Photo Courtesy of GoFundMe
Jimmy Amisial has raised well over the $150,000 goal of the GoFundMe he launched to help him adopt the young Haitian boy he has been caring for since he was a baby.
The 27-year-old Texas State University student raised $157,030, and the donations are still rolling in. The highest amount given was almost $1,200. The fundraiser was initiated to help cover the cost of legally adopting the little boy named Emilio. Jimmy is his legal guardian.
In 2017, Jimmy was a 22-year-old college student visiting his hometown of Gonaives, Haiti, where he volunteered at an orphanage. He was on his way to an event when a local woman showed him a naked, wailing four-month-old baby in the trash covered in red ants.
Jimmy felt compassion and empathy for the infant as everyone else ignored Emilio out of fear that he had been cursed.
“Without hesitation, I picked him up,” Jimmy said, “and I went to my mom’s house with him.”
“When I woke up that day, I was totally unaware that my life was about to change forever,” Jimmy said.
“People were crowding round this bin, and I heard them arguing about what to do with this tiny baby. Everyone was just staring at him– not a single soul wanted to help. He was crying and had no clothes on, and I could see the pain in his eyes. I had to do something.”
He took Emilio to his mother, Elicie Jean, and the woman now helps her son raise him. Emilio lives with Elicie in Haiti while Jimmy finishes up school in Texas.
“I’ve always wanted to be part of something great,” Amisial said. “To me, that was the moment, and I took a leap of faith by saying, ‘Yes, I’m going to be there for him.’”
With the donations, he can now take the steps to make Emilio his permanently.
Congratulations, Jimmy!