Haitian Children

[Laela]

I saw this thought-provoking article today and had had a discussion w/ DH about Haitian orphans. Let us keep the orphan children of Haiti in our prayers, please. I have my doubts w/ these 'adoptions' and 'ideas' as the Haiti child seemingly are becoming the Child du Jour. I pray that those being adopted are being adopted for the right reasons and into families that will Love and care for them, not families that will use them as personal slaves or as a 'badge' of honor or status symbol. Lord Have Mercy.
-Laela

My post-colonial fantasies of adopting Haitian orphans

Image by simminch via Flickr


The American press is full of stories about Haiti’s orphans that paint American adoption of these children as a heroic and worthwhile act. I should know. My children, even living here in London, are so influenced by the American media that they have decided that I too should adopt a Haitian orphan. That it would be better to have a home, any home, where there was enough food and a place to sleep, than be fighting to survive in Haiti. I myself have, for a moment or two, succumbed to the desire to “save” these kids, or at least parent them.
And how can we resist when American journalists portray the idea of Americans adopting Haitian orphans as not just ethical, but necessary.
A typical example from the American press describes in great detail the plight of these kids.

Tens of thousands of children have been orphaned by the magnitude-7.0 quake, aid groups say — so many that officials won’t venture a number. With buildings destroyed and growing chaos in the capital, they say many children are like Jean — living alone on the streets.
Without doubt, most of them are in the open,” said Elizabeth Rodgers, of the Britain-based international orphan group SOS Children.
Some may have family, but they’ve been abandoned or left unconscious at triage centers for care.
One 5-month-old patient at the Israeli field hospital has a number rather than a name.
No one even knows who left him at the makeshift medical center after he was pulled from a collapsed building four days after the quake. Doctors have a difficult decision as he recovers.
“What will we do with him when we are finished?” said Dr. Assa Amit of the hospital’s pediatric emergency department.
​

Adopt him to an American family, of course. The Catholic Church, always ready to be a Colonial force in the world, has come up with a plan: dubbed Pierre Pan,

that would allow thousands of orphaned children to come permanently to America. A similar effort launched in 1960, known as Operation Pedro Pan, brought about 14,000 unaccompanied children from Cuba to the U.S.
​

Pierre Pan is an apt name for these Lost Boys and Girls. After all, at this point no one has any idea where their families are in the post-earthquake chaos.
The Joint Council on International Children’s Services said

Bringing children into the US, either by airlift or new adoption during a time of national emergency, can open the door for fraud, abuse, and trafficking.”
​

But even if these children are adopted in the best of circumstances with people with their “best interests” at heart, people like me, it is still doubtful that such adoptions are a great idea. To ship Haitian orphans to the US, as is already being done, instead of working to keep them on the ground, safe and fed and housed, is probably less about being ethical and more about our own desires and fantasies- desires and fantasies that can best be described, given the US role in Haiti, as post-colonial.
We are (I am) succumbing to our desire for “cute” children and perhaps even a deeper desire to “civilize” them (remember that the Indians in Peter Pan could not be civilized, but that all the Lost Boys, except for Peter, decided they would “grow up” and become part of British society and leave their primitive ways behind in the end).
Whisking Haitian orphans away so wealthy Americans can raise them in the Never Never Land of endless play, pirates, and, like the original Peter Pan, with a strong dose of Colonizing desires is just not a game I can participate in. But, as my girlfriend pointed out, there are all sorts of ways to support these children. Personally for every time I engage in the fantasy of adopting a Haitian orphan, I’m going to donate $100 to the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund instead.

 

[Almaz]

Oh oh I guess The Ethiopian Adoptions are played out now. Move over Haiti is coming. I agree with this article

 

[janaq2003]

here comes Angelina!

 

[Laela]

Helping the children of Haiti
MediaNews editorial
Posted: 01/22/2010 12:01:00 AM PST

THE MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE that leveled most of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, has created a humanitarian crisis of unfathomable scale. Haitian government officials have already collected 50,000 bodies. They say the death toll may soar to 200,000. That's just a guess. Many people will simply disappear into mass graves.

Individuals and governments have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to help the suffering. But Haiti's historically incompetent government has largely been missing in action.

International aid agencies and the United Nations have faced major logistical challenges getting food, water and much-needed medical supplies to the victims.

Despite the valiant efforts from the international teams of volunteer doctors, people are dying needlessly because they can't get proper treatment.

As is so often the case with disasters — whether natural or man-made — children are the most vulnerable. In Haiti, countless injured children have had limbs amputated and other painful procedures without anesthesia. They have nothing to eat or drink. Many are sleeping in the streets because their homes were destroyed.

In all the chaos, thousands have been separated from their families and have no one to help them navigate the increasingly dangerous streets filled with the desperate. Aid officials estimate that tens of thousands of children may have lost their parents.

Some have been calling for the U.S. to conduct a major airlift rescue of orphaned Haitian children. They want a rescue similar to the 1960s Pedro Pan program that brought more than 14,000 children fleeing communist Cuba to the United States.

