CNN's 'Rescued' tells story of Haitian orphans

In the wake of the recent earthquake in Haiti, Soledad O'Brien found two stories that were related. While on risky assignment in the country that was rocked by a 7.0-magnitude tremor and numerous aftershocks in January, the much-honored CNN correspondent undertook profiles of young Marc Kenson and Cendy, who were taken into the same orphanage.

The result is the documentary "Rescued," which CNN debuts at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 8.

O'Brien acknowledges the seed for "Rescued" came from "a young man we were working with who was tremendous. He had been shooting at an orphanage in Haiti since 2007, and he reached out to us and said, 'You should go visit and see what's happening there.' We were able to pick up the story in the middle, since he had been there for years before, and there was so much good material."

Marc Kenson - his first and middle name - works at the Lighthouse orphanage after having been raised there, and Cendy was taken there by an aunt financially unable to care for her. Focusing on the two of them holds to O'Brien's trademark approach of highlighting "the people who touch you," as she puts it.

"We heard Cendy's story, which was typical of many little kids there. She'd been abandoned; her parents popped in once to see her, when she was a couple years old, then never again. Haitian orphans aren't really 'orphans' in the traditional sense; they have parents."

O'Brien adds that Cendy "was a child who was a little angry and a little distressed, but people loved her. She's the one that when people asked, 'Who's your special one?' everybody (at the orphanage) said, 'Oh, you've gotta meet Cendy.' She just has those giant eyes.

"And in many ways, Marc Kenson is what Cendy can look forward to becoming. He's a successful young man with this incredible story. He and his sister were sold into slavery for $12 by their parents, then he basically went from being a small child to a street beggar, then was found by the people who run the orphanage and was brought there. Now he's a hard worker who's very full of faith, another one everybody sort of raves about, what tremendous character he has."

In O'Brien's view, Marc Kenson is "symbolic" of what can become of many of Haiti's youngsters whose parents are absent for whatever reason.

"All these street orphans come up to you," she says. "They just run in front of the car and beg for money, and you think, 'Imagine if they were taken in and helped.'"

O'Brien's blueprint for "Rescued" is similar to her strategy for the CNN documentaries "Black in America" and "Latino in America," which wove profiles of individuals into a larger cultural tapestry.

"You always want to tell stories through people," she reasons, "especially with Haitian orphans who, to many Americans, become this big (collection) of sad faces. We don't really get to know their back stories, and hanging out at the orphanage was to see what happens in the days and years of these individual children."

Timing is important for O'Brien in getting "Rescued" finished and televised, given the ongoing level of need in Haiti. "Often," she notes, "these documentaries take a long time - 'Black in America' took a solid year to make - but if there's one about a current event like an earthquake, you do want to get it on the air as fast as possible, no question."

As a mother of four (including twin sons), O'Brien weighed her concerns about personal safety against professional duty in being on location for "Rescued."

"You'd spend the entire day covering people who were crushed by their own buildings, then suddenly, the building you're in starts to rumble," she says. "You not only think, 'We've gotta run,' you think, 'Will the structure collapse?'

"We were in a 6.1 or 6.2 (aftershock) about four or five days in, and it was terrifying. You're running down a hallway and all you can think is, 'Is this ceiling going to fall on my head? How fast can I sprint?' One guy in our hotel jumped from his second-floor balcony. He clearly thought, 'There's no way for me to get out in time.' Luckily, there were a lot of doctors and paramedics staying in the hotel, so he got immediate help."

O'Brien can count on some calmer missions coming up, as she continues CNN's "In America" franchise with other topics, not just ethnic but also social. Still, she maintains that wherever there is a need for a story to be told, she'll be interested in going there.

"I am far too much of a chicken - and I have too many kids - to go into danger zones," she reflects, "but I do aftermaths. Some of these stories are so moving, they make you say, 'How can I help? And how can I have other people experience this?' Maybe that's the goal of my work, for people to experience things through what I do."