Haitian Kids Taken by Baptists Weren't Orphans

But desperate families are giving up kids voluntarily to get them out

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 1, 2010 9:04 AM CST

(Newser) – Many of the 33 children a group of American Baptists tried to take out of Haiti without the proper documentation aren't orphans at all, and officials at an orphanage where the children were taken after the Americans were arrested are trying to reunite them with their families. But the reality is that more than a few Haitian parents are giving up children voluntarily to give them an opportunity to escape squalid post-quake conditions, the AP reports.

"Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners," says one parent who's planning to do the same. "I've been thinking how I will choose which one I may give—probably my youngest." Says another father of seven, who finds he can't do anything for his children: "They would be better off in another country. I'd like one of them to go to the United States." A spokeswoman for the group of detained Baptists acknowledged that they knew they didn't have the right paperwork for the kids, and were just trying to do the Christian thing by getting them out of horrifying conditions.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Three of the deatained Americans listen during an interview with the Associated Press at police headquarters at the international airport in Port-au-Prince. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Three of the detained Americans look on during an interview with the Associated Press at police headquarters at the international airport in Port-au-Prince. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

An infant who was part of the group of children that S Baptists were trying to take out of Haiti is carried by a girl at an orphanage run by Austrian-based SOS Children's Villages in Port-au-Prince. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

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The instinct to swoop in and rescue children may be a natural impulse but it cannot be the solution for the tens of thousands of children left vulnerable by the Haiti earthquake.
- Deb Barry, a protection expert
at Save the Children

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 33 comments

toughstuff

Feb 2, 2010 4:10 AM CST

Helping the children is fine but why don'T they adopt at home? I read that in just one state there are over 3000 children that need adopting & also that same state has over 20,000 in temp. homes. Charity begins at home, people can't see homeless unadopted children right under their nose? Some of the Haiti children were being adopted before the earthquake. There is something wrong with this picture.

ljm

Feb 1, 2010 9:50 AM CST

Here are the postions of a couple of legitimate organizations: http://www.savethechildren.org... http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb....

ljm

Feb 1, 2010 9:24 AM CST

@college- These parents are being expected to make decisions in a time of crisis that will impact them and their childern for a lifetime. It is humane to provide them an avenue to keep their children. There are legitimate aid organizations on the ground that are doing just that. No legitimate NGO is advocating taking the children out of the country . The best that can be said about this group of is that they are well-meaning and misguided.

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Haitian Kids Taken by Baptists Weren't Orphans