Disaster in Haiti gives adoption 'new energy'

Disaster in Haiti gives adoption 'new energy'

By Luis Fabregas

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Monday, January 25, 2010

Buzz up!

Soon after dramatic images of Haitian orphans began popping up on the Internet, newspapers and TV, big-hearted Americans flooded adoption agencies with calls, eager to adopt the children.

In Allegheny County, the Department of Human Services fielded about 850 calls from people interested in adoption, officials said. The Three Rivers Adoption Council, which handles adoption opportunities throughout Pennsylvania, received about 200 calls.

"It's been quite unusual," said Jacqueline Wilson, the council's CEO.

The same is happening elsewhere in the United States, where charitable families are offering to open their homes to Haitian children, perhaps motivated by reports of more than 300,000 orphans in the earthquake-battered country.

It is unclear how many families will get an opportunity to adopt orphans who remain in Pittsburgh from the BRESMA orphanage, which was nearly destroyed by the Jan. 12 earthquake in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

Of 54 children brought to Pittsburgh from the orphanage, 12 remained Sunday in Holy Family Institute in Emsworth. The children are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Health and Human Services but are being cared for by local volunteers including Jamie and Ali McMutrie, the Ben Avon sisters who ran the orphanage. The other 42 were placed with adoptive families.

Officials at the federal agency did not respond to questions about who might be able to adopt the remaining children, who arrived in the United States without having started an adoption process.

Leslie Merrill McCombs, a UPMC official who helped coordinate their rescue, said it is possible the children could go to families who completed adoptions of BRESMA orphans. Seven families who adopted children expressed interest, and their requests were being evaluated, she said.

"It's not going to be very long before these kids are in a safe, happy home," said McCombs, a senior consultant for government relations who traveled to Haiti on a rescue flight put together by Gov. Ed Rendell, Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, and others.

Officials at Three Rivers Adoption Council are asking callers if they are interested only in Haitian orphans, and whether they would consider adopting a child from elsewhere. Wilson said she was surprised to hear many people say they would be willing to adopt any child.

"We don't want to lose sight of the 125,000 children in the United States that have a goal of adoption," Wilson said. "This has created a new energy (about adoption) that's very welcome."

Unlike international adoptions that can take several years, Wilson said, U.S. adoptions can be completed in four to six months. The process includes special training for prospective parents and clearances from federal and state authorities.

Adoption fees can reach several thousand dollars but are not as high as those of international adoptions. A nonprofit adoption agency that handled adoptions for BRESMA orphanage, Kentucky Adoption Services, charged about $25,000 for each child, according to figures posted on its Web site.

Experts discourage international adoptions during a time of crisis. They fear trafficking and exploitation of children.

"Everyone has a good heart and the intent is good, but at this point we need to focus on creating a process to make sure that the children are really orphans," said Brian Franklin, a spokesman for the Joint Council on International Children's Services, a Virginia-based adoption watchdog organization.

Jini Roby, an associate professor at Brigham Young University and an expert on international adoptions, said what's best at a time of crisis is to keep children safe and cared for, and to conduct a high-visibility campaign to find and assist their families.

"I think we learned some bitter lessons, in retrospect, when we learned that most of the children airlifted out during the imminence of the fall of Saigon were children who had families," she said. "Through numerous such experiences, the global child welfare community has agreed that in times of natural and human disasters, we should not hasten to whisk the children away for adoptions but work on reunification with their own families."

Wilson cautioned potential parents against premature decisions about adoptions.

"Adoption is a commitment, and a lifelong commitment," she said. "It is imperative that people understand the process they're going to go through."