Haiti's orphans best helped with localized solutions, Buckner International president says

Publication date: 5 February 2010

11:09 PM CST on Friday, February 5, 2010

The stories coming out of Haiti about orphaned children are gut-wrenching, and Americans have opened up their hearts and homes to take them in.

But some child-care experts are cautioning that it may not be wise to begin adoption proceedings so soon after a catastrophe such as an earthquake, especially if the deaths of both of the child's parents cannot be confirmed.

It may be better to wait a month or two – that's when organizations like Buckner International can step in to launch local programs that will help communities come up with their own solutions, said Albert Reyes, the newly elected president of the 131-year-old social services organization based in Dallas.

"It's been challenging for us because we don't specialize in disaster relief and we want to help," Reyes said this week. "But we're gathering resources and getting ready to go in a month or two, when they begin to sort things out."

That's when Buckner will offer orphanage support and foster care and adoption programs through Dillon International, a 38-year-old Tulsa-based adoption agency that specializes in intercountry adoptions. Dillon joined forces with Buckner last year.

Waiting seems like a wise decision, especially since 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries have been charged by Haitian authorities with kidnapping 33 Haitian children. Though the Idaho-based group may have been well-meaning in its efforts to take the children to safety, the missionaries had no documents giving them custody, and many of the children were not orphans.

Reyes, 51, said Buckner, which is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, has no ties to the Idaho Baptist group. And Buckner would not have gone about the process of removing orphaned children from a country without following a more formal procedure, he said.

"We're very careful about participating with the highest level of integrity, so we try to make sure the countries we work with adhere to the Hague agreement," a formal international agreement designed to ensure transparency in adoptions to prevent trafficking, kidnapping, smuggling and baby-selling, he said.

Buckner is also careful that "what we're doing is in the best interests of the child," he said.

Often, that means honoring local customs and traditions, and keeping an orphan within the child's home country.

"We first serve at the point of need," he said. "If anything, we want to empower local communities and governments to become self-sustainable."

Reyes, the first Latino to head Buckner, is very conscious of helping people become self-sufficient in a hostile environment.

His own grandfather was born near Laredo and worked cattle drives and slept in a flatbed truck to help his family survive a hardscrabble existence.

Today, as head of an agency with a $100 million budget, Reyes can look at the most vulnerable victims of Haiti's earthquake and know the difficult task that lies ahead.

Buckner's mission is his own.

"No matter how much privilege or opportunity we have," he said, "we must remember we were once where they are now."

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Countries: Haiti