Beating the Odds: Baby Sancara's Story

At Children of the Promise our Christ-centered mission is to provide excellent physical, spiritual, emotional, educational and economic care for at-risk children and families in Haiti, empowering the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.  Caring for these kids can often be complicated and messy.  Some kids come with more physical needs and some with more emotional needs.  It’s often hard to know what challenges will present when kids come to live us at COTP.  They come to us from tough situations or broken places, and we humbly do our best to care for and to love on these kids that God has entrusted to us.

Baby Sancara came to live with us in December.  At six-weeks-old she was small and fragile.  She had a hard time drinking from a bottle and wasn’t in great health.  She had a lot of medical issues during her first month with us.  She would seem a little better and then get sick again.  She spent several weeks in the local hospital, but when she came back to COTP it was obvious that she was still very sick.  It was during that time that we learned that Sancara had tuberculosis.  We got her started on medication, supported her nutrition with tube feedings, and had her on oxygen to help her breathing.  But it wasn’t enough.  Sancara was struggling and wasn’t turning the corner.

It was becoming obvious that Sancara wasn’t going to be able to keep breathing the way she was, and that she was soon going to tire out.  With limited resources to support a baby like Sancara in northern Haiti, the decision was made to bring her to Port Au Prince.  After a seven hour drive over the mountains, we got Sancara to Bernard Mevs Hospital.  With the ability to put babies like Sancara on a ventilator (something that isn’t available in Cap Haitien), we hoped this hospital would give Sancara the help she needed to beat her infection. 

As expected, within a few days Sancara’s breathing had deteriorated to the point that she needed to be placed on the ventilator.  She spent the next three weeks on and off the ventilator.  The machine breathed for her when she was unable to.  Her little body was working hard to fight the tuberculosis. There were many times when it seemed like the odds were just not in Sancara’s favor.  Many times when it seemed she wouldn’t be able to fight any longer.  Many times I heard “I don’t know if she’s going to make it through the night” or “we’re doing everything we can, but…”

The odds were certainly not in Sancara’s favor, but despite everything stacked against her she continued to fight. She has now been off the ventilator for over a week and is breathing on her own.  She’s drinking bottles again and hardly using her feeding tube.  She’s shocking everyone who meets her with how much of a fighter she is.  She is one feisty little girl!  If all continues to go well, she could be ready to be discharged as soon as this week.  We’re ecstatic that we’ll soon be able to bring her back to COTP.  We look forward to continuing to care for her and assisting her on her road to recovery.

As we prepare to bring Sancara home, we humbly ask if you would consider supporting the medical expenses that we have in providing care for Sancara.  We need approximately $2500 to cover Sancara’s past month of care.  When compared to the cost of a month long hospitalization in a PICU in the States, $2500 is a minuscule amount.  However, it does present a large expense to us.  If you’d like to donate to help cover Sancara’s medical bills you can do so at http://childrenofthepromise.org/donate/ and you can type “Sancara Medical Fund” in the designation box.  God has provided for Sancara in so many ways.  We are confident that He will provide for this need as well.  If funds above and beyond Sancara’s needs are donated, they will be directed to the medical care of other children at COTP.  

Thank you for considering this request and for partnering with us to serve kids like Sancara.  So many people who haven’t even met this little girl have loved and prayed for her.  We feel pretty blessed to get to love on Sancara and to see God’s plan unfold in her life.



Children of the Promise has given permission for the posting of the photos on this site.  Photos taken of  the children in the care of Children of the Promise are not to be posted publicly without explicit permission given by Children of the Promise.