On a visit to Haiti, Barbara Walker noticed that a penned rooster had a better life than children living on the streets and in some orphanages. Follow this ordinary woman’s journey as she finds homes for almost two thousand abandoned and orphaned children and builds Ruuska Village for street women who had no means of survival for themselves and their children.
Those first days were very hard, Barbara said. The women were used to fighting for everything they needed, and they had very poor self-esteem. I separated many wild catfights among the women.
Barbara’s no-nonsense requirement of adhering to rules of civility and a Christian moral code, though, eventually shaped Ruuska Village into a unit that functioned as a caring family. Barbara built the women’s self-esteem by helping them obtain birth certificates, IDs, and voting cards, which was both expensive and time-consuming. She also provided education, training, and start-up resources for the women so that they could start small businesses or find employment.
Barbara Walker had no special plans for her life but lived it day by day, serving those God placed on her path. Her tenacious, never-back-down, never-give-up approach to finding homes for children and hope for Haitian street women has made her more than an ordinary woman.
