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I’ve written the checks, helped send supplies and done all measure of hand-wringing. But still when I read about the tragedy that has struck, I feel there is more my family and I are meant to do. So. OK. Call me naive, ignorant or foolish, but I was one of the many who heard about the travesty of orphans in Haiti and suddenly wanted more than anything to adopt a needy child from that devastated country.
Here are the facts as best we know them. According to Dr. Jane Aronsen of Worldwide Orphans Foundation, there were already 380,000 children orphaned in Haiti before the quake and only about 300 American adoptions from the country every year; 1,500 worldwide. Since the quake, estimates have ranged from tens to hundreds of thousands more orphaned or abandoned children. Additionally, the UN reports that more than 40 percent of the population is under the age of 14; that’s four million young children currently trying to survive in a country that is ill-prepared to deal with more hardship.
And then I heard NPR’s Debbie Elliott speaking about the tragedy of the children left behind, and it was all I could do not to catch the next plane and find my child, the one whose life I might be able to save. (Oh right, someone else had that idea and it didn’t really work out too well, did it?)
Christine Gonzales, mother of adopted children from Haiti, understands this urge. She cautions restraint,
“As the rest of the world watches, we cannot help but hurt and hope and desperately seek ways to help. Pictures of orphans and news stories of destruction cause us all to want to grab a passport and come home with as many children possible. It is normal. Yet, it is not practical. At this point in time, it is also not best. The children of Haiti need every opportunity to be raised, in Haiti, in a safe and healthy home (even if, right now, it is a tent). Due to the recent catastrophe, it will easily take weeks, possibly months, to locate family of displaced children. Yet, for the sake of these kids, that must be the main focus at this time.”
UNICEF agrees. Its position on inter-country adoption is as follows:
“The case of children separated from their parents and communities during war or natural disasters merits special mention. It cannot be assumed that such children have neither living parents nor relatives. Even if both their parents are dead, the chances of finding living relatives, a community and home to return to after the conflict subsides exist. Thus, such children should not be considered for inter-country adoption, and family tracing should be the priority.”
Blogger Kristin Howerton is the mother of adopted Haitian son Kembe. She doesn’t agree with UNICEF’s stance.
“I am cognizant of the losses involved in adoption and specifically the cultural losses involved in international adoption. However, children who never form loving attachments with adults are at risk for much greater losses than cultural identity. Studies show institutionalized children are at high risk for incarceration and may exhibit developmental delays, hoarding/stealing, hyper-sexual behavior, habitual lying, outbursts of rage, autistic traits and cruelty to children or animals. Parents who have adopted older children from orphanages know the harsh reality of attachment issues and are doing the difficult therapeutic parenting required to reverse these effects. You have likely angered many of them with a casual endorsement of UNICEF's anti-adoption stance, when they observe the far-reaching issues their children face even after adoption.
Heroes such as Dr. Yvonne Jean-Francois is deeply concerned. She is a Haitian-American from the Bronx and has been serving as a temporary medical director for a makeshift facility to assist earthquake victims since mid-January. She finds it hard to imagine how children can remain safe from trafficking and exploitation in the weeks and months ahead. “It’s just kids on the streets,” she said. “It’s much easier now for people to access children, especially because there are so many orphans.”
There have been stories of success. Another hero, pediatrician Dr. Jen Halverson, who temporarily left her practice in Minnesota to assist after the earthquake, believes the hard work of reuniting children with their parents is essential. She writes movingly of the efforts to find the parents of the children for whom she has helped. One
