Edeline’s journey began in the Republic of Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and a country in which 80% of its citizens live in poverty. There, she spent 11 years in orphanages, one of which housed more than 100 children.
Edeline is special needs with cognitive delay — a concept not fully understood by the orphanages in which Edeline lived. She was regularly abused…whipped for not knowing how to read or write.
The orphanage had no running water, and Edeline was often forced to carry large buckets of water up flights of stairs. By the time she reached her teens, Edeline had not only developed work-roughened hands, but also post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
That’s when Barbara Eddy found Edeline.
Barbara, a teacher from South Windsor, Connecticut, visited Haiti as part of a humanitarian mission in 2010. She visited the orphanages of Haiti, and witnessed the conditions the children endured. She met Edeline and her brother and sister and fell in love.
In 2013, Barbara adopted Edeline, her brother Daniel, and her sister Shelove, and brought them home to South Windsor. She discovered Edeline’s PTSD and got her the help she needed.
As part of Edeline’s therapy, Barbara gave her some modeling compound to play with as a way to help calm her nerves when she got “scarried.”
Together, they discovered that Edeline’s strong hands made it easy for her to create stress balls made by filling balloons with the modeling compound.
Edeline named her new products “EGGGs,” which stands for “Edeline Gives Glory to God.” Soon she was selling her EGGG Stressballs at fundraisers and other events…and selling them faster than she could make them.
Edeline’s rapid success afforded her the opportunity to give back. She decided to donate 20 percent of each EGGG Stressball sale to charity. She keeps 20 percent for herself, and invests the rest in supplies and other business expenses.
Her goal is to donate to a different charity each month.
“These EGGGs give Edeline a chance to shine,” Barbara said. “These EGGGs give Edeline a chance to help others.”
Fox61 Highlights Edeline
In 2018, Connecticut’s Fox61 news highlighted Edeline, her family, and her growing new business.
