Posted on 05/09/2010 4:55:10 PM PDT by Touch Not the Cat
The catastrophic earthquake that left at least 1.3 million of Haiti's 9 million people homeless was the final push over the edge for families that could barely afford to feed their children before. Now stuck in leaky tents with dwindling aid handouts, Haitian families are abandoning their children in the hope that rescue organizations will offer them a better life, aid workers say.
A 4-day-old baby girl was left in a cardboard box outside a hospital. Toddlers are being found alone in hospital waiting rooms. Outside a private clinic, volunteers discovered a 3-year-old holding a bag of carefully folded underwear. A note pinned to his shirt asked those who found him to look after him.
Even before the magnitude-7 quake, poor parents left children at orphanages where they would at least receive one meal a day. Now the number of abandoned children has skyrocketed, said 37-year-old Tamara Palinka, who helped coordinate logistics at the University of Miami-run field hospital on the grounds of the airport.
Orphanage workers say their facilities are swelling with children who are not orphans.
At Mother Teresa's orphanage behind a tall wall covered in concertina wire, nuns in white saris hover over the cribs of children whose arms are attached to drips. They don't take in orphans, only malnourished children who will be returned to their families after they put on weight. They require the mothers to stay on the grounds because otherwise they might not come back.
Nadine Jean-Baptiste... a 35-year-old with AIDS, was barely able to pay for her medication and look after her daughter. Then her husband, a cook, was buried inside the restaurant where he worked. She heard his cries from beneath the concrete but could do nothing.
(Excerpt) Read more at knx1070.com ...
Bush’s fault.
My son and his wife want to adopt a Haitian orphan but their rules
disallow a family of more than 2 children to adopt from Haiti.
:(
So they are on a list for another country.
Obviously, the policy of arresting any and all Baptist aid workers should be implemented at once just in case they try to find loving homes for these abandoned kids.
Apparently these parents love they're children so much, they have no other choice. Sad!
after what the haitian govt did to the baptist group, anyone who tried to get these kids out of that hellhole is just asking for trouble. I am afraid they are doomed to remain “no-one’s kids” and unadoptable, perhaps forever
this goes on everyday in Russia and the poor countries of eastern europe, India, etc
It is interesting to observe how a nation such as Chile, stricken with far more devastation repetitively than Haiti, needs far less assistance and has far fewer reports of abandonment than Haiti.
I am afraid many good adoption ministries and agencies probably abandoned plans after the atrocious treatment of the Baptist group.
Did anyone in the U.S. notice how all these big zillion dollar companies and our phony corrupt government leaders called for donations and support for the Haiti earthquake 24/7, but barely a word from the fat corps and media for the flood victims in Tennessee...
I was just thinking the same thing.
We wish we were a little younger and a little richer, we would love to add more children to the nest...
From the title I thought Haiti is using abandoned children as astronauts.
Well, let’s see — they whine about the orphans but do not allow Christians (that one group from Idaho, anyway) or large families or, what? whites? or those who don’t speak French? or those who xx?
Doesn’t sound like they care so much about a solution, imho.
Maybe some warm hearted Muslims will be allowed to adopt them.
Haiti needs to break with its past. Start allowing foreign investment and start implementing free market reforms and give the people guaranteed rights and freedom. Believe it or not this country was once the most prosperous in the Hemisphere until they decided they didn’t need the white man and the French basically told them to go pound sand and figure it out yourselves.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.