While the world watches the television for news stories of the devastation in Haiti, a young St. Albert boy can simply recall what it was like to live in the country before the magnitude 7.0 earthquake changed everything some two weeks ago.
Bryan Breda is now a Grade 6 student at Neil M. Ross Catholic Elementary School. He was adopted out of God’s Littlest Angels Orphanage when he was only four and still retains a few fond memories of that time.
In advance of the school’s fundraising efforts this week to support the Haitian relief effort, Breda gave a slide show presentation to the student body during an assembly on Monday morning to tell his fellow classmates what his life, the country and its culture were like not so long ago.
Like most people, being the centre of such a large amount of attention did not come easily.
“I was really nervous about talking in front of my school,” says Breda, whose class has been selling bags of popcorn and candy with all proceeds to be donated to the Catholic charity Chalice.
Breda said he did a similar talk last week exclusively for his class and figured he could handle a larger audience. “I decided to do it in front of the school.”
The visual elements came from an older sibling who spent time at the orphanage doing charity work a year or two ago.
“My sister went there for two months to help out.” He used her pictures in his presentation to show what Haiti was like before the earthquake, and as a backdrop for his few personal recollections.
“I remember a couple of things. I remember that the older kids were about 14, 12 or so… would play basketball and everyone else would play marbles but sometimes they’d let me play with them.” The important thing to him is that he was there, that Haiti is a part of him that he carries around wherever he goes.
Breda’s mother, Maxine, said that although it has been several years since the adoption, they have been keeping abreast of news from the orphanage through her eldest daughter. She stated it was a smooth transition to bring Breda into her family that includes four other biological children.
“He’s just a great kid.” Bryan is close in age to his brother, Cole, who is also in the same class, she said. “They’re really close. They are, so much in many ways, like twins. They do everything together.”
Maxine added the family intends to go back to Haiti at some point in the future.
Located in the Kenscoff Mountains above Port-au-Prince, the orphanage building has been lucky to have so far survived the initial quake and its subsequent aftershocks. As for the influx of new children, the orphanage’s website states that new adoptive parents will be needed but the government needs to first confirm who the true orphans are since some adults may still be discovered.
The school’s fundraiser continues until tomorrow during the morning and lunch recesses. Neil M. Ross is located at 60 Woodlands Rd. Call 780-459-1244 or visit www.nmross.gsacrd.ab.ca for more details.
