By Lisa Zimmerman | Engagement Insider
Jets wide receiver David Nelson, the oldest of eight siblings, knows what it’s like to be from a close-knit, loving and supportive family. Also, deeply religious, Nelson was on a mission trip in 2011 when he saw for the first time what the people of Haiti were struggling with following the devastating earthquake of 2010. But, what he was struck by the most was their optimistic outlook.
“It’s truly overwhelming. You can’t really prepare yourself,” Nelson said. “[But] I didn’t expect the way they handled they lives,” Nelson said. “They had so much joy. I expected to see a bunch of people living in poverty, feeling sorry for themselves, depleted and dejected. I saw a lot of people grateful for things. Feeling blessed for what they had. They focused on what they did have, not on what they didn’t have. It humbled me and it stayed with me.”
He decided then and there that it was a cause he wanted to take on. More than 220,000 people died in the 2010 earthquake. Already a poverty-stricken country, at one point, more than one-and-a-half million people were uprooted from their homes and were forced to live in refugee camps.
It was the children who most touched Nelson’s heart. He decided he wanted to change the trajectory of the lives of as many of the more-than 500,000 children who had either been orphaned or abandoned by parents who couldn’t take care of them following the earthquake as he could.
Nelson, along with two of his brothers, David and Patrick, established the I’m Me Orphan Care Ministry, with the goal of providing love, empowerment and opportunities to the orphans of the world. They wanted these children to be able to dream, thrive and aspire to successful and fulfilling futures.
But, to affect the children, they also had to focus on the adults. The Nelsons researched the statistics that showed that there was a cycle that had to be stopped. Parents, in desperate circumstances, were overwhelmed by taking care of their children and were walking away from them. In fact, more than 80% of Haitian children classified as orphans actually have a living parent somewhere. But those parents now hoped that outsiders, mostly from the United States, would become their children’s caretakers. The reality is that these orphans age out of the system at age 19 and those orphans are now having children of their own, which they can’t take care of, creating more orphans.
Instead of continuing to watch orphans create orphans, the Nelsons wanted to help families create families. That’s where the I’m Me Orphan Care Ministry has stepped in.
The Nelsons have a house in Haiti where Patrick lives full time and where they employ two Americans and 10 Haitians as members of the organization’s staff. They are in the process of building a school just outside Port au Prince, which will have a starting enrollment of 250 students and more than 12 teachers. In addition to teaching standard subjects and basic skills, they are vehement about implementing creative arts programs; everything from art to dance to writing.
I’m Me also continues to focus on building business opportunities for adults in order to help get the economy righted and the citizens back on their feet so that they can support themselves without having to rely on outside assistance.
“We decided we wanted to figure out a way to give that mom a job so she could keep her kids,” Nelson said. “We’re creating business opportunities, creating jobs,
In addition, I’m Me is partnering with Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely and the Feely Family Foundation, together with Mission of Hope, to build a sports complex that will be the first of its kind in Haiti. Among its many features will be soccer fields, basketball courts and a volleyball court. The complex will provide a location for teams from all across the region to practice and play their sports. helping to create a sustainable economy. While the moms and dads are working for us, the kids go to school. At the end of the day, the moms and dads are going home with a full day of pay and the kids are going home with a full day of education, love and encouragement. And they’re sleeping in their own beds.”
“We saw so such joy and hope in their lives and they were in difficult circumstances,” Nelson recalled of his first visit more than two years ago. “They just weren’t given an opportunity to thrive and an opportunity to dream. We wanted to provide that opportunity for them and any love and encouragement that we could.”
Now, the I’m Me Orphan Care Ministry is well on its way to fulfilling those goals.
For more information about I’m Me Orphan Care Ministry: www.imme.org