America
Despite parents in Haiti, 30,000 children live in orphanages, do you know why?
Port au Prince : Haiti is the third largest country in the Caribbean. The culture and traditions of this country with ancient history are equally ancient. The economy of this country, which believes in old customs and traditions, is very weak. This is the reason why many parents here are forced to leave their children in orphanages. They think maybe the children in the orphanages will get proper food and education. But that does not happen. Hundreds of orphanages exist in the country, most of which are privately owned. The Haitian government has now made a big decision to close these orphanages in the country.
In fact, it is said that around 30,000 children living in these orphanages are subjected to forced labor, trafficking, physical abuse. In view of the growing news, the Haitian government has launched an exercise to reunite these children with their parents or loved ones. It is believed that this could be a big step towards closing these orphanages.
Why orphanages grow, why children are abandoned here
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. 60% of the people here only earn $2 a day. It is very difficult to raise children with so much money. Since the parents cannot bear this expense, they temporarily leave the children in the hope that they can get enough food from the orphanage. It is very important to pay attention to the word temporary here. Social workers say that in reality the parents do not want to abandon the children forever, but do so for a time so that when their condition improves, they can take their children back.
read this too – 4 kids trapped in dense forest, survived 40 days, when hope was ending, then found in this condition…
how many children in orphanages and why
Official data from Haiti indicates that the population of children here is around 4 million. Of which about 30,000 children live in 750 orphanages here. In 2010, when a devastating earthquake wreaked havoc in this country, in which at least 2,000 people were killed. After that, a 150% increase was recorded in the number of orphanages in Haiti. The reason was to take advantage of the situation and throw the children into the abyss of trafficking, forced labor and sexual abuse.
A 2018 report by the Institute of Social Welfare and Research in Haiti indicates that out of 754 orphanages, only 35, or less than 5%, were able to meet even the government’s minimum standards. Not only that, 580 orphanages were the ones that got the least points. After which, the government had no choice but to close them.
But it’s not so easy to decide
Even if the government makes this decision, it is not so easy to do so. Because private orphanages raise a lot of money abroad to run them. And he would like the flow of money from abroad to continue. This is why government officials are said to be threatened or forced into hiding.
And in Port-au-Prince, where the United Nations says that up to 80% of gangs are responsible for the increase in murders and other crimes in Haiti, especially in areas where children from Kijito families live, an organization religious The Kijito family was created. Sister Pacey, who runs it, is against this government decision. They believe that this home is necessary for children whose parents cannot feed them or protect them from violence. This organization also provides free education to about 2000 children in poor slums.
It is extremely difficult for the government to reunite children with their parents.
Social workers and the government are trying to complement the effort to reunite the children with their parents. But in this country of 11 million people, where there are no directories, no families with physical addresses or digital information, doing this job is like finding a needle in a haystack. Sometimes the workers associated with this only have a photo and little information related to the neighborhood.
This job is quite like a detective, where social workers go around cities, towns and villages, door to door and try to gather information about the child. In many cases, to gather information, social workers will show children pictures of places so they can remember something about them. Or get such information that can bring them closer to their parents. But this task is not as easy as it seