SOS Children’s Villages Urges Caution with Haiti Adoptions 

Man and child - Haiti
Photo: REUTERS/Ho New

January 22, 2010:  SOS Children's Villages is preparing to provide temporary care for thousands of unaccompanied children in Haiti, in coordination with other relief organizations.

In view of the still rising death toll, it has become imperative to actively seek out and protect children who have lost their families, either because they have perished in the earthquake or because they have been unable to find each other in the ensuing chaos.

Staff from SOS Children’s Villages, the UN, and other non- governmental organizations, met with the Haitian Ministry of Internal Affairs to ensure that children in this most vulnerable of positions are rapidly identified, registered and admitted to temporary care. The UN-adopted Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children stress that, in emergency situations, relief organizations should trace and reunify children with their families to the maximum extent possible prior to any other permanent solution. Even in the worst disasters, such as the earthquake in Haiti, most children have extended family members willing and able to care for them.

SOS Children’s Villages’ position on the issue of family reunification and adoption is as follows:

  • SOS Children's Villages believes in the rights of every child, including orphaned children.
  • SOS believes that a coordinated approach needs to be taken by relief agencies in Haiti to identify, register and document unaccompanied children as quickly as possible.
  • SOS believes in the earliest possible reunification between children and their families.
  • SOS cautions all organizations working in Haiti against making premature decisions on permanent care (adoption) of orphaned children.
  • SOS believes that siblings should always stay together.
  • SOS believes that a parental figure should always be present.

Heather Paul, CEO of SOS Children's Villages - USA, was interviewed on MSNBC today on the sensitive subject of the adoption of Haitian children. She made the point that the lives of these children changed in just a few minutes, and what happens to them next should be determined in a much more deliberate manner. Watch the full interview below.