EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK -- MARY BETH P. ADOMAITIS

Jeanette Lawrence is on a mission.

About a year ago, this longtime Huntington Beach resident decided it

was time to make a change in her life. She had already raised three sons

and a daughter and had recently lost her job in the health-care industry

because of a downsize.

She knew it was time for a change.

Since Jeanette enjoyed helping children so much, she wanted to focus

her energy and attention on that. So she turned to the Internet and

within a few months found the nonprofit group Haitian Street Kids Inc.

I spent a few hours with Jeanette last week and found her to be a true

spirit and believer in her mission.

Now Jeannette was on her way.

“I had been looking specifically for an organization that I felt could

really help and benefit kids,” she said.

Jeanette, 48, pondered helping children in the United States, but she

knows that many resources are available to kids here.

So she literally turned to the poorest nation in the Western

hemisphere -- Haiti. It was there she found out about the hundreds of

thousands of children who are forced into child slavery or left homeless

because their parents are too destitute or sick to take care of them.

After e-mailing the group’s founder, Michael Brewer, Jeanette decided

it was time to take a trip there. Brewer, a registered nurse, had started

up an orphanage, Family Circle Boys Home, which rescued some of these

children, gave them a roof over their heads, medical care, an education

and food to eat.

“You would not believe the conditions there,” she said. “There were

children as young as 3 living on the street or sold into slavery.”

And even though child slavery is illegal, Jeanette said most owners

don’t report to the government that they have a child working for them,

so most of it goes unnoticed by officials.

But Jeanette is taking her mission one step further.

A filmmaker friend of hers, Ron Becks, went with Jeanette and her

sister, Paulette, to Haiti in April. And together, they have created a

documentary on the cruel lives of these Haitian children -- the film is

expected to debut in Hollywood sometime next month.

“We want to make this as uncomfortable as possible for people,” she

said, who noted that some of the children who are slaves are beaten or

abused by their owners and work literally for nothing.

During her trip, Jeanette brought boxes of necessities for the

children at the orphanage. Most items, including underwear, toothbrushes

and soap, were foreign to them.

“They had a bunked delivered, and the children were just so excited,”

she said. “Most of these kids had never even slept in a bed before.”

And so, Jeanette continues her mission. She stayed in Haiti for one

week and is now trying to raise funds and public awareness about the

horrible conditions. She is also working on receiving help from doctors

and plastic surgeons who can help with the medical needs of some of the

children.

“I really want to help change the social climate there,” Jeanette

said. “They have the most extreme poverty I’ve ever seen.”

For more information, visito7 https://www.haitianstreetkids.comf7

or call (714) 847-0627.

* MARY BETH P. ADOMAITIS is the city editor. She can be reached at o7

[email protected].

f7