Haiti: Some Good and Some Bad
More and more babies who were already in process of being adopted are being allowed to come home, though not all of them have been given permission at this point in time. Here and there, babies not already in process, but who were legal orphans before the quake, are being brought in as well. Technically, that’s not supposed to be happening, but it is in some small cases. In at least two cases, one or more caretakers from the orphanage were also brought to the U.S. as well so the kids without new parents will have someone they already know to care for them. Those caretakers did not need to get special permission to enter though, they already had access into the U.S.
There are also some children who needed medical care who were given permission by the US government to be brought to Florida for hospital care. I’m told that some of them have family and that they will be going back to Haiti, but I don’t believe the status of all of them have been figured out just yet since some of them were orphans before the quake hit. They are all still hospitalized, but many of them have been assigned foster parents who are staying with them in the hospital now and who will take them home in the time period between when they get out of the hospital and when they are either returned home or are going to be allowed to stay and a Plan B must be found. I understand arrangements are being made to allow more Haitians (adults and children) into the U.S. (and other countries) for hospital care. One of the U.S. hospital ships is off the coast of Haiti, but there are only 1,000 beds there, and the need for hospitalization is much greater than that.
I’m also told that there are some tent cities being set up outside of Port-au-Prince where order is being maintained by the soldiers. Once you get into a tent city then you get food and water distributed to you, but if you disturb the peace you are ejected from the tent city. If someone could arrange for the orphanage personnel and all of the children at the orphanages to be allowed into one of these tent cities, then that would resolve the immediate problem of needing to airlift them out of there to keep them alive. However, that is not happening, nor are there plans to make it happen. So, I understand the airlift option is not completely off of the table just yet.
I understand there are two main options for the airlift option. The first would only remove the children who were identified as an orphan before the quake. In this instance those children would be taken to various places where a system is set up to place these children with people who are already a foster parent, or who already have a home study in place and who are approved to adopt. This would free up more space (and food and water) for the children orphaned during the quake, but would not protect the children orphaned during the quake, nor would it help them get medical care, which many of them are in desperate need of. The second option would be a removal of all orphans currently in orphanages, with all taken to a central location (along with their caregivers) so that it would be easier to reunify children with family in Haiti who may be looking for them.
No one is recommending that babies orphaned during the quake be made available for adoption any time in the near future. But many people are recommending that these at-risk children (with no adults in their corner to protect them) be removed from a very dangerous situation. Whether that means rounding up the children and caregivers from all of the orphanages and getting them to a tent city, or whether it means airlifting them to safety somewhere else, something needs to be done.
January 24th, 2010 at 12:52 am
I can’t see them within a tent city all that safe. Their own tent city (specifically for orphans) perhaps with it’s own security. They can’t assure kids in a hospital won’t disappear during the night. Keeping them with the general population opens them up to trafficking.
Governments abroad taking responsibility for them abroad seems more sensible, they aren’t just as easy to connect the family if any exist, but for most who are transportated out of country there won’t be a huge delay if there is family looking for them.
Where is there flat open space away from unsound buildings enough to place everyone in harms way in a tent city? I just don’t see it.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:49 am
Ive read that most agencies who do Haiti adoption will NOT be starting any new applications now.
January 24th, 2010 at 3:55 am
I believe the government has put a halt to any new Haitian adoptions that were not dated before the earthquake. The fear is that traffickers will take the orphans out of the country and place them for private adoption at a price of course.
Reports of a handful of children having disappeared from Haitian hospitals. Whether for trafficking for adoption or even more nefarious purposes, the Haitian orphans not previously in process for adoption or newly orphaned from the quake are at high risk. I don’t know how safe they would be in tent cities either.
