Kidnapping or Caring? Issues related to Haitian Adoption

[nanita]

I came across an interesting set of articles related to the issue of Westerners adopting Haitian children, many of whom are actually NOT ORPHANS AT ALL. They are simply children born to poor families. There are some interesting perspectives here on 'cultural arrogance', the 'Western disregard for the integrity of poor families' and Christian groups being arrested on charges of human trafficking.

From one of the articles:

"Our goal should be to keep families together, to strengthen existing families," said Tom Difilipo, the executive director of the Joint Council on International Children's Services.

Many Haitians seem to feel that it just isn't right for wealthy families to come in and take these children away for 'a better life'. And who can blame them, really?

The Harvard article in particular is very interesting.

Happy reading!

Kidnapping or Caring? Missionaries in Haiti Tried to Take Children to U.S. After Earthquake

In the wake of the Haitian earthquake, ten American missionaries remained in a Port-au-Prince jail today, waiting for a judge to decide if they will face kidnapping charges. The ten are devout Christians, and they were trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-ravaged country without...

abcnews.go.com

Many children taken by Americans not orphans

A U.S. Baptist group's insistence that 33 children it tried to take out of Haiti were orphans or given up by distant relatives was countered by parents in a mountain village.

www.nbcnews.com

https://harvardhrj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2009/09/King.pdf

Western Missionaries Oversee Haitian Orphanages Where Children Are Abused and Exploited

Funded by millions of dollars in donations for their work in Haiti, Western church organizations operate scores of facilities in a shadowy but sprawling industry that often leaves children traumatized, abused — and sometimes dead.

www.buzzfeednews.com

 

[Kipling333]

What a difficult subject with so many aspects. There has to be a very sound process relating to the adoption of children and this means that the parents or relations of a child must approve of the adoption and the person or people or organisation who will be adopting the child must be vetted. We have several orphanages in La Romana that do a wonderful job but as a whole I thought that orphanages were dying out because of the demand for adoptions is far greater than the supply on a world basis. I do not believe one of the articles written above that Western Church organisations operate scores of facilities in a shadowy but sprawling industry because I think this type of facility was wiped out shortly after Dickens wrote about them. However, I have been reading about changes to laws of immigration in the USA, UK and Europe that exempt children from the onerous visa processes and I wonder if that will lead to increased trade in children.

 

[NanSanPedro]

There are always going to be abuses, that's human nature. I've had parents try to give me their kids on multiple ocsasions, just because they felt I could give them a better life. The first time it happened I was devestated that a parent would do that. I soon learned that so many Haitians have no hope.

I've seen good orphanages and bad ones. Again, it's human nature but we always need to strive to improve substandard organizations and eradicate evil.

 

[Big]

looks like "woke" ideology has reached Haiti. One of the worst spots on the planet and they are blaming the very people that are trying to rescue them.

 

[Big]

some men you just can't reach

 

[KyleMackey]

I came across an interesting set of articles related to the issue of Westerners adopting Haitian children, many of whom are actually NOT ORPHANS AT ALL. They are simply children born to poor families. There are some interesting perspectives here on 'cultural arrogance', the 'Western disregard for the integrity of poor families' and Christian groups being arrested on charges of human trafficking.

From one of the articles:

"Our goal should be to keep families together, to strengthen existing families," said Tom Difilipo, the executive director of the Joint Council on International Children's Services.

Many Haitians seem to feel that it just isn't right for wealthy families to come in and take these children away for 'a better life'. And who can blame them, really?

The Harvard article in particular is very interesting.

Happy reading!

Kidnapping or Caring? Missionaries in Haiti Tried to Take Children to U.S. After Earthquake

In the wake of the Haitian earthquake, ten American missionaries remained in a Port-au-Prince jail today, waiting for a judge to decide if they will face kidnapping charges. The ten are devout Christians, and they were trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-ravaged country without...

abcnews.go.com

Many children taken by Americans not orphans

A U.S. Baptist group's insistence that 33 children it tried to take out of Haiti were orphans or given up by distant relatives was countered by parents in a mountain village.

www.nbcnews.com

https://harvardhrj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2009/09/King.pdf

Western Missionaries Oversee Haitian Orphanages Where Children Are Abused and Exploited

Funded by millions of dollars in donations for their work in Haiti, Western church organizations operate scores of facilities in a shadowy but sprawling industry that often leaves children traumatized, abused — and sometimes dead.

www.buzzfeednews.com

That was Laura Silsby. Her org was a scam. She was friendly with Huma, Hillary's personal aide de camp, and Hillary got her out jail. Human trafficking, including children, is a big problem globally. Whenever I read a story about Interpol or the FBI making a big child porn ring bust I wonder if the kids being raped were trafficked as "orphans".

