HAITI: As government struggles to rebuild and feed hundreds of thousands of survivors country's youngest suffer deepest wounds

Record ID: 735479

  • Title: HAITI: As government struggles to rebuild and feed hundreds of thousands of survivors country's youngest suffer deepest wounds
  • Date: 29th January 2010
  • Summary: CHILD IN COT SLEEPING BABY SLEEPING ANOTHER BABY SLEEPING
  • Embargoed: 13th February 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Haiti
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6MO706MFR4RPJKOVN9TIUMLOW
  • Story Text: Children are the most vulnerable in Haiti's post earthquake crisis, abandoned, injured and often unable to fend for themselves or speak of their pain.
    And now a debate is raging about whether or not the country's youngest should be given up for adoption abroad when so little is known about where their parents and relatives are or if they are still alive.
    One of these children is Jo, a four year old boy who was found lying on the grounds of the general hospital in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince two days after the earth quake.
    He was alone, naked and totally silent.
    Magalie, a volunteer for the International Red Cross brought him to the aid organization's psycho-social team which, for the first time at the Red Cross, was embedded with the hospital's emergency services.
    This unit gives psychological support to children to gently pry out any information about them, their relatives, where they come from and to get them to talk - especially about their grief.
    Magalie says the children express their trauma in different ways. Some stop eating or talking, others become hyperactive and others simply stay angry.
    Jo was very reserved and withdrawn. He only talked when she gave him a phone to play with. When she found out who he was talking to she understood how much he was hurting:
    "Yes, I gave him a phone. 'Are you going to call someone?" he said: 'Hello? Its Jo. Bring me toys, balloons, sweets and don't forget the chicos (sweets). After talking to them I asked him 'who have you been talking to?' 'With my mother' What did she tell you?' 'She said she was not coming to get me' 'Why?' 'Because she is dead'. That really touched me because he feels something inside that comes through. I don't know but there is something wrong inside. He has understood that his mother was not close to him," Magalie told Reuters on Thursday (January 28).
    At first he didn't want to eat. On Wednesday (January 27) he actually asked for food himself for the first time since coming here.
    "I am so happy because he has started to eat now. he just said to me there that he is hungry," says Magalie.
    Magalie says its important to show the children that they are being taken care of. But the volunteers have to be careful not to become too attached or to behave like a parent the children will be unable to walk away from.
    She is a Haitian volunteer who was trained in psychology with the support of the International Red Cross who have a permanent base in Haiti.
    Magalie says after just two weeks she has seen a huge difference in the traumatized children's behaviour.
    "In the 2 weeks we have spent with the children we have seen improvements. If you go around the tents you will see the change. If you had come before you would have said they were monsters. They did not play, didn't want to talk, to express themselves, when we talked to them they were mute. It was incredible. Now its ok" she says.
    The head of the mobile pyscho-social unit, a Dane called Ea Suzanne Ashak, is in Haiti to coordinate the Haitian volunteers who are the ones caring for the children.
    She said the psychological first aid they provide is not just for children. One day, she explains, a mother, who had come with her child, was asked to leave as she was healthy. But because she had no where to go she refused to leave, taking up precious space for the severely injured still pouring in.
    U.S. soldiers came to evacuate her and she panicked, Akasha says. The volunteers intervened, told the the military to leave them alone and after 15 minutes managed to calmly persuade the mother to go to the makeshift camp opposite the destroyed palace.
    Akasha says it is crucial to help children, as well as adults, cope with the shock, trauma and loss as quickly as possible. Otherwise people find it much harder to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on.
    This the Red Cross learned from their experience in Tsunami hit areas.
    "Some areas of the tsunami that was badly affected you saw that people who didn't get any psycho-support withered, they didn't engage in society again, they didn't engage in rebuilding society, their livelihood was lost, they didn't know what to do, they didn't know where to turn, they sort of all just sat around, hang around, no body took care of the children, so that's what could happen, so that is why it is so important to intervene at this phase," Akasha says.
    "Some areas of the tsunami that was badly affected you saw that people who didn't get any psycho-support withered, they didn't engage in society again, they didn't engage in rebuilding society, their livelihood was lost, they didn't know what to do, they didn't know where to turn, they sort of all just sat around, hang around, no body took care of the children, so that's what could happen, so that is why it is so important to intervene at this phase" Akasha says.
    The Red Cross is looking for good orphanages in Haiti to take care of the children at the hospital so that they can take in more at the General Hospital where they are camping out.
    The best solution, Akasha, is to find their relatives or foster homes within their own community.
    Soon after the earthquake western countries decided to speed up their adoption process and prospective parents asked their agencies to find Haitian children to adopt. Fears are growing that agents and traffickers are taking advantage of the situation to sell on Haitian babies to wealthier families outside the country.
    Akasha says the dilemma is complex because so much of Haiti was destroyed, so many adults have suffered amputations and have no secure homes, so many children have been injured and abandoned.
    Asked if every effort should be made to keep Haitian babies in Haiti she says this is not within the Red Cross mandate: they are here to help orphans cope with the immediate emotional aftermath not find homes for them.
    "Well that would preferable for any child. But because of the magnitude, I don't know how many children here have lost their parents or have relatives who are not able to cope with them so this is one of the situations where you might prefer the children go abroad and have proper homes but that's not for me because it is not within the red cross mandate to do that" she says.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
Register