mcdanlj

mcdanlj , 10 months ago

@CoastalCoasting @neilhimself There's an extensively-researched report from LUMOS highlighting this problem in detail.

The majority (approximately 80%) of the children in "orphanages" in Haiti are abandoned by living parents; many are exploited sexually as well as physically abused in other ways. Many donations intended to help children in Haiti actually turn into supporting that abuse by funneling money to people running the orphanages, rather than supporting the children by equipping their parents to care for them.

Children with exceptional needs suffer even more; they are often considered cursed and even more frequently abandoned.

The center being funded by this appeal is specifically not an orphanage, and equips parents and foster parents to care for children, caring for the whole family, biological or otherwise.

mcdanlj , 10 months ago

Alec was my younger brother. He was a brilliant applied mathematician, changing how we use computers to understand magnetic reconnection. This work helped us to understanding better how the earth's magnetosphere interacts with solar wind, something that sounds esoteric until you realize that the stability of our power grid and satellite navigation depend on an accurate understanding. It will also be essential if we ever achieve power generation by nuclear fusion.

He wasn't just brilliant, though. He cared deeply about others, and always in meaningful and concrete ways. Shortly before he died, he was telling me excitedly about his plans to visit his friends Pierre and Natalie in Haiti, whom he had helped financially for years in their work, rescuing and rehabilitating so-called "orphans" who were mostly abandoned. Pierre knew about this intimately, because he himself was abandoned by his living mother, disowned by his living father, and abused as a restavek (literally, "stay-with") child-slave.

If this makes you more curious about the backstory for this project, the long version with more details is here:

https://cultivating-community.org/rehabilitating-haitian-orphans/

mcdanlj , 10 months ago

@CoastalCoasting @neilhimself There's a lot of horror. If you want more horror, read the LUMOS report itself. It's a hard read. ☹

There has been a lot of "missions tourism" to Haiti, with good intentions. Many individuals have built relationships and helped others. But also many relationships have been abused. There is a difference between visiting and working to help and investigating to identify wrongdoing. Most of the "orphanages" are local facilities, locally staffed, receiving western aid money. Not "under the care of missionaries" typically. Not all the orphanages maltreat the children. But even the best orphanage is not the same as being placed in a family, and this is true around the world, not just in Haiti.

I am not an expert on Haitian law or law enforcement, so I can't go into detail on what legal remedies and resources might theoretically be available. However, if you've been following recent news about Haiti, you will have seen there is a lot of lawlessness. The US Department of State has Haiti on its most restrictive level, "Do Not Travel," as a result. You can read about it here:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/haiti-travel-advisory.html

"Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure. On July 27, 2023, the Department of State ordered the departure of family members of U.S. government employees and non-emergency U.S. government employees. U.S. citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options, in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges. U.S. citizens wishing to depart Port-au-Prince should monitor local news and only do so when considered safe..."

It's a sad and hard situation. One Gift, One Child isn't fixing it all, but it's showing a different way to care for abandoned children than institutionalization of any sort, regardless of whether it is abusive.