 

[JD Jones]

How about adopting an entire family?

 

[Manuel01]

I say it again; Forget about Haiti ! Lost Cause ans Unsafeable !

 

[NanSanPedro]

How about adopting an entire family?

That is doable, because prices are so low in Haiti.

However, it's a fine line to dependency. Many many Haitians have grown used to "gimme one dola" as the way to make a living.

 

[Kipling333]

There used to be a church programme called Adopt A Child where people from rich countries could put say $20 a month into an account of an orphan in Africa , mainly in the Ghana and Nigeria area. It was run by a church organisation associated with The Anglican Church .One of the recommendations was that the sponsors should not meet with the child or children that they had financially adopted. You did not pay the Church Organisation but paid the child direct. There were a few safeguards but not many .

 

[NanSanPedro]

There used to be a church programme called Adopt A Child where people from rich countries could put say $20 a month into an account of an orphan in Africa , mainly in the Ghana and Nigeria area. It was run by a church organisation associated with The Anglican Church .One of the recommendations was that the sponsors should not meet with the child or children that they had financially adopted. You did not pay the Church Organisation but paid the child direct. There were a few safeguards but not many .

I hate these programs. Their only purpose is to assuage guilt.

Get to know families. Travel there. Involve yourself in their lives. This is for both local and abroad.

 

[nanita]

There used to be a church programme called Adopt A Child where people from rich countries could put say $20 a month into an account of an orphan in Africa , mainly in the Ghana and Nigeria area. It was run by a church organisation associated with The Anglican Church .One of the recommendations was that the sponsors should not meet with the child or children that they had financially adopted. You did not pay the Church Organisation but paid the child direct. There were a few safeguards but not many .

That sounds like a wonderful programme, provided of course that the money goes directly to the child and/or the child's family. This type of programme, when administered correctly, can help strengthen entire COMMUNITIES which really should be the goal.

Spiriting babies away for adoption can be devastating for poor families and communities. What a loss, to not even be able to raise your own baby due to poverty and rather that receive economic support to continue one's family life in dignity, foreign entities just want the child.

Terrible and bordering on evil, IMO. It also robs the child of its culture and heritage forevermore. I despise Kamala Harris but her position regarding 'Hope At Home' is something I support. 'Hope at Home' is the idea that migration, foreign adoption and displacement are not the answer. Creating opportunities WITHIN countries and communities IS the way.

Not that Kamala will ever DO anything that helps, but the concept (pretty sure she didn't think it up) is sound.

 

[bob saunders]

There used to be a church programme called Adopt A Child where people from rich countries could put say $20 a month into an account of an orphan in Africa , mainly in the Ghana and Nigeria area. It was run by a church organisation associated with The Anglican Church .One of the recommendations was that the sponsors should not meet with the child or children that they had financially adopted. You did not pay the Church Organisation but paid the child direct. There were a few safeguards but not many .

I used to help a couple of children through children international. A girl in Chile and a boy in Colombia.my wife is still contact with the girl who is now a married woman with a child. She says much of whay Children International said about her life was unteue. For example they said her mother was a single mother with six children. He parwnts were married and there was obly her and her older sister. They were working poor Chilean Indios.

 

[FF1]

People who go to 3rd world countries to adopt children there is something more to their story. Why go to Haiti to adopt a child when there are so many children up for adoption in the US? Less oversight?

 

[Big]

People who go to 3rd world countries to adopt children there is something more to their story. Why go to Haiti to adopt a child when there are so many children up for adoption in the US? Less oversight?

there are 3rd world countries and then there is Haiti. A gringo traveling there now would be in great danger almost anywhere.

 

[NanSanPedro]

People who go to 3rd world countries to adopt children there is something more to their story. Why go to Haiti to adopt a child when there are so many children up for adoption in the US? Less oversight?

Not true at all.

Once you get involved with a mission and get to know everyone, you fall in love with the kids. I saw it many times in Haiti.

 

[bob saunders]

Not true at all.

Once you get involved with a mission and get to know everyone, you fall in love with the kids. I saw it many times in Haiti.

Haha, we have a little Haitian girl in the school, 4 year old, and she has me wrapped around her finger.