I know I have generally tried to keep adoption off of this blog. But events in Haiti have me a bit out of sorts, and I can’t not say anything.
Here’s the latest news story: Parents willingly gave children to US Baptists
The missionaries went to Haiti to set up an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. They tried to take children out of the country without proper documentation to the hotel building they arranged to use as an orphanage. There, apparently, they planned to offer the children for adoption.
The problem is that many of these children actually had parents, who were promised they could come and visit the children in the orphanage. This is a fact of life in Haiti: completely impoverished parents will sometimes give their children to orphanages in order to see their needs are met. In other words, many “orphans” in Haiti aren’t orphans.
And the Baptists knew it.
These people belong in jail. I know, I know… Innocent until proven guilty. I’m not saying they don’t deserve their day in court. But if the story we’ve gotten so far turns out to be true, these people are no better than child-traffickers.
Instead of ramping up adoptions in Haiti, we ought to be working towards more comprehensive solutions for the entire population.
On a related note, a few online friends pointed me to an organization that is doing something to help the children in Haiti, including the 33 children taken by the Baptist Missionaries: SOS Children’s Villages. They have written a good piece about the problems inherent in the increased interest in Haitian adoptions: Earthquake orphan appeal: Do not adopt earthquake orphans – Children Charity.
Well-intentioned or not, these missionaries behaved badly. They ought to have remembered that old adage: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Tags: adoption
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