After reading an article on msnbc I was amazed at what I read. After the devestation Haiti was hit with, parents are struggling to feed their children and give them any kind of shelter. Msnbc stated that parents in Callebas, Haiti were willingly handing over 2o children to American missionaries. What the missionaries promised the villagers was that their children will be given a better life. Within this article, it said that there were ten baptists who were arrested last week because they tried to take 33 haitian children without the required documents.
An orphanage worker named Issac Adrien said he told the villagers that their children will get educated so that they may return to take care of their families. So because of this, on January 28th, parents surrendered their children making this decision after Adrien had talked to them. I feel that when you are put in the situation like the haitian parents and someone who could potentially be trustworthy, it would not be an easy process to let your child go but if you have nothing to provide, sometimes it is best to do so.
What the missionaries did was illegal because they did not have the required government documents while trying to bring the 33 children over the dominican republic border. MSNBC also stated that the missionaries lawyer said "they willingly accepted kids they knew were not orphans because the parents said they would starve otherwise." While reading throughout this article, it really hit me when a haitian father said that he does not know what he would do if his children were sent back because he is living in a tent with his friend.
Legal experts say that taking children across the border without documents or government permission can be considered child trafficking. Hillary Clinton said that this could have been done legally, A hatian born pastor says that an orphan is someone without a mother and father. The reason why haitian parents place their children in orphanages is because they cannot care for their children because they are "homeless and hopeless".
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35221007/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake//
I feel that parents in Haiti had good intentions in their minds but because these missionaries did not have the proper documents, it was not a good choice to let them take their children. They do not know what potentially could have happened to their children if they were not stopped while trying to cross the border.
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What a powerful story, what a hard position for the parents. As a parent I cannot imagine what it would feel like to not be able to provide for your children. To not be able to provide for their basic needs has to be a living nightmare for these parents. There has to be a better way of getting their children into safety than an illegal way. I understand they had to have been desperate to find a quick solution. I just pray that someone will be able to find a solution that will help to provide a better life for these children, while still keeping the promises that were made to the parents.
ReplyDeleteThis really is a powerful issue and very controversial. I can see why parents would want to try and give their children the best chance at life. Wouldn’t every parent want the same thing: a better life for their children? I am not a parent but just looking into this story and all the devastation that has came about from it, there seems to be no other way. There will always be help but I do not think there could ever be enough to help all those people over in Haiti. Allowing children to get adopted and move into orphanages seems to be a good idea. They will have proper shelter, clothing, food and water, and better healthcare. Although the missionaries were trying to take the children without proper paper work, it seems they were only trying to do what is right. However, everyone needs to be careful because of what the future might bring. In the future, there is likely to be parents trying to find their children who had been taken to the States. What then, do we have the patience to make sure all the names are written down correctly so that the children can be properly found? As great as it sounds to have as many children moved to the States, there seems to be a lot more that needs to be done first. I think the best thing is to provide immediate care, but also take precaution and some patience in trying to figure out how to do this correctly.
ReplyDeleteI am in a neutral position upon reading this. I'm not a parent or anything, but having to make a decision such as that had to have been really tough. A choice between potentially giving their child a good life, or having them continue to suffer.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, that's not good that it was legally wrong. Maybe the missionaries should have looked into it a little more before doing such an extreme thing.
This is an extremely controversial situation. But I don't think the media should have blown it up so big. Obviously, people are just trying to show they care, and trying to help out a hurt Haiti. I don't think anything illegal was purposely happening here.
I think we'll be seeing plenty of more problems concerning Haiti, which is not good at all.
I can understand the reasoning of the parents choosing to giv etheir children a better life. It must be so hard to speperate the family like that. Natural disasters are events that cannot be prevented, but the call to resucue is something that people have in their hands. Nations show thier real sides by helping out ans the media is there to capture all the evidence. In this situation, the illegal acts caught the medias attention and started a contravercy.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine giving your kids to someone that was supposed to take them into better care, give them a better life and food to eat and then finding out that in reality they were taking them away illegaly. Thank goodness they stopped them before they got the children too far away. I know the parents had no idea about the missionaries and just handed their children over because of all the things going on over there in Haiti, but now they know to look farther into who they are giving their children to and if it is really to a better place.
ReplyDeleteThe Haiti parents really didn't have a choice. I mean have their children stay with them and starve or have them go to a spot where their could be food and shelter for them. It had to be a really hard decision for the parents I imagine. What eh missionaries was wrong but they should have talked to the government to work out a deal to accept children to go across the border before just taking them.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see why Haitians would be giving up their children when they know that they can no longer provide for them. This would be heart breakingly difficult but none the less better for the lives of these children. I feel that there should be a program that would be created to assist children in devastated countries. I can see there were good intentions in the missionary’s efforts, but he should have made sure that it was legally correct to just take these children. Also, he had stated to the Haitians that their children would come back to help rebuild their nation, but how could a promise like that be made. The children may grow up with resentment or a feeling of anxiety when thinking of going back to what was once there home.
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