Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family

Content Warning: The source material and this guide include extensive discussion of terminal illness in a child.

Medjerda “Chika” Jeune was born on January 9, 2010, in Haiti, three days before the massive earthquake that took over 200,000 lives. She and her family survived and lived in a field until they were able to rebuild a home. Chika’s mother died giving birth to Chika’s younger brother, and Chika’s father split her and her siblings among relatives. Chika’s godmother ultimately relinquished her to Albom’s Have Faith Haiti mission orphanage in Port-au-Prince in 2013. She made a lasting impact on the other children of the orphanage, its staff, Albom and Janine, and everyone else she met in her life. Albom wrote a memoir about Chika’s life in the hopes of healing from his grief and to ensure that Chika would never be forgotten.

Chika’s story is one of resilience in the face of trauma and health crises, and her portrayal in Albom’s memoir embodies the theme of The Wonder of Childhood. At the orphanage, the lively and vivacious Chika grew, led her friends, and took charge of her life from that very young age. When Chika was five years old, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and the Alboms took her to the United States for treatment.