German doctors arrive in Haiti +++ UN staff rescued after 120 hours +++ 10,000 US soldiers to ensure security More than 1.8 million minors are traumatized, suffering from hunger and disease. Adopted children are being flown out
Every second victim is a child
An orphanage in Delmas, not far from Port-au-Prince. "When we arrived, dozens of children stretched out their arms to us," says James Addis of the aid organization World Vision. "I'll never forget that image. They had gone two days without water."
The shelter is already completely overcrowded, but is still trying to provide additional shelter for children from destroyed homes. There is no electricity, no food, and – worst of all – no clean drinking water. In desperation, the shelter's management fetched water from the nearby river and boiled it as a makeshift measure. "Many of the children are suffering from illnesses such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and rashes," says James Addis. The earthquake-hit children of Haiti – no one has been hit harder by the disaster. "Of the total 3 million people affected, around 1.8 million are children and young people," estimated Rudi Tarneden, spokesperson for the children's aid organization UNICEF, to the BZ. This means that more than half of the victims are children. "Many of them are completely on their own and traumatized, in shock," says Tarneden. UNICEF plans to set up two emergency shelters for them in Port-au-Prince, where they will receive psychological support. "After what happened, the girls and boys don't know what to do with their ignorance and grief," says trauma expert Dr. Unni Krishan of the organization Plan International. "They're looking for their parents and siblings – their distress is almost incomprehensible." But the emergency shelters are meant to not only care for the children, but also protect them. Hunger and disease aren't the only dangers they face. "In a desperately poor country like Haiti, child trafficking and sexual exploitation have always existed," Stephan Beschle of the organization "Save the Children" told the BZ. "And we know that situations like this are particularly vulnerable to unscrupulous human traffickers." Therefore, the UN has commissioned "Save the Children" to establish safe havens for the children. But no one knows when this will happen. At least a small number of the children can hope to escape this hell: France and the Netherlands plan to bring adopted children out of the country as quickly as possible in the coming days. However, all the paperwork would have to be in order for this to happen, said State Secretary for Development Aid Alain Joyandet. "We cannot allow mass quantities of children to come from Haiti if we are not sure that the dossiers have already been reviewed." According to parent associations, there are currently 1,200 to 1,500 adoption applications pending in France. "We are very worried and want to get the children out as quickly as possible," said Letje Vermunt, spokesperson for the Dutch Foundation for Adoption. These include 109 girls and boys whose adoptions had been approved by the authorities before the earthquake. "Parents for Children" and "Help a Child," the only German associations that place children from Haiti, are also planning similar measures. "Our discussions with the Federal Foreign Office are going very positively," Bea Garnier-Merz, chairwoman of "Help a Child," told the BZ. These are exclusively children,for whom adoption applications are already in the final stages, said Garnier-Merz. "We are striving for a swift, unbureaucratic, and humane solution," a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office confirmed the talks to the BZ. It is hope for a few. Hundreds of thousands of other children remain behind in the hell of Haiti.