Jimmy Amisial was visiting his home country of Haiti in 2017 when he had an experience that would change the direction of his life.
Jimmy happened upon a group of people who were gathered around something in the street. When he went to see what it was, he couldn't believe his eyes. Jimmy told People, "When I got to the place where the people were making noise I saw a baby."
He continued, "It was in a pile of trash crying, and there wasn't a single soul who wanted to do anything about it."
Jimmy added that the child had clearly been left outside for at least a few hours.
He continued, "He had no clothes on. He had fire ants crawling all over him because he's been there for a couple of hours. When I picked him up he immediately stopped crying."
Jimmy took the baby to his mother's home, where the two cleaned him and tended to his ant bites. When Jimmy appeared before a judge the next day, he was asked if he wanted to be named the temporary guardian of the baby.
He told NBC affiliate KXAN, "Sometimes you don't have to know what to do, you just have to be ready to do it."
In a separate interview with CNN, Jimmy said, "I've always wanted to be a part of something great, and to me, that was the moment."
Jimmy left the baby with his mother while he went back to college in the US. He is now hoping he can officially adopt the boy, whom he named Emilio Enjole Jeremiah. He's raised nearly $150,000 to help make that happen.
Jimmy's GoFundMe page also states that any money not needed for the baby's adoption will be used to donate to local orphanages in Haiti, for Emilio's future, and possibly for Jimmy himself to return to school.
