KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / MONDAY, APRIL 12, 2010 / NEWS
7A
INTERNATIONAL
and ur and end enter at na love that id
Haiti's child welfare system put into focus
social
I am
need's
k
l of
next
Changes might be ahead for adoption system after quake
DAVID CRARY Associated Press
NEW YORK — Logistical challenges and potentially bitter disputes lie ahead as passionate advocates of adoption press for changes that might enable thousands of Haitian children affected by the earthquake to be placed in U.S. homes.
City's I'm with environ-
The obstacles are daunting, starting with a need to register Haitt's dislocated children. If done right, this would enable authorities to distinguish between children who might be good candidates for adoption and those with surviving relatives willing to care for them.
There also will be efforts to overhaul Haiti's troubled child protection system, update its adoption laws and boost support for family reunification programs in Haiti.
But even before those goals are pursued, there are sharp divisions over how vigorously and quickly to seek an expansion of adoptions.
A prominent leader of the campaign to bring more orphans to American homes is Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) who believes some of the major aid organizations active in Haiti — including UNICEF — are not sufficiently supportive of international adoption.
"Either UNICEF is going to change or have a very difficult time getting support from the U.S. Congress," Landrieu said in a telephone interview.
Landrieu and a few other members of Congress visited Haiti last week, meeting with top Haitian officials to discuss the plight of the devastated nation's orphans.
Since the Jan. 12 earthquake, about 1,000 Haitian children have been brought to U.S. families who had filed adoption applications before the quake. That pool of children in Haiti is dwindling, and adoption advocates — including
"It's complicated," said Susan Bissell, UNICEF's chief of child protection. "We've got to get a registration system in place. Once we have that, we want families for children — and that includes adoption. We are not against intercountry adoption, but we are against exploitation."
for adoption as soon as possible," Landrieu said. "There are thousands of children who don't have parents or even extended families to be reunified with."
improve conditions for them and their families in Haiti.
"Either UNICEF is going to change or have a very difficult time getting support from the U.S. Congress."
UNICEF says a time may come when large-scale foreign adoptions would be appropriate — notably for older children and those with disabilities. But the U.N. agency and like-minded groups are asking for patience, saying the next priorities should be to register vulnerable children and try to
Bissell said she was frustrated by the hostility toward UNICEF that is commonly expressed by leading supporters of international adoption in the United States.
MARY LANDRIEU
U.S. Senator (D-La.)
"I find myself saddened by it,
but, it's not going to take the wind out of our sails," she said.
were likely to revolve around timing — with some groups seeking to resume large-scale adoptions much more quickly than other groups.
The chief operating officer for Save the Children, which is deeply engaged in helping Haitian orphans, said the tensions and disputes
"It's hard to know how big the problem is without taking the time to go through this registration process, and I know for many it's an excruciating process," Carolyn Miles said.
"There are no records," she added. "To be sure that a child is an orphan, that will be difficult —
going back to their villages, trying to find people who know their families"
The challenge of verifying children's statuses was illustrated in the weeks after the quake, when members of an Idaho church group were arrested for trying to take children they falsely claimed were parentless out of Haiti without government approval. The group's leader remains in custody, facing a possible trial for kidnapping.
The church members have said they only wished to rescue desperate children from suffering.
An estimated 40 percent of
Haiti's prequake population was under 14, including about 50,000 living in orphanages and more than 200,000 others not living with their parents. It's been commonplace for poor parents to abandon their
made much faster than that — but says the many groups working on the task need to coordinate better.
Hundreds of thousands of Haitian children lack birth certificates or other identification, which could complicate adoption efforts. The Organization of American States is proposing a plan to provide all Haitian minors with ID cards, but estimates this wouldn't be completed until 2013.
children, and some are taken in by wealthier families who use them as household labor.
Looking ahead, she hopes for a sizable number of new foreign adoptions by the end of this year compared with just a handful at present now that the backlog of pre-quake applications has been largely dealt with.
Landrieu hopes significant headway on registration can be
In recent years, about 300 Haitiian children annually were adopted by Americans. Landrieu believes that number could rise to several thousand a year in the future.
"Children belong in families.
"Since the earthquake, the U.S. embassy has said if you see a kid you like, here's the paper, you can take them with you."
JEANNE BERNARD PIERRE Head of Haiti's child welfare agency
not in orphanages or in some amorphous kibbutz," she said.
expansion of adoption as long as steps were taken to guard against trafficking and ensure that children weren't being sent away from parents who wanted them.
Landrieu and other members of her delegation to Haiti came away convinced that government officials there would support
The head of Haiti's child welfare agency, Jeanne Bernard Pierre, has conveyed some skepticism about efforts to speed up adoptions, saying Americans have taken advantage of the disaster to flout Haitian adoption laws.
