Orphan Care Groups Come Together to Help Haiti

An article from Yahoo news:
Disaster Response Experts Team With Orphan Care Organizations to Create Long-Term Solutions in Haiti
Unique team to deploy Valentine's Day

RALEIGH, N.C., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A volunteer team of U.S. disaster response experts and orphan care providers is coming together to provide strategic help to Haitian churches. The team will equip and train Haitian church leaders to provide local, long-term care for orphaned Haitian children in the aftermath of the January earthquake.

The Haiti Orphan Relief Team (HORT) is a cooperative volunteer effort of disaster response experts and orphan-care professionals from many U.S.-based ministries that have joined forces to respond to the crisis in Haiti. An initial HORT on-the-ground team will deploy for a two week period beginning on February 14, 2010. The team will work to identify churches in Haiti that can be paired with U.S. churches for ongoing partnerships in caring for orphaned children, so that local resources can sustain this effort beyond the HORT team's deployment.
"We know that this disaster is not going to be fixed overnight, but by putting in place key pieces of infrastructure, efforts can be sustained and strengthened long after the HORT team has returned to the United States," said John E. Roberts, past Director of the Federal Government's National Interagency Training Center, and Incident Command System (ICS) team commander for HORT. "We are looking to build a long-term solution to the immediate crisis."

Recognizing that many Haitian church facilities were destroyed, HORT will use advanced mapping techniques developed by the U.S. government to physically identify the church facilities that are best able to provide long-term solutions to children now and in the future.

"We are looking for churches that want to become part of the long-term solution to the orphan need in Haiti. Â We encourage U.S. churches to come alongside the churches of Haiti to address this catastrophe," said Paul Myhill, President, World Orphans, and a member of the deployment team.

A Valentine's Day fund-raising drive is under way to help HORT deploy. Donors can personalize an eCard with a Valentine message and for every eCard sent, the team will personally deliver a Valentine to a Haitian orphan.

"Outside help alone won't reach Haiti's deepest need. If we're serious about helping Haiti's orphans toward a bright future, it'll be absolutely vital to equip and support committed local Haitian churches to care for the orphans in their communities," said Jedd Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans.
More about HORT can be found at: http://www.haitiorphanrelief.org/

Collaborators in this effort include:
Christian Alliance for Orphans, http://www.christianalliancefororphans.org/
Global Aid Network, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International, http://www.gainusa.org/
Hope for Orphans, a ministry of FamilyLife, http://www.hopefororphans.org/
Lifesong for Orphans, http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/
Love Haiti, http://www.lovehaitimissions.com/
Loving Shepherd Ministries, http://www.loving-shepherd.org/
Sweet Sleep, http://www.sweetsleep.org/
Together for Adoption, http://www.togetherforadoption.org/
University of North Carolina, School of Public Health, http://www.sph.unc.edu/
World Orphans, http://www.worldorphans.org/


(http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100209/pl_usnw/DC52297)

State Department: Now's Not the Time for Haitian Adoptions

"Official says first priority should be placing Haitian children with Haitian families."
An article from Christianity Today: 
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/februaryweb-only/16-32.0.html

Haiti Suspends Adoptions

Annoucement from JCICS:
"Since the earthquake Joint Council has received thousands of calls and emails from families wanting to help, wanting to start new adoptions from Haiti. It is for this reason we take a moment and remind everyone of the importance of speedy family reunification in times of crises.
As of January 12, 2010, the day of the devastating Haitian earthquake, governmental and legal procedures to process an adoption in Haiti have been impossible to carry out. Until further notice the best way to support the needs of the children in Haiti is to donate money to international aid organizations dealing with the disaster. Adoptions in Haiti cannot be processed according to Haitian or US law during the current emergency. Please consult Joint Council's Haiti Information page at www.jcics.org/haiti  and http://www.adoption.state.gov/ for up to date information about adoption from Haiti.
Joint Council is working with the U.S. government to determine the impact of the devastation on the adoption process. The coming days and months will be rightly focused on rescue and reunification efforts. It will take months to fully assess the impact on new adoptions from Haiti."

From CCAI:
"At this time the earthquake has put a stop to Haiti adoptions. No new adoptions are being accepted or processed by the Haitian government at this moment. We strongly support UNICEF, Saving the Children and World Vision’s position on focusing on the reunification of the homeless children with their families in the days and weeks ahead."
http://www.haitiadoption.org/

Opportunity for You to Go On a Mission Trip to Ethiopia

HopeChest is planning a mission trip to Ethiopia this April 18th-28th. Cost will be around $1,000 (PLUS airfare) depending on size of the group.

Ginia Hairston, HopeChest's program services director, will lead this trip to visit several of our orphanages in and around Addis Ababa. (You'll get to meet many of the children helped in our Shirts for Shoes campaign too!) The deadline for application and first deposit: February 21st.
Email nicole@hopechest.org  to reserve your spot.
http://www.hopechest.org/

Bleak Portrait of Haiti Orphanages Raises Fears

From the New York Times:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The floors were concrete and the windows were broken.

There was no electricity or running water. Lunch looked like watery grits. Beds were fashioned from sheets of cardboard. And the only toilet did not work.

But the Foyer of Patience here is like hundreds of places that pass as orphanages for thousands of children in the poorest country in the hemisphere. Many are barely habitable, much less licensed. They have no means to provide real schooling or basic medical care, so children spend their days engaged in mindless activities, and many die from treatable illnesses.

Haiti’s child welfare system was broken before the earthquake struck. But as the quake shattered homes and drove hundreds of thousands of people into the streets, the number of children needing care grew exponentially.

Chronic problems — like inadequate services, overwhelming poverty and shady orphanages — have only intensified, while the authorities fear that some of the less scrupulous orphanages are taking advantage of the chaos to round up children in crisis and offer them for sale as servants and sex slaves.

continue story - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/world/americas/07trafficking.html?ref=world