Three children's search for a new home

 

 

photo credit: Robert Gasteiger

SOS Children's Villages is acting on one of its main responsibilities in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti: the protection of unaccompanied children. There is room for some 300 children at the SOS Children's Village in Santo until it can be ascertained whether or not their parents or relatives have survived.

 

In the case of these three little children, there is, sadly, no doubt that they will need a new home. The one-year old twins Antoine and Anais and their older sister Noelle have been orphaned by the quake, and their grandfather, who dug them out of the rubble with his bare hands, is too old and poor to look after three children.

Unaccompanied children are being brought directly to the SOS Children's Village, while at the same time, co-workers of the organisation are going out into the camps and orphanages to register the children who need taking care of most urgently. In the case of Antoine, Anais and Noelle, a young man from one of the camps brought them and their grandfather to the attention of SOS co-workers. All relevant data is carefully registered and the family situation talked through once more to avoid misunderstandings. The severely traumatised children are taken to the SOS Children's Village by psychologically trained staff members and their grandfather, where they will be taken in by a loving SOS family. The children will receive trauma therapy and all the care, protection and love they need in this most extreme of situations.

Antoine, Anais and Noelle will possibly grow up in an SOS Children's Village. Others being cared for here temporarily can still hope to be reunited with their families.