Haunting last FB post from nurse kidnapped with daughter while working abroad

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Alix Dorsainvil and her child have been kidnapped in Haiti from their Christian ministry says the non-profit group she was working with (Image: Elroi Haiti)
Alix Dorsainvil and her child have been kidnapped in Haiti from their Christian ministry says the non-profit group she was working with (Image: Elroi Haiti)

An American nurse who was kidnapped with her daughter in Haiti last week has one last haunting image left on her Facebook profile.

It appears as though all of Alix Dorsainvil's Facebook posts have been deleted except one eerie image. It is a drawing of Jesus looking over a nurse's shoulder (that resembles Alix) while she cares for a patient. On the other side is a man, who is Black, assisting with the treatment.

Alix was a nurse assisting a missionary non-profit organisation that helped to provide education and medical care in Haiti. She came to the country in 2020, and married the ministry director, Sandro Dorsainvil. The two had a child.

The missionary non-profit broke the news that Alix and her child had been kidnapped in a post on Friday. The organisation is asking individuals to respect the family's privacy as they are not giving out any information that could undermine rescue or negotiation efforts. It is likely the child is very young as the couple has only been married a few years, and the situation is feared to be dire.

Witnesses said that Alix was working in her organisation’s small brick clinic when a group of armed men burst in and seized her. Lormina Louima, a patient waiting for a check-up, said one man pulled out his gun and told her to relax.

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“When I saw the gun, I was so scared,” Lormina said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go.’”

Haunting last FB post from nurse kidnapped with daughter while working abroadLast haunting image posted from kidnapped nurse's Facebook page shows Jesus looking after her (Alix Dorsainvil/Facebook)

The same day that Alix and her daughter were taken, the US State Department issued a “do not travel advisory” for Haiti and ordered non-emergency personnel to leave amid growing security concerns. In its advisory, the State Department said that “kidnapping is widespread, and victims regularly include US citizens.”

Other members of the community said the unidentified men asked for $1million in ransom. In 2022, there were 857 kidnappings throughout Haiti. Kidnapping crimes like this one are on the rise as political and economic turmoil grips the country.

Haiti remained unstable after a devastating 2009 earthquake and humanitarian effort led largely by outside groups that failed to engage with individuals and displayed widespread corruption, with a 2018 rise in fuel prices bringing out large protests.

In 2021, the president was assassinated after it was discovered he was misusing state funds - leaving Haitians in a position where kidnapping is now a profitable endeavour for the gangs that have seized control.

Haunting last FB post from nurse kidnapped with daughter while working abroadAlix and her husband Sandro Dorsainvil pictured here in 2023 - the two were married a few years before, and now Alix has been kidnapped along with their child (El Roi/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, in the capital, Port-au-Prince, locals staged protests against the prevalent gang violence - in honour of Alix, according to reports. “She is doing good work in the community, free her," read a sign carried by one protestor. The community she works in has a medical clinic, school, and more.

Alix's last post to the group's Facebook page was dated June 17. She wrote: "Today, I (nurse Alix) was called into the community care centre for an emergency visit- a one-month-old baby in respiratory distress. After doing an assessment and a few interventions to try to help stabilize the baby, we sent the baby and her mama to the hospital for inpatient care.

"What I anticipated would be a quick ten-minute transport ended up taking over five hours, as the first four hospitals they tried to go to were either completely full or had no doctors to receive them. During this time, despite all of the hospitals agreeing she was gravely ill, no care was provided to her. She was finally admitted to a private hospital that is much more expensive than we had anticipated and would be completely out of reach for the average Haitian.

Haunting last FB post from nurse kidnapped with daughter while working abroadStudents from the El Roi academy carry signs during a demonstration to demand the freedom of New Hampshire nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter, who have been reported kidnapped (AP)

"Please be praying for healing for baby N, as she is incredibly sick and went several hours without the care she desperately needed. Also, please be praying for Haiti as a whole and all of the other sick babies who may be turned away from the hospital."

The group she works with, El Roi Haiti, says that their "goal is to provide a quality Christian education that will empower children to use their God-given abilities to fulfil His purpose for their lives." The group does regularly post on Facebook and claims to work to ensure that the nearly 400 children who attend their K-12 programs "receive a quality education and a hot meal every day, regardless of their family's capability to afford tuition."

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In a video for the El Roi Haiti website, Alix Dorsainvil describes Haitians as “resilient people.” “They’re full of joy, and life and love. I’m so blessed to know so many amazing Haitians,” she says.

Haunting last FB post from nurse kidnapped with daughter while working abroadA girl carries a sign that reads in Creole "Free school is broken. Release the nurse," during a march (AP)

The group often mentioned the struggles of working in Haiti on social media as well. One Facebook post read: "To be honest, ministry in Haiti has been especially difficult for the past 2+ years. We have faced a sharp uptick in gang violence; blocked, often volatile streets; kidnappings; and the pandemic, to name a few, which has forced us to close our programs off and on and has caused even more insecurity in the lives of the people we serve. Would you pray for Haiti this week? Things are hard, and many are discouraged, but there is still beauty everywhere, and the Lord’s handprints are all over this country."

Alix graduated from Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, which has a program to support nursing education in Haiti. Before that, she went to Cornerstone Christian Academy in Ossipee, New Hampshire, which offers pre-K through eighth-grade education.

“Pray that God would keep her safe, be with her through this trial, and deliver her from her captors,” the school said on its Facebook page.

Yelena Mandenberg

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