(Jamaica Gleaner) Seventeen-year-old Mark Braun was born in Jamaica with debilitating birth defects that left his legs upside down and crossed.
“He was really standing on his ankle bone,” said his adopted mother, American Claire Braun, trying to illustrate the gravity of his condition.
As if that was not bad enough, Mark’s biological parents dumped him in a garbage can behind the Bank of Nova Scotia in Ocho Rios, St Ann, and left him for dead.
That was not to be though. Fate threw Mark not one, but two lifelines.
A policeman on duty in the area heard the crying coming from the garbage can and rescued him.
“Following that, he gave me his name – Mark Brown,” the 17-year-old said.
In the next four years, Mark made his way through two children’s homes before getting his second lifeline.
Shocking experience
Claire Braun was a visiting missionary to Jamaica when a friend told her about the West Haven Children’s Home, in Hanover, where Mark was.
“That was an overwhelming, shocking experience, to say the least,” she recalled.
“I saw him first when he was four. By the time he was five and a half, a physician had already spotted him and said they thought he was a child that could benefit from coming to the (United) States for orthopaedic care,” Claire said.
After 12 years and thousands of dollars in surgeries, Mark made a second visit to Jamaica.
He was philosophical as he reflected on his life’s journey while taking a break from the fourth biennial Jamaican Diaspora Convention, held, ironically, in Ocho Rios, St Ann – metres from the area where the garbage can that nearly became his grave was located.
“I tell myself I can spend all my time remembering how horrible a situation I had or who is my mother,” he said. “But I don’t do that. If I keep looking at my past, I won’t get anywhere and I will never be successful because I am looking at the failure side,” he added, admitting that sometimes he does think about it.
This time, Mark returns as a star high-school athlete in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who is being recruited by several colleges in the US.
Before coming to Jamaica, he broke a US national record in track and field and is also a three-time champion in wheelchair basketball.
“He went with Team USA to Australia (in 2009 for the Paralympic Youth Games) and the (US) Olympics team are after him right now (for the 2012 Paralympic Games),” Claire beamed.
Mark’s mission
But Mark’s mission to Jamaica is to provide a measure of hope for the many neglected children in the two homes where he once stayed.
With assistance from the Make A Wish Foundation based in the US, Mark plans to throw a party for the children, and each one is guaranteed to get a gift.
His first order of business, though, was a meeting with Prime Minister Bruce Golding, where he sought to bring attention to the plight of children scattered in orphanages across the country.
“It opens people’s eyes wider when someone with a disability does this,” he explained.
Another reason why he has taken on this mission: “On the island of Jamaica, if you have a disability you are considered nothing … . In orphanage or whatever, you are considered nothing.”
Mark is also tossing back a lifeline of his own.
He said he briefed Prime Minister Golding on 11 cases where adoptions started by American families have stalled without good reasons.
He singled out the case of a Jamaican boy, who is blind in one eye, and is in the process of being adopted by a family in Iowa in the US.
“It’s a very slow process, and it’s just not working, and if it stays the way it is, none of those kids will have an opportunity to live a good life,” said Mark.
“I’m putting my foot in that door and trying to stand up for these kids,” he added.
Claire Braun pointed to a case where one child has been waiting 11 years for the adoption process to be completed.
Mark said Golding promised to examine the case and remove the barriers blocking the process.
He said he is confident Golding will keep his word.
