- ATD Fourth World

A painful lesson noted by low-income parents from New Orleans was that many of their teenage children were separated from them in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, depriving these teens prematurely of much needed support.

In Haiti, for many years now, families living in the most extreme situations of poverty have often entrusted their children for short or long periods to other families or to institutions. Their hope is that their children will be better fed by others, and may have a chance at schooling that they do not have at home. The parents do everything they can to maintain links with their children, and to bring them home when times are better. To their shock however, over the years some of their children have been put up for foreign adoption without their notice. The parents themselves have sometimes been threatened or intimidated into not opposing these adoptions. As in many other countries, among the many needed and dedicated orphanages and adoption agencies, there are also some that do more harm than good.

UNICEF urges caution concerning Haitian adoptions in the current disarray: _ “UNICEF warns against the hasty adoption of Haitian orphans because of the extremely confused situation due to the magnitude of the catastrophe. UNICEF and its partners are currently working to count these children, to see if they have lost their parents, and to relocate the families. With respect to priorities our efforts should focus on the survival of all children who today are living in the midst of rubble.” [1]

The founder of the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, Dr. Jane Aronson, agrees:

“Adoption is not the way to solve absolutely massive, tragic issues of vulnerable children. An earthquake is a traumatizing event. The best thing for these children is to keep them in their communities, with neighbors and relatives, and with food and shelter and safety. These children are flipped out and frightened. Care for the children where they are by conscripting an army of grannies and allow them to find their aunts, their uncles, their grandparents, their cousins.” [2]

ATD Fourth World strongly supports action undertaken in this direction. In a UN study published by ATD Fourth World in 2004, “How Poverty Separates Parents and Children: a Challenge for Human Rights,” Haiti was one of the countries profiled. The study made clear that increasing access to education for all Haitian children is crucial to helping families stay together.

Hearing all the press reports about expedited adoptions from Haiti this month, parents living in extreme poverty in Belgium ask, "Why do people assume the children will be better off somewhere else? It’s their whole extended families who need support."

These parents’ voices need to be heard too.

Diana Skelton,
Deputy Director General