As happened after the 2008 earthquake in China, adoption agencies have had numerous phone calls from people offering to adopt earthquake orphans. As I mentioned in my earlier blogs, children orphaned in a natural disaster or war are usually not free for adoption for a period of anywhere from six months to a year. The infrastructure must be repaired enough to ensure that family members have had the opportunity to locate children.
So what can be done to help the children?
First of all, remember that there are many children, in our own country and abroad, who are eligible for adoption at this moment. Adopting a child who is ready for adoption leaves more resources in his or her country to take care of newly orphaned children. If you adopt from foster care or from an international Waiting Child photolisting, you are adopting a child who is just as desperately in need of a family. Children who “age out” of foster care in this country or of orphanages abroad often have extremely hard lives; they just don’t get as much media attention.
If you are moved to help the children of Haiti, making a donation to a reputable organization is one of the best ways to do it. Reputable agencies have contacts in Haiti who know what is needed and can prevent ill-advised projects.
UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s charity, is cooperating with the U.S. agency Aid for International Development (USAID) and its “Operation Protect the Children”.
This operation has three emphases:
1. Determine conditions at local orphanages, focusing first on dealing with safety and security issues such as structural defects, protection from crime, etc.
2. Support interim care centers providing 24-hour care for unaccompanied minors.
3. Provide nutritional support and trauma counseling for children who are living (with at least one relative or adult caregiver) in displaced-persons camps.
Next will be process of registering children and tracing relatives.
If you would like to be a consistent adult presence to a Haitian child, consider sponsorship. The Our Little Brothers and Sisters orphanage, part of the network of homes founded by Fr. William Wasson throughout Latin America, has profiles of children who could use a sponsor—spend a monetary amount each month that is less than you might spend going out to dinner, and it can buy educational supplies and other items needed by your sponsored child. You and your child can exchange letters. Some Americans have even gone to visit their sponsored children at the orphanages. The U.S. component of this work is Friends of the Orphans . More information is available on their website.
Other agencies also offer sponsorship programs.
Please see these related blogs:
Socially Conscious Kids Raise Money for Haiti