Origins-USA urges keeping Haitian orphans with their families

By Karen Ciandella

The Adoption Community continues to come forward with position papers regarding adoptions in Haiti.

Origins-USA is a national, non-profit organization working to protect the natural rights of mothers to nurture their children. Origins-USA released the following position statement this week:

Origins-USA Urges Keeping Haitian Orphans with Their Families

Many news stories have talked about Americans seeking to adopt Haitian orphans in the wake of the devastating earthquake. Origins-USA encourages efforts to help Haitians through donations to respected relief agencies which can use funds to reunite children with their families and to help care for children in their own country.

International adoption should be a last resort, used only when necessary for children to receive medical care that they cannot obtain in their own country (Position Statement on International Adoption). Money spent bringing children to the US is better spent helping their families and relatives care for them in their own countries.

There’s talk about eliminating “red tape” to expedite adoptions. In truth, the so-called red tape is regulations designed to assure children are true orphans and do not have family members or neighbors to care for them. Origins-USA urges you to let your representatives in Congress, President Barack Obama, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton know that family support, not adoption, is the way to help the almost 400,000 children in Haitian orphanages.

Last week, 10 Americans were arrested in Haiti for attempting to illegally remove children from the earthquake devastated country.

The group of men and women, members of a church group in Idaho, are part of the “Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission”. They described their effort to save abandoned, traumatized children and the plan to “scoop up” children and relocate them to the Dominican Republic. They were arrested at the border for not having proper paperwork.

The fear that Haiti’s children will be exploited by child traffickers or illegal adoption is a reality.
Children that are parentless or lost are more vulnerable than ever to be seized. While the Americans may have been “trying to do the right thing” – removing children from Haiti is illegal and requires the Prime Ministers’ personal authorization.

While the Americans claim they were acting in good faith, many of the children continued to claim their parents are alive. If a child tells you they are not orphans and their parents are alive – how can you still claim “good faith and doing the right thing”?

Now, it’s up to the legal system to determine whether the Americans were acting out of good faith or are exploiting children.

Haiti’s government halted all adoptions unless they were in progress prior to the earthquake. Children have to be protected from people who will exploit them and from those who think they are doing the right thing.

Humanitarian efforts need to focus on tracking children, reuniting them with their families and taking care of them in their own country.