The Kids Are Still There In Haiti

There has been an outpouring of compassion for orphaned children in Haiti and an upsurge in interest in adoption. How do you get involved? Is it a good idea? Tom Vanderwell of God’s Littlest Angels in Haiti’s orphange has a message about your help. This is a legitimate US and Canadian charity so you can help out right away by making a donation.

by Tom Vanderwell, God’s Littlest Angels in Haiti

There’s an amazing thing going on right now.   Countless, literally countless numbers of families all across the United States, Canada and other countries are considering the possibility of opening up their hearts and homes and adopting orphans from Haiti.   That’s a wonderful thing.

But, let’s take a look at a couple of realities of the situation:

• The Haitian government buildings are in shambles.   Much of the paperwork in those buildings is gone forever and there is not an infrastructure to repair them and get them adequately staffed.   So, we don’t know how long it’s going to take to rebuild the government so we know what the requirements are for adoptions.
• There isn’t a good “identification” system (like Social Security #’s and dental records) in Haiti so it’s going to take a significant length of time to determine the true status of many of the newly created orphans.
• According to this report by CNN, there are over 380,000 orphans in Haiti after the quake.   Even if this number is exaggerated by 50%, that’s still a dramatic increase in the number of orphans.

So there are two main things that God’s Littlest Angels are going to need to focus on going forward:

Caring for the children who are, or appear to be orphans.   This is going to require substantial resources, financial support, logistical support, and medical supplies.    We’re working on the details of how to get those things accomplished.   If you are interested in helping, go to the right column and sign up on the “God’s Littlest Angels Need Your Help” box.    Or go to the Want To Help and sign up there.

Eventually, we’ll need families willing to adopt the true orphans that we take in.   It will be a long time (don’t ask how long, I don’t know) until we can verify their true status, allow the Haitian government to rebuild, and determine who qualifies as adoptive parents and who doesn’t.   If you think you might be interested, go to http://godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org/so-you-want-to-adopt/ and sign up there.    We’ll keep you informed on what’s happening in Haiti and how you can help.

But I need you all to do us a favor.    PLEASE, stop e-mailing Jean Bell (our stateside coordinator), Dixie or me telling us that you want to adopt.    We really appreciate it but these e-mails are clogging up our system and are hampering us from our ability to adequately do the mountain of other tasks we have to accomplish.

Go to So You Want to Adopt, fill out the form and we’ll keep you informed on how things are going.

Thank you for your support but also thank you for giving us the cooperation that it takes so we can adequately care for and supply the people who need our assistance.

For the kids,

Tom Vanderwell