will produce. Since the resources that existed even before the quake were far below the need.
It is easy to see much more needs to be done as soon as additional
resources can be made available.
After the deadly earthquake in Haiti the number of orphans there has increased. 380,000 children are estimated to have been living in orphanages or group homes even BEFORE the recent calamity. What is to become of these children? Credit to: CJ: Garima Mohan
HAITI, IN the Caribbean, is one of the poorest countries in the world with a large population of orphaned children. Even before the recent deadly earthquake, Haiti already had more then 380,000 children living in orphanages or group homes. The United Nations Children's Fund reported this on its web site.
Now, with the lack of proper communications, law and order and a chaotic ground situation, many fears have been voiced that children may be trafficked overseas without anybody’s knowledge, as in most of the cases there are no extended family members alive. Since 2000 almost every year there have been disasters in Haiti- deadly tropical storms, hurricanes that hit in 2004, 2005 and 2008, then floods and now an earthquake of this magnitude. All this has left a growing number of orphans in Haiti.
Children were abandoned amid the Caribbean nation's long-running political strife which led to thousands of people seeking asylum in the U.S. without their children; parents were simply too poor to take care of them! The orphanages that had been operating in Haiti even before the earthquake are unable to keep their kids safe, sheltered and fed.
Many of these helpless children are trafficked to other countries, made to work like servants or sexually abused. Just to make sure that nothing like this happens various NGO’s and government bodies of the world are working to protect these vulnerable children from being abused. International advocacy groups too are trying to help by sending in relief personnel to evacuate thousands of orphans to the U.S and other countries for adoptions that were already in progress. United Nations is establishing a group in Haiti to protect the orphans against trafficking, kidnapping and sex abuse.
Some 109 children, who are being adopted by Dutch families, will leave Haiti very soon. A chartered plane has already been sent for this purpose. Some 50,000 children were thought to be living in group homes when the earthquake hit. Nearly 1000 of them were in the process of being adopted by US families, with a further 1500 matched with European families, mostly in France and the Netherlands.
Nobody knows what the impact of this earthquake will be on children. These children are shattered and will have lifelong psychological problems unless proper counseling is rendered to them. Authorities working for children in Haiti are very careful with the adaptation process and making sure that they are matched with the right sort of foster parents.
