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Nine-year-old Rodenson survey the grounds of the tent camp at Champs de Mars, just in front of the national palace in Port-au-Prince, awaiting someone to play football with.
© cbm/Shelley
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Rodenson lost his foot during Haiti's January 2010 earthquake, when he ran back into his family's collapsing house to save his younger sister. With cbm's support, he has been attending a day care centre and and is receiving medical care and rehabilitation for his injured leg. |
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The return of a hero
"My youngest is alive, and my hero has returned", says Caroline.
This is a positive story amid the rubble and ruins of Haiti. During the January 2010 earthquake nine year old Rodenson saved his sister, but lost his foot, his dream and his smile.
With cbm's help his smile is returning, as he regularly attends a day care centre full of other young survivors. He says "Sometimes people bother me or pick on me because of my foot and it hurts. But I know I am going to have a regular life now, I can run, play and have fun with other kids."
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Rodenson looks positively to the
future
© cbm/Shelley |
Saving a life and losing a dream
On Jan 12, 2010 Rodenson, his mother Caroline and two siblings were at home when Port-au-Prince was hit by a massive earthquake. While escaping, Rodenson noticed his three year old sister Anne wasn’t with them so he ran back into the house to find her.
He grabbed Anne and started running just as the roof caved in crushing his right foot, Anne was able to run to safety.
That moment of heroism cost Rodenson his right foot, which had to be amputated, so ending his dream of being a professional footballer.
Immediately after the amputation Caroline says Rodenson lost his spark. The boy who couldn’t stop laughing, smiling and playing no longer laughed, no longer smiled, and no longer played, and she wondered if he ever would again. |
Immediately after the amputation Rodenson became depressed, sad his dream of being a football star were lost forever. But after attending a cbm child day care centre he started playing football again
© cbm/Shelley
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cbm rebuilds a smile
But soon after the amputation Rodenson attended a Child Day Care Centre run by cbm and our local partner CES (Centre d’Education Speciale). At the centre Rodenson had the chance to play, sing, draw, and basically just be a child again. Caroline took him as often as she could and says while it took time, the son she thought she had lost eventually returned.
Rodenson has received a temporary orthosis and is awaiting a more permanent prosthesis, but that doesn’t stop him from running around the camp or playing football with his siblings or neighbours.
He and his sister are understandably inseparable. It’s quite clear by watching them that his act of heroism encompassed his love for her, and her every action expresses gratitude. She has even taken to calling Sebastian ‘Short Foot’, a nickname only a beloved sister could get away with.
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Four year old Anne used to be afraid of Rodenson's amputated right foot. But now she understands he saved her life and she often kisses his foot to express her attitude
© cbm/Shelley
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Journey not over
The family still has a long way to go. The father was killed in the earthquake, there is no prospect of rebuilding the family house or restarting Caroline’s cosmetic business.
The family were able to move out of the pick-up truck they were living in and into a tent in July, but Caroline is still unemployed and three of her four children are not in school.
But that doesn’t seem to bother Caroline. She smiles, turns her palms to the sky and says she doesn’t know what the future holds for any of them "It’s all in God’s hands now. I am just happy my daughter is alive, and the son I thought I had lost forever has returned." |
Anne and Rodenson are inseparable now, drawn together by one simple act of heroism
© cbm/Shelley |
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