Day 6 - Sun RePost CNN - Pending adoptions granted - Haiti orphans

Sun - Orphan Update:

NOTE: This report from CNN that Haitian orphans with already pending adoptions that were awaiting paperwork or court approval are being allowed to leave Haiti, via a CHANGED POLICY by the Dominican Republic authorities. In prior catastrophes, Haitian children without completed paperwork were BLOCKED from being adopted by outside agencies.

The 2010 earthquake has caused a mass displacement and vulnerability of tens of thousands of children. Adoption agencies everywhere, particularly evangelical church based organizations already working in the region, are rushing in to address the real need. They are also able to take advantage of these relaxed legal rules, and recognize this as an unprecedented opportunity to move adoptions forward that normally might be blocked or could take much longer. As one orphan director saw it, despite the catastrophic reason, the earthquake has provided a 'window of opportunity' for adoption agencies, and missionary organizations.

Haitian insiders say there is natural concern among Haitians about the inability of the Haitian government to maintain adequate oversight over the adoption process of Haitian orphans at this moment. But the immediate primary concern of all parties is to get children off the streets and into safe setttings where they have access to essential resources.

Below is the CNN story, and an update from Kids Alive, that is rushing to take orphaned children to its home in the DR for future adoption.

The evangelical Christian organization, Kids Alive International, is overseeing the adoptions cited below.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Slashing red tape or ignoring ordinarily required paperwork, officials in the United States and the Netherlands have cleared the way for scores of Haitian orphans to leave their earthquake-ravaged homeland, according to officials from the two countries.

All of the children had adoptions pending with prospective parents in the two countries before Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, and government officials said paperwork was expedited or put on hold to make transfers happen on an emergency basis.

300 children have pending adoption cases with American families. Six children arrived in Florida Sunday night, met by their adoptive parents with hugs and tears of happiness.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has chartered a plane to pick up about 100 children Monday, spokesman Aad Meijer told CNN.


Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin over the weekend granted the children entry into the country, although their paperwork, including travel and adoption documents, was incomplete, Justice Ministry spokesman Patrick Mikkelsen told CNN.

About 44 of the orphans' adoptions had yet to be approved by a Haitian judge, even though they were matched to Dutch parents, Mikkelsen said. Dutch officials may seek the remaining approvals from Haiti once the children have already settled in the Netherlands, he added.

Haiti is home to about 380,000 orphans, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, and that number is expected to grow in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake. And those who lived in orphanages before Tuesday may be homeless now, as reports of destroyed orphanages have come throughout the quake zone.

Full coverage of the earthquake in Haiti

Some children who lost parents in the quake or were separated from parents are being relocated to the Dominican Republic, a child advocacy group said.

About 50 orphaned and abandoned children will arrive in the border town of Jimani on Wednesday, Kids Alive International said. The efforts, coordinated with the governments of both countries, will eventually take the children back to Haiti. Some will be reunited with parents who lost communication with their children in the quake's aftermath, the group said.

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About Kids Alive International:

January 14, 2010 - Missionaries in Haiti express concern for increased cost of basic supplies like food and fuel. Plans are being made to take in as many orphans as we can as soon as they have been identified by officials into our unharmed housing in the north of Haiti and possibly in the DR.

January 15, 2010 - Field Director, Vic Trautwein, has met with government officials in the DR. Lost children and orphans are being identified now and may start arriving in the DR Kids Alive facilities as early as Monday! We are making plans for their arrival. Please pray!

Here is the latest UPDATE from this missionary organization:

Haiti Disaster Brief from the Dominican Republic, 16 JAN 2010


Our Dominican Republic Field Director, Vic Trautwein, is spearheading our Haiti crisis response efforts from the DR side of the island. Here is a summary of the update received today from Vic:

 Our Kids Alive ministry in the Dominican Republic is uniquely situated to respond to the needs of the many Haitian children who have been made homeless, vulnerable and orphaned by the recent earthquake in Port au Prince:
o We share the same island with Haiti.
o We are very familiar with Haitian children since 20% of the children currently enrolled in our DR ministries are Haitian kids.
o We employ a number of Haitian staff on our DR team already, who will be resources for us as we continue to employ additional Haitian staff here in the DR.
o Our local DR staff, our missionaries, and the children in our ministries are very excited and relieved that they will be able to respond and be of practical help to many of the suffering children who have come out of the rubble that was once Port au Prince.
o We are preparing 5 locations in the DR to receive 50 displaced Haitian children this coming week, as the DR government has told us to expect a call on Monday or Tuesday and probably to begin receiving kids by Wednesday. Our locations for caring for these children are: Ark Jarabacoa, Ark Constanza, ANIJA, Monte Plata camp, and Caraballo/Villa Ascension. The children will probably range from 4 to 11 years of age, many without documents, who have made their way to one of the Haiti/DR border crossings but have no adult to care for them. We will not know much information about these children until they are in our care.

o The DR government has informed us that customs regulations at the DR/Haiti border are being temporarily relaxed in order to allow disaster relief to cross the border into Haiti (we expect more information on this in the next few days.

This new policy will allow us to drive vehicles filled with much-needed supplies and resources across the northern Haiti border so we can support our existing ministry location in Cap Haitien, Haiti.

The DR government’s typical position following other disasters in Haiti has been to prohibit Haitian children from entering the DR, but because of the massive scale of this tragedy the DR officials are now thinking differently.

We are preparing our Kids Alive Haiti ministry location in Cap Haitien (in the north of Haiti) to receive another group of 50 displaced Haitian children. We are assessing what supplies will be needed to care for these additional kids, such as shelter (possibly tents), beds, blankets, and a kitchen stocked with food and water to feed these children. Our plan is to support this effort from the DR where supplies are available and we have support staff in place to assist in transporting these supplies.

Our Kids Alive DR board chairman, Victor Herrera, has been invited to participate in some government meetings to help coordinate the Haiti relief efforts. This is great news for us as it should advance our organizational relationship with the DR government and provide us a way to cut through the usual “red tape” that we might encounter.

Even though Kids Alive DR is not a major player compared to the larger relief agencies involved in the Haiti rescue efforts, we are trying our best to help by using the people, resources, locations and expertise that the Lord has made available to us. We know that the short-term and the long-term needs of many Haitian children will be immense, so we hope to participate in the rebuilding of their lives in every way that we can.