This is Sarah Conque, a 28-year-old Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist. While in grad school, Sarah discovered her pThis is Sarah Conque, a 28-year-old Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist. While in grad school, Sarah discovered her passion for advocating for children in Haiti living with disabilities. In 2013, Sarah moved from Louisiana to Haiti where she began work as a missionary at Danita’s Children Medical Center.
In January of 2014, a young woman came into the medical center holding a three-month-old baby girl named Nika with hydranencephaly, a condition where there is a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid on the brain, causing the head to swell. Nika was terribly malnourished and needed immediate medical care, but sadly Nika’s birth mother treated treated her more like a “shameful secret” than a child in need. Whenever she took Nika out in public, she’d wrap her up in blankets, hiding her face away from the world.
Nika wasn’t malnourished because of her diagnosis, but because of severe neglect. In August 2014, Sarah’s gut instinct led her to visit Nika’s birth mother and check on Nika. Sarah was horrified to find Nika completely alone inside the house, lying on a rice sack and surrounded by garbage. She was eleven months old and weighed six pounds, several of which was built-up fluid.
In Haiti, there is a stigma placed on those with disabilities. Nika’s biological mother did everything she could to avoid being ridiculed. She had also been a prostitute, and possibly tried to terminate the pregnancy by drinking poison.
Sarah ultimately convinced Nika’s birth mother to let her bring Nika into her orphanage family, and give her the care she so deserved.
“The first week Nika was in my care, it hit me just how neglected and malnourished this sweet little girl was, ” Sarah wrote on her website, Little Warrior Nika. Her internal organs were beginning to shut down. 99% of babies with Nika’s diagnosis die before they turn one. Miraculously, she had already surpassed the odds, even in such deplorable conditions.
Still, doctors said Nika was dying, and told Sarah to pray for a miracle.
“Miracle upon miracle, she continued to survive, ” Sarah wrote.
In February 2015, after six months of being her 24/7 caretaker, Sarah officially became Nika’s legal guardian. She dedicated herself to caring for her forever.
Sarah’s partner, Stephen, shares in her mission to provide Nika with a loving home.