On air: Would you adopt a child from Haiti?
This little boy has just touched down in the Netherlands, his new home. It’s worlds apart from the wreckage he has left behind – Haiti.
It’s a common story right now. The US, France and Canada have already sped up their adoption processes but people are divided.
Here’s a round up of the rights and wrongs of adopting during a disaster.
Yesterday Clamdip on our blog posted:
Rather than ripping children away from their homeland, culture and language couldn’t wealthier nations adopt 15,000 children apiece and build structurally sound schools and communities to house ,clothe and feed them in Haiti? ….If the adopting nation tracks the children’s education and well being for the next 20 years or so, these children will become the next crop of doctors, lawyers, police and teachers. And God knows Haiti will need these children’s skills in the future.
Do you agree that Haiti needs its children to rebuild the nation?
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children’s Chief Executive shares her concerns
” Taking children out of the country would permanently separate thousands of children from their families – a separation that would compound the acute trauma they are already suffering and inflict long-term damage on their chances of recovery.”
But Dixie Bickel, who we’ve been speaking to during the crisis hopes that adoptions can ease the pressure on orphanages like hers.
“There are millions of orphans in the world and we can’t look after all of them. So I cannot possibly condemn the opportunity for some of these to go to a loving home.”
Mirah Riben believes a tragedy is being exploited – something she’s seen before.
What was already a shocking situation for Haiti’s children, is now a lot worse. So does disaster justify fastracking the adoption process? Or should fears of slips ups make the process even more vigorous?
Have a read of Melanie Reid who’s all in favour of Haiti’s orphans being adopted.
‘This is not the time to allow instinct to be bureaucratised, nor suspicion to temper good intentions, nor childless couples to be treated as quasi-child abusers. It’s time, instead, to be as heroic as the orphans themselves.’
Should we encourage more people to adopt children from Haiti at this time of crisis?
2 comments:
Every time I hear a story on NPR or the national evening news about adoption and Haiti, I cringe. I was encouraged to hear on NPR that the U.S. is finalizing the adoptions that were already mid-process (pre-earthquakes) but will take its time before processing NEW adoptions, making sure that children can be connected to family members.
I do believe that Haiti will need its children to rebuild the nation. If Haitian children are adopted and relocated to the United States by non-Haitian people, then how will they preserve their sense of pride in Haiti? Where will these children live? If they live in Florida or other large Haitian communities, it is very different from living in a place with little or no Haitian communities. Will the adoptive parents be willing to let their child return to Haiti later to support their "homeland", if the child so desires?
So many questions. I do not have the answers.
Important questions. Hindsight of adult international and interracial adoptees tells us that living in an interracial community and attending an interracial school are very helpful.
I remain concerned. the State Dept is claiming 600 children were in the "pipeline."
Also, once the worst is over private planes will go in from church groups etc and snatch up kids even if the gvt doesn't.
The answers are in the words of Unicef, ISS etc. International adoption is always a last resort, and a time of crisis is not a time to remove children from the familiar surroundings!
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