Fran Larson

Adopting Children from Haiti: Too Much Bureaucratic Red Tape: Urgent Needs: Children Suffering


Posted: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

by
http://www.franniesquotes.com/

I can just picture children walking around looking for parents, or worse yet, knowing their parents are dead (having seen them die). Haiti had far too many orphans even before the earthquake.

According to Unicef, Haiti had around 380,000 orphans under the age of 17 before last week's earthquake. It also estimates that 46% of the country's 10m-strong population is under the age of 18.

Yet, it has just been announced that would-be adoptive parents must wait. Will the child still be alive after this wait? Also, the Catholic Churchs of Miami had plans to lift thousands of Haitian children made orphans by the earthquake, but now the Joint Council on International Children's Services has called a halt to that.

"Bringing children into the US, either by airlift or new adoption during a time of national emergency, can open the door for fraud, abuse and trafficking," JCICS said in a statement. "Every effort must be made in a timely fashion to locate living parents and extended family members. Many children who might appear to be orphaned may in fact be only temporarily separated from their family."

It appears that I am not the only one who feels this way.

Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana is pushing. Lawmakers for legislation that would make it possible much sooner, rather than later for American families to adopt Haitian orphans.

"We need to be accelerating the process of child protection and adoption, even if it is temporary, with extraordinary measures, not stopping it," Landrieu said. "And I am going to challenge those organizations every step of the way. This is the time to step up and say, 'I want to adopt.' This is the time to try to save the lives of children."

Once again, we are so drenched with bureaucratic Red Tape that now instead of these children being put with families as soon as possible, they are left to wonder if they will ever have a home again, while starving for love, as well as food and necessities.

I will admit I do not know the answer, but there has to be a better way. Even if the children are brought to America temporarily, it would seem that would be better than leaving them if the awful chaotic conditions that they exist in now.

Francine Larson:

Co-Author of Character Keys to a Bright Future.

She is a freelance writer

See more articles by Francine Larson at:http://www.examiner.com/modern-love-in-tampa-bay/francine-larson

She also writes for The Highlands at Scotland Yards. She writes poetry and short stories.

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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)
» left by Anonymous
 2 years 11 days ago.
I wholeheartedly agree with the author.....it was be better if these potential "orphans" were brought to the United States temporarily until they are legally ordained as orphans.  If a family has already adopted the child(ren), as the couple of Maine, then they should be able to expedite the adoption routine and these children should be brought to their new families immediately.
» left by Jen Sanders
 2 years 5 days ago.
6 fans.
This entire situation is so heart breaking. I agree that doing something and doing it quickly is better than doing nothing. These children need so much & they need it right now.
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