Jacko’s Story of Hope

Dekle, Haiti, is a small community outside of Cap-Haitien, Haiti. This is the village in which Helping Haitian Angels (HHA) is located. Six years ago, a group of volunteers was visiting the HHA primary school when a young ten-year-old boy named Jacko ran up to them begging to go to school. Jacko lives in Dekle and had never gone to school because his mother could not afford to send him. He lives with his mom and grandma and had always dreamed of going to school. One of the nurses in the volunteer group jumped in to pay for Jacko’s schooling at HHA’s primary school.

Unfortunately, the next day Jacko’s mom came running to HHA’s front gate because Jacko had fallen twenty feet out of a mango tree. He was in the tree trying to get some food for his family to eat. When the group reached Jacko, they thought he was dead. He was not moving and in a twisted position on the ground. The same nurse who had just sponsored his schooling jumped into action and evaluated his condition. He was alive but in respiratory distress. His mom was screaming because she couldn’t afford transportation to the hospital and there were no working ambulances within a close proximity.

The HHA team immediately took him to the hospital where he was monitored overnight. Fortunately, Jacko did not suffer from any major injuries other than a broken arm, but had he not been taken to the hospital, his arm likely would have never healed correctly. Once he was home from the hospital, he was given a full scholarship to HHA’s school. Six years later he is about to graduate from HHA’s primary school where he is doing incredibly well. His goal is to go onto high school and then professional school so that he can become a plumber!