SAGINAW, Mich. -- When Mallery Thurlow was in the third grade, she would have told you she wanted to build an orphanage when she grew up.

Now, Thurlow, 20, is living her childhood dream. The Midland native has devoted her high school and college summers to helping children in Haiti.

In one of the poorest countries in the world, where children are starving and live on streets littered with trash and feces, a small light shines. This is Thurlow’s third mission trip to Haiti.

“The saying [here] is that men are treated like kings, women are children and children are animals; and that’s exactly how their culture plays out,” Thurlow said.

The women of Haiti are left homeless with their children and wander the streets day and night. When the sun goes down, women are repeatedly raped, and if they’re lucky, they’ll escape the violence before age 10.

For Thurlow, she never dreamed something so beautiful could be the result of such a violent crime. “I had never had a mother come up to me, place a child on my lap and say she is going to die if you can’t do anything to help,” Thurlow said.

Twelve-day-old Rose Michelle Joseph was such a child. Her mother approached Thurlow asking for help.

“She had already stopped feeding her and was ready to abandon her and leave her on the streets,” said Thurlow. The product of a rape, the child’s life was a struggle from first breath. “She had scabies all over her face and since she hadn’t been fed, her skin was shrinking in around her skull and her tummy was bloated,” Thurlow recalled. “She had bug bites all over her just from being on the streets.”

But it wasn’t until Rose’s mother removed her shorts that Thurlow realized why she needed to take care of this baby.

“There was this huge tumor on her bottom,” said Thurlow, “A tumor almost half the size of her little body, weighing her down.”

Doctors in Haiti said she only had 20 days to live.

“Mallery and I knew we had to do something,” said Thurlow’s sister Brooke. “I knew this baby had to get out of the country to get surgery.” The Thurlow sisters ended up e-mailing pictures of Rose’s tumor to a Mid-Michigan doctor.

Dr. Dee Stryker contacted a pediatrician who said the surgery for Rose’s disease was common in the United States. The dilemma became how to get a little Haitian baby who was sick and had tested positive twice for HIV in Haiti back to the States for a life-saving surgery.

Time was running out, and the Thurlows still needed a birth certificate, passport and medical visa—documents that take days, often weeks to get.

“We just kept praying she would be seen as a little girl who would need medical attention and needed to come to the States,” Thurlow said. “Twenty minutes later, we had the visa and the waiver in our hands in Haiti.”

Within a few days, Thurlow arrived at Detroit Metro airport with Rose in her arms.

Once again Rose was tested for HIV.

“For three days, we were on pins and needles, praying, and the results came back,” Thurlow said.

Fortunately, the Thurlow family received good news from Stryker. The HIV test results came back negative, and the possibility of tumor-removal surgery was in the future.

Rose’s surgery was estimated to cost $100,000 -- the same amount Detroit Children’s hospital allows for one charity case a year.

With her luck holding out, Rose got the case and the money to remove the tumor. It took eight hours for Dr. Mark Cullen and his staff to remove Rose’s tumor. The little girl was hospitalized for nearly a week, but is quickly healing according to Thurlow.

“I just had this peace come over me, and I knew this is a child we can save, and God literally placed her in my lap to bring her back here,” she said. “I just knew that He was going to work miracles to make this all possible.”

If you would like to help children like Rose, you can do so by donating to The Haiti Foundation Against Poverty.