Editor’s note: This is the first article in a three-part series of Loving Haiti’s Children.

Visiting the poverty-stricken island of Haiti several years ago, Bishop Jim McIver of Catasauqua’s Revolution Church was burdened by what he saw.

“There were goats, pigs and babies all looking for food on the same pile of trash,” he said.

It was an image that stayed with him as he pondered what to do to help.

The poverty, hunger, devastation and desperation were unspeakable.

“People were sleeping on sidewalks,” he said. “It was mind-boggling.”

The Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake there, with a magnitude of 7.3, had killed more than 220,000 people and injured more than 300,000. It left more than 1.5 million people homeless, resulting in a humanitarian crisis.

The groundwork for an orphanage supported by Revolution Church was laid in 2011.

The local church has now opened the children’s orphanage, called Love Haiti’s Children, in Port-au-Prince.

“As he learned more about the country of Haiti’s extreme poverty and conditions and its effect on the children there, he felt he had to do something to help,” McIver’s daughter-in-law Debbie Beck told The Press.

Approximately 59 percent of Haitian families are living on less than $2 per day. While there is a movement toward helping families reach a level of stability in order to keep their children out of orphanages, the country remains littered with government corruption, ongoing natural disasters, few job opportunities and no social service system to assist families.

“Until real change comes about on a widespread basis in Haiti, orphanages are a very important part of helping Haiti’s children,” she said.

McIver explained the reason he chose opening an orphanage with the support of the church as the way of addressing Haiti’s poverty.

“Children are helpless, vulnerable and unable to care for themselves to get even the most basic necessities such as food and clothing,” he said.

“It is estimated there are between 400,000 to 500,000 orphans in Haiti,” Beck said. “Even more tragic is that there are thousands more children who may have a living parent but live in extreme poverty and are often brought to orphanages for help,” she said. Also, Beck pointed out the adoption system in Haiti is broken, with it becoming much more difficult for families to adopt from Haiti. According to Beck, it’s not unusual for adoptions to “go wrong,” with files being misplaced, attorneys making mistakes and laws constantly changing.

“This makes orphanages in Haiti even more important because every child needs a home and proper care whether or not they are ever adopted into a family,” she said.

Next week, see the second in the series Loving Haiti’s Children.