Baby Arrow: Kauai’s Littlest Warrior in the Campaign Against Pesticide Related Birth Defects
Let me tell you why Maui Should VOTE YES on the GMO moratorium.
Aloha, my name is Madison Strecker and my boyfriend is Chadry Pa we live on Kauai, Hawaii and this past February we brought into the world our beautiful son named Arrow. He has ten fingers, and ten toes, a perfect little smile and beautiful blue eyes. He brought us pure joy and happiness and is our saving grace.
But Arrow did not have an easy start to life. He was born with a birth defect called Gastroschisis. He was born inside out, all of his intestines and his left testicle were outside of his body through a hole in the abdominal wall. Arrow spent his first three months in the NICU having six surgeries and multiple procedures. We didn’t get to hold him in our arms until he was three weeks old and he did not get to eat until he was three months old. He was given nutrition through an IV for the first 3 months and developed an oral aversion from being traumatized by multiple tubes down his throat. He was poked by needles multiple times a day and was opiate dependent for several weeks. After three long months he was sent home with a G-Tube where he is given nutrition strait to his stomach through a feeding tube. We are beyond blessed to be home as a family and couldn’t be happier that our son is doing well but we can’t help but to think of the future generation of Hawaii so I am hoping to share our story so that the island can know that if change isn’t made, if we don’t bring into office someone who cares about the ‘aina, our families, our future generation, then we as a community are putting our families at risk.
The birth defect my son was born with, Gastroschisis, is a birth defect has been directly linked by several scientist to PESTICIDE SPRAYING. Atrazine is a chemical sprayed by Syngenta, a company who sprays GMO crops on Kauai AND MAUI !THIS NEEDS TO STOP!
Voting yes would begin to protect our families, our land, our water, our air, our OHANA. It is too late for my son Arrow, but to me I will do everything in my power to stop these big ag companies from poisoning our land, poisoning the air we breath, the water we drink, our families, our children, our island. Hawaii needs to be the beautiful clean island it once was and if we don’t vote yes to protecting our families then we are putting our loved ones at risk. Please vote yes to protect your families to protect the land, water and air.
Please SHARE this if you know anyone on Maui. Aloha malama pono.