The Archdiocese of Miami has offered to help spearhead a Pedro-pan like rescue effort, and many Americans have expressed interest in adopting Haitian orphans.

These efforts, though well intentioned, are misguided at this point.

First, it's far too early to tell which children are indeed orphans and which have merely been temporarily separated from their parents. That must be determined, and it will take time. Secondly, if children are indeed determined to be legal orphans, every effort should be made to reunite them with family in Haiti. After all of the trauma that these children have suffered, suddenly uprooting them to a strange country where they don't know anyone, and don't speak the language, would not be in their best interest.

The Haitian government is right to insist that rescue efforts focus on helping Haitian kids by providing them with resources in their home country.

Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced a new "humanitarian parole policy" for Haitian orphans.

It will allow those children who have been legally confirmed by the Haitian government as eligible for adoption, and who have been matched to American citizens, to immediately enter the U.S.

This fast-tracking of a process that can often take years will allow children to receive the medical care they need.

U.S. officials say the policy will be administered on a case-by-case basis and will not allow for the wholesale airlifting of Haitian children.

That, in our view, is the more prudent course.

In the meantime, we must continue to support international aid agencies that are reaching out to children in Haiti. These children — orphaned or not — desperately need our help.

 

[Laela]

This reminds me of the old adage: “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”
Haiti (and other nations) are well capable of taking care of their own. What the country needs now is prayers, money, food, and most important of late, medical supplies. Not rush to judgments.

We all know too well the reverberating effects of displacing people.

While I'm not against adoption of Haitian children - if Angelina or whoever has it in their heart to adopt, that's their prerogative - the "flooding" of Americans to adopt is startling. I truly believe no one should rush to make such a life-changing decision. There was a news story I read a while back about a woman who adopted a black baby only to "unadopt" the child when she changed her mind. I sincerely hope all these people who want to adopt are doing so for the right reasons. That's all.

Here's another interesting article.

 

[Laela]

Americans Rush to Adopt Orphaned Haitian Children
Advocacy groups: Americans rushing to adopt children left orphans from Haiti quake
By LISA ORKIN EMMANUEL Associated Press Writer
MIAMI January 20, 2010 (AP)

FILE-This Jan. 19, 2010 file photo shows Haitian Orphans arriving for medical care at Childrens Hospital in Pittsburgh. The children were not orphaned by last week's massive earthquake, but their orphanage was destroyed. Many Americans have expressed an interest in adopting children who have been left orphans from the quake last week, with international adoption agencies reporting dozens of calls a day. (AP Photo/John Heller,File) Collapse
(AP)

Tammy Gage cries every time she turns on the TV and sees the devastation in Haiti. And though she already has three daughters, she didn't hesitate when her husband suggested that they adopt from Haiti.

"That's all he needed to say," she said.

Gage and her husband Brad are among many Americans expressing interest in adopting children who have been left orphans from the quake last week. Adoption advocacy groups are reporting dozens of calls a day.

"The agencies are being flooded with phone calls and e-mails," said Tom Difilipo, president and CEO of the advocacy group Joint Council on International Children's Services. "The response is 'Can we help with these children by adopting them?'"

The need is vast. Even before last Tuesday's deadly magnitude-7.0 earthquake, Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, had 380,000 orphans, according to UNICEF. There is no counting children newly orphaned by the quake, but aid groups estimate the number in tens of thousands.

"Everybody here and in the world wants to do something. I think it's a way that people are opening up their heads and their hearts," said Mary Ross Agosta, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Miami, which has offered temporary housing for children until they are either placed with extended family, put in foster care or adopted.

This week, 54 orphans arrived in Pittsburgh after a mission that involved officials in the White House, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. The orphans were being cared for at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. So far, seven children have been placed with their adoptive families.

"We have received quite a few phone calls, including one from as far away as Alaska," said Clare Kushma, a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh. She estimated the number of calls as close to 100, but is referring people to the Allegheny County's Department of Human Services for adoptions.

 

[ThickHair]

I am a Pittsburgher and I am so proud of my "Yinzers" if you are familiar with Pgh you know what that means. This city is a buzz and the out pouring of $$, concern, affection is overwhelming. Yinzers usually only get this way about the Steelers, but for these kids it is awesome. I swear their is going to be a parade for the 2 ladies who ran the orphanage, they are from here. The tel-a-thon is on the local channel's now right before the nat'l telethon.

BTW from what I understand the children here in the burg were already in the process of being adopted then the earthquake hit. As of this morning only 17 kids were left and those families are on their way to the Burgh.

 

[Laela]

Hi, Thickhair,

I'm happy for the families in Pittsburgh; I believe some were concerned for the children they'd already adopted. Bless them.... I'm being misunderstood..there are lots of adoptions that's already taken place before the quake. Those aren't the adoptions I'm referrring to. But the 'rush' to adopt kids whose families may not even be dead or are just unaccounted for.