After months of suffering and hardship, a couple of Haitian refugees can finally celebrate the arrival of one miracle they have been expecting for the last nine months.
On Sunday, December 4, Rosenie Jean Baptiste gave birth to her daughter Sthecy, who will have Mexican citizenship, at the Tijuana General Hospital.
The child and her mother were cleared to go home later that day and arrived together the Instituto Madre Assunta shelter, where women and children are offered a safe place to stay. The newborn’s father is currently staying at the Casa del Migrante shelter, down the street from his wife and daugher.
The new parents came from Brazil to the U.S. border with Mexico seeking asylum on American soil. The couple already has been in the border region for over a month now, and is waiting for their hearing with U.S. authorities on January 22, 2017.
The baby was registered within a civil registry module within the hospital on Tuesday, December 6, and already has its Mexican birth certificate and documentation.
While Sthecy is the first child of Haitian refugees to be born in Tijuana, she is not the first born in Baja California. In October, a Haitian woman gave birth to twins in the city of Mexicali, which makes Sthecy the third birth among Haitian refugees in Mexico’s northwesternmost state.
According the Baja California State Ministry of Health, among the more than 6,000 Haitian refugees in the state there are 23 pregnant women, 14 in Tijuana and nine in Mexicali.
