Doing Good?

The ten US Baptists who were arrested trying to take 33 children out of Haiti say they were “just trying to do the right thing” despite having no legal documentation to do so. “Prime Minister Max Bellerive told The Associated Press Sunday he was outraged by the group’s ‘illegal trafficking of children’ in a country long afflicted by the scourge and by foreign meddling. But the hard reality on the ground in this desperately poor country — especially after the catastrophic Jan. 12 quake — is that some parents openly attest to their willingness to part with their children if it will mean a better life. It was a sentiment expressed by all but one of some 20 Haitian parents interviewed at a tent camp Sunday that teemed with children whose toys were hewn from garbage. ‘Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners,’ said Adonis Helman, 44. ‘I’ve been thinking how I will choose which one I may give — probably my youngest.’ Haiti’s overwhelmed government has halted all adoptions unless they were in motion before the quake amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being seized and sold.”