Haiti’s ‘earthquake orphans’ have brought out the best in Canadians. Heartbreaking images of young children, often injured, homeless and with no-one to turn to, have prompted many to say “Bring them to us. We’ll adopt. We have room in our hearts and our homes for children so helpless, so alone in the world.”
Haiti’s earthquake orphans give us an opportunity to reflect more thoughtfully on the situation of orphans, even as we respond with our hearts.
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| Unaccompanied brothers in our SOS Santo while we search for their family |
We cannot adopt them all into Canada. Even if we could, adopting children from Haiti may not always be in the best interests of the children. They are already traumatized. They may have family or alternative care within their own communities and culture. Surely we should try to find their families.
The recently approved UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children regarding emergency services speak directly to this issue:
“...efforts should primarily be directed to enabling the child to remain in or return to the care of his/her parents, or when appropriate, other close family members. The State should ensure that families have access to forms of support in the care-giving role.”
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| Another young boy without family in the temporary care of SOS Santo |
Preferably members of the child’s family can be found to provide care. States and agencies like mine will count on aunts and uncles, often straining already to care for their own children, but generous enough to share what little they have with a niece or nephew alone in the world. What can we do to help them? To help the grandmothers, older siblings or other struggling care givers? There are, however, limits and even risks to kinship care. We must always act in the best interests of the child.
Second choice? In-country care, preferably ‘family-based’ care. This is where child-focused aid organizations like SOS Children's Villages have a role to play. We must, in some cases, build new homes and new families for children who have no-one to turn to.
And of course, there is adoption. In-country and international, it can make a transformative difference for a child with no other prospects. I know it works; my own children are both adopted.
A word of caution, however, before we start fast-tracking brand new adoptions. Peter Dudding, Executive Director of the Child Welfare League of Canada and Vice-President of my Board of Directors, reminded me that the first step is to ensure the safety and protection of children; then work on finding and tracing their family and, if necessary, their extended family. “We cannot assume that an unaccompanied minor is necessarily an orphan, and we must not assume that every child needs a new adoptive family.”
As most Canadians are not in a position to adopt, there are many positive actions that we can take to help children in Haiti.
Canadians can, make a real difference. In all that we do we should keep in mind that the best interests of the child must come first. In that context:
- We can advocate for more attention to Haiti’s orphans and the global orphan crisis by our Federal Government, including immediate creation of the Ministerial Working Group the Child Welfare League of Canada has called on Minister Kenney to create.
- We can send funds to reputable charities already on the ground and able to expand their work in Haiti and elsewhere. Invest wisely.
- We can, through some charities, sponsor an orphaned child, helping her grandmother or older sister, aunt or uncle provide the essential care and support she will need to mature into a whole young adult.
Lysiane Gagnon said it well (Extending Family in a Time of Crisis – Globe & Mail 25/1/10): “International law does not allow a country to pluck children from another country without the formal approval of the local government, and without first making sure the children have no relatives who can take care of them.” The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children are not meant to impede our desire to help. They are meant to ensure that our help is truly provided in a way that serves the best interests of the child first.
Boyd McBride
National Director
SOS Children’s Villages Canada
SOS Children’s Villages is the world’s largest orphan-focused charity. It has sixty years of experience with family-based care for children-at-risk and almost thirty years of work and 200 staff on the ground in Haiti.