I don’t know that there is an all alround good solution. Even an airlift of the orphans will probably only be at best 5% of them. Without a solid plan for protecting and caring for those who ulitmately remain in Haiti, I fear Haiti faces a bleak future with so many children traumatized and in survival mode. They are unlikely to grow up into functional adults without sufficient care and protection.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:08 am
The tent city I’m talking about has been built by the US Soldiers, and has a fence around it. It looks a lot like the pictures from the Homestead tent cities. They only allowed as many families in as they had tents, and that’s it. Once in, a family will get food and water rations… and anyone who “disturbs the peace” gets kicked out. Entry is strictly controlled to those families with “residence”. In that environment, if they could allot a tent for each of the small orphanages and several tents for the larger orphanages, or perhaps build a few larger tents when they construct a “city”, especially for orphanages, it seems that could be an option. But, these tents are specified they are for families, and there are no plans to include orphanages.
I agree that the airlift option will keep them safer. But, since everyone is throwing up so much red tape, the tent city option would be better than where they are now.
I also agree that there is no “ideal” solution. Nothing is going to save everyone that needs saving. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. We’re back to the starfish again: Save as many as you can.
January 24th, 2010 at 10:15 am
My husband is currently in Haiti helping with medical relief. There really isn’t a good answer to anything right now. They are driving into the slums to find anyone who needs medical care. I talked with him yesterday and he said the number of untreated wounded is incomprehensible.
They are trying to locate family members of the children they are treating. I honestly don’t know how they will handle all the children left orphaned. My understanding is it will be quite some time before any of them are considered for adoption. What they do in the meantime is anyones guess.
January 24th, 2010 at 10:32 am
RQ “The tent city I’m talking about has been built by the US Soldiers, and has a fence around it.” This to me sounds like a faster and safer way to save lives until the they come up with something better. Right now most are spleeping out side the orphanages on the ground with little or no protection food and water.
Glen
January 24th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Haitian forums I belong to have been flooded with families wanting to adopt. However, due to lack of knowledge of International Adoption they think you can just line up and will be handed a baby. I think some news reports early on were repeating stories that babies and children are planning to be airlifted out of Haiti to adoptive families. They didn’t mention that these children were already orphans and had been referred to approved families who had gone through the adoption process like we did. I notice now that they are saying children legally adopted by Americans.
The forum moderator outlined the process and that these children are not being handed over to any family.
Our dd’s orphanage Director would like ALL children that are in the process of being adopted airlifted to their waiting parents. He said that through communications there are lots of babies that need care along with toddlers. Older children are more able to communicate names of family and other details. There are going to be many unidentified orphans too. He said that they are not going to hand over babies to anyone claiming to be their birthfamily/parent. I do know that the American Immigration in Haiti does do DNA testing.
However, this is not even a priority right now.
They even found a baby about a week old. This was on CNN I think. People we know that live in Haiti said they are trying to help the elderly too, many have been abandoned.
The tent city will have to be very secure because child and baby trafficking is a great concern.
January 25th, 2010 at 10:52 am
We have 11 month old twins waiting in Haiti that have been denied humanitarian visas. They were paper ready for international adoption pre earthquake. We had been working w/ our agency but were not matched with them pre earthquake. We have two daughters from China and are well aware of international adoption.
Would it be possible to get my contact information to the 2-3 people you referenced who have been successful in similar situations? We have been advised that help from politicians is our best bet currently but would love to understand how it has been accomplished.
Time is of the essense as our orphanage is one of the ones that was completely destroyed and recently robbed of supplies. My direct email is nawdvm@msn.com. Thank you in advance for any help.
January 25th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
DNA testing to make sure that a child is biologically related to the adult claiming will help most be properly reunited with family. But like anything, it’s not perfect. What about an adopted child? I’m not sure how many Haitians have adopted children, but there are probably many with step-parents. That would be a legal relative, but would be missed with DNA testing.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
The whole situation is so heartbreaking.
Thank you RQ for this informative post.
January 28th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
yahoo news Haiti’s about slave kids http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100128/wl_time/02880419533791953494195716000