ODD NEWS
Woman sold goats collected benefits
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Take note: Selling goats and collecting workers comp don't mix. An upstate New York woman faces up to five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 after admitting she sold goats while collecting more than $60,000 in workers compensation
Susan Tansosch pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to making false statements to the U.S. Department of Labor.
In the plea announced Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said Tansosch collected the benefits after she told authorities she wasn't making money from other employment. She was selling goats near Syracuse.
Tansosch, 53, was to be sentenced Aug. 4. A message left at a listing for Tansosch was not returned Tuesday.
Patrol says man had marijuana in mowers
SAN DIEGO — Border authorities arrested a man trying to cross the border with two mowers stuffed with the type of grass not usually found in machinery. U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested an unidentified Mexican man who tried to smuggle 53 pounds' worth of marijuana across the border on Friday. A dog alerted agents and a search turned up 21 packages of pot crammed inside the chassis of the mowers.
The driver was arrested and booked into San Diego county jail on suspicion of drug trafficking.
Associated Press
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Miss. governor says Va.controversy is'diddly'
NEW ORLEANS — The dustup over Virginia's proclamation for Confederate History Month seems like a lot of noise over something that "doesn't amount to diddly" Mississippi's governor said in an interview aired Sunday.
Virginia's Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, apologized for leaving out of his proclamation any reference to slavery. He added language to the decree calling slavery "evil and inhumane" after being criticized for reviving what many
Virginians believe is an insensitive commemoration of its Confederate past.
"To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not sig-
Fellow GOP Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi said he doesn't think the proclamation was a mistake.
to make a big deal out of something (that) doesn't amount to "diddly"
Virginia governor Bob McDonnell made the proclamation for Confederate History Month earlier this month without mentioning slavery.
nificant, that it's not a — it's trying in this country by the former Confederate States," said Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP. "As governor of the state with a higher percentage of African-Americans that any other, we would hope he would be more sensitive to them."
Barbour said in the interview aired on CNN's "State of the Union."
"I think it's unfortunate that the governor is so insensitive to the atrocities made against African-Americans
McDonnell revised the proclamation after a day of scalding denunciations as the story became grist for cable news shows and caught fire on political blogs and in social media.
McDonnell was the first Virginia governor to issue such a proclamation since 2001.
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Community mourns death of 29 miners
PETTUS, W.Va. — A pair of tall black boots and a lunch patil sat near the earl Sunday at the New Life Assembly church — a memorial to the 29 men killed in the worst U.S. mining disaster since 1970 and a thank-you to those who make their living inside the mountains.
This day, the first Sunday since last Monday's explosion killed 28 workers and a contractor at Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcalo, was for many a time to honor the profession. Tears of mourning fell, and arms swayed in worship among the 50 people gathered at the church.
Pastor Gary Williams, who has worked at Massey Energy mines for 18 years, knew many of the victims. On his way to church Sunday morning, he heard Ricky Workman's name among them for the first time.
"I know his child. I know his wife. He's a part of my family. Hes a part of my life," Williams said, tears falling "Over time, our hearts and the emptiness that we have inside will fade away, but I don't never want to forget what happened April 5, 2010."
Some of those who died have already been laid to rest. Crews worked Sunday to remove the bodies of several others who didn't make it out, but the recovery had to be halted because of high gas
readings in the mine. Crews need to drill another hole to vent the mine before they can continue.
Four funerals were held Friday, with more scheduled for the weekend. Nearly two dozen will follow in the weeks ahead. Despite hope that four missing miners might survive long enough for rescuers to reach them, officials announced early Saturday morning that the four had apparently died instantly.
A complete list of victims has yet to be released. Two other miners were injured in the blast, and one remains hospitalized.
A team of federal investigators will arrive Monday as officials try to figure out what caused the blast. Virginia-based Massey has
been under scrutiny for a string of safety violations at the mine, though CEO Don Blankenship has defended the company's record and disputed accusations that he puts profits ahead of safety.
Authorities have said that high levels of volatile methane gas may have played a role in the disaster. Massey has been repeatedly cited and fined for problems with the system that vents methane and for allowing combustible dust to build up.
During a homily in Wheeling on Sunday, Catholic Bishop Michael J. Bransfield said four years is too short a time between West Virginia mine disasters. The last was at the Sago Mine in 2006, where 12 men perished.
WIN A $200 GIFT CARD. FIND AN APARTMENT.
LEARN ABOUT MORE THAN FIFTEEN APT. COMPLEXES
LEARN ABOUT SPECIALS. FIND A PLACE TO LIVE.
COME JOIN US ON THE STAUFFER-FLINT LAWN, NEXT TO WATSON.
10 AM - 3 PM. CONTACT MKORTE@KANSAN.COM WITH QUESTIONS.