Madam, – The shocking images of bloodied children walking the streets of quake-hit Haiti have touched even the hardest of hearts. Many thousands of children have been orphaned and will need support, counselling and care for the foreseeable future.
It was probably inevitable that some organisations would begin encouraging people in the West to adopt children. While this might feel like the right thing to do, it is misguided.
One hundred Haitian children have already been “adopted” in the US in this fashion, even though it is impossible to tell in the confusion of the moment whether or not the children in question are indeed orphans.
All the evidence shows that it is in the best interests of a child’s recovery for them to remain in their communities and for family and relatives to be sought out. Removing vulnerable children from their communities only increases their distress in a situation that is already very confusing and frightening for them.
Plan has worked in Haiti for 37 years and fully understands the needs of the children and their communities. Sadly we have little or no knowledge yet of the whereabouts of many of the 42,000 children we have been supporting in our various programmes. Almost 200 of these children and projects in their communities are sponsored by people from Ireland.
As well as distributing tents and survival kits and feeding 18,000 people a day, Plan has also established safe zones where children who are living on the streets, too terrified to return to their battered homes, can receive psychosocial support in the form of a daily routine, counselling in the guise of games, and safe spaces to play.
With the right level of assistance, the Haitian community will cope with this disaster. But talk of international adoption of children is misguided. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Our airwaves and newspapers are overflowing with appeals from about 10 charities for donations to help the earthquake victims in Haiti. Is is not time for a central disasters emergency committee to be set up, as was done in the UK? Our national media outlets must be rejoicing at their sudden increase in advertising revenue from so many sources. – Yours, etc,