When Jean-Pierre told this story at a luncheon for donors yesterday, the audience was so captivated that you could hear a pin drop.
It was five days into the Red Cross operations in Haiti and a woman came running into the Red Cross base camp holding her five month old son. She was screaming. "Help me. My baby needs help."
"We were in the middle of putting operations in place to help 80,000 people and this woman comes in with her baby," said Jean-Pierre. "How can you not do everything we can for that one baby when he's there right in front of you."
Within 30 seconds the entire management team had dropped what they were doing to focus on that one child. They provided immediate first-aid and made plans to evacuate the boy. Within three minutes the child was gone again.
But it's a story that's stayed with Jean-Pierre: a moment of perspective on why the Red Cross is in Haiti.
The good news? He found out just a few weeks ago that this baby is alive and doing well.
