jamaica not “done the right thing” by accepting the 59 disabled orphans who arrived here last Thursday from crisis-torn Haiti, it wouldn’t have been long before death came upon them.

In the weeks leading up to the rescue mission, Ramkissoon had told the Jamaica Observer that he had received disturbing reports of gangsters, who have been unleashing bloodshed and terror on the French-speaking country, raping some of the children in the orphanage and getting doctors to go in and declare some of them clinically dead in order to harvest their organs for sale.

“Some of these kids, the little girls were being raped. Then they were taking some of the kids and pronouncing them clinically dead in order to sell their organs. One kidney was going for US$35,000, and it was going up the chain. People at a higher level knew about it. Hearing this, when the Lord puts it in front of you it would be a terrible misdeed to let them stay in Haiti,” Ramkissoon, founder of Mustard Seed Communities, told the Sunday Observer at Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio, Portland, shortly after the orphans and 13 caregivers arrived on a ship.

“The gangs aren’t allowing medicine to come in, and neither are they allowing people to go out to visit hospitals. It is hard to find doctors and nurses, and the actual drugs are hard to get. The only future for these children was six feet under. We can’t take everybody in from Haiti but what we thought is that bringing in these children, it would set an example for other organisations or governments to help,” he said as the orphans underwent health checks by local officials at the marina.

Ramkissoon told the Sunday Observer that when Susan Krabacher, the founder of HaitiChildren which operates the orphanage, reached out to him for help to save the orphans, he immediately started making phone calls.

“We used to have a home in Haiti way back so I know of the conditions. After an earthquake we had to close it down because of some legal problems they had. When she came to me about these children, I knew exactly what she was talking about. I have people in Haiti who checked it out,” said Ramkissoon, head of the international non-profit founded in Jamaica in 1978 as a home for a handful of children with disabilities who had been abandoned on the streets.

“Our main work is to look after abandoned children in different countries — in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic — but Jamaica is the head and we have about 12 homes here,” he said, adding that many of the abandoned children, some with disabilities or mental challenges, have been found in gullies and at petrol stations.

“We have around 500 of them in Jamaica; we will take them. We never abandon a child twice. When we get a child, we can’t treat the child as though it is just room and board,” he shared, explaining that they offer children in these circumstances the best-possible care.

Following the health checks the children were taken to Mustard Seed’s Jacob’s Ladder home in Moneague, St Ann, where they will be housed for at least two years and receive necessary care, funded by overseas donors through HaitiChildren.

The “delicate“ rescue mission was conducted by Mustard Seed, HaitiChildren, and the Jamaican Government, with significant assistance from former United States Ambassador to Jamaica Luis Moreno; Jamaica’s former Chief of Defence Staff Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin; and Sentinel Foundation, a non-profit organisation in North Carolina, United States, that targets child traffickers, protects children, and provides crisis response.

Austin Holmes, operations officer at Sentinel Foundation which comprises mostly people with a military background, said it was a privilege for him and members of his team to be able to help the children get out of Haiti as the country, with a population of just over 11.7 million, is being “ruled by a tyranny of gangs” who are “murdering and raping many, many people, and millions are suffering there because people choose to hide behind inaction and do not intervene. The reality is that, as Christians, we certainly don’t get that option.

“It is a bright moment for Haiti and Jamaica. We are really thankful for groups like the Tim Tebow Foundation that actually pulled us all together, as well as the team and donors to make sure that critical, life-saving care and support were able to be provided to these kids,” Holmes told the Sunday Observer.

“Without a group like Mustard Seed stepping up, along with the Jamaican Government, something like this wouldn’t be possible. When you look at a mission like this, our heart really connects to it because the
Bible says God is near the broken-hearted. If you want to stand in the presence of God you have to stand with these 59 [orphans]. God loves and values everyone, so we do too. We feel honoured to get to do it,” he said.

“Haiti is a mess right now. We understand the dire situation, which is actually far worse than people know. There are actually great leaders in that country, courageous souls who worked tirelessly to advocate on behalf of these kids so we could get them legally transferred to be provided care here in Jamaica. We are incredibly thankful for the anti-trafficking team in the Dominican Republic for gathering and sharing information which was critical to our success. The E3 Foundation provided effective care to our team, supplies and support, and even contingency plans had we experienced more difficulties on the waters. Mission Hope and HaitiOne, they provided us with critical support with intelligence as well as [on the] operation side. We feel blessed and privileged to be a part of this. I cannot speak highly enough of the Minister of National Security [Dr Horace Chang]; the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency; Child Protection and Family Services Agency; and Mustard Seed,” Holmes said.

Holmes and members of his team have done extractions from numerous war zones and volatile countries, including Ukraine and Afghanistan.

Haiti has been rocked by violence since the assassination in 2021 of President Jovenel Moise.

Rampant gang violence in Port-au-Prince has triggered an exodus of tens of thousands of people from the Haitian capital where, last Friday, charred bodies lay in the streets and residents battled a growing food security crisis.

Thousands of prisoners were freed in a coordinated gang offensive launched a few weeks ago to force the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry who was in Kenya at the time to secure that country’s support for a United Nations-backed security mission to help police in Haiti.

Henry, who has led the country since Moise’s assassination, was stranded outside the country after the violence shut down the main airport. He agreed on March 11 to step down and allow the formation of an interim government.

But negotiations have been slow, despite pressure from neighbouring Caribbean countries and the United States.

The impasse leaves Haiti rudderless after years of growing political and economic dysfunction.

The transitional council currently being organised would name an interim prime minister to oversee a national vote.

The council faces a tall task, with 80 per cent of the capital and swaths of the countryside under gang control, and many ordinary Haitians already sceptical of the body.

The gangs, meanwhile, are increasingly filling the power vacuum.

Last Thursday Agence France Presse reported Ulrika Richardson, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Haiti, as saying the situation is “extremely alarming” as “over the past few days gangs have advanced into new areas of the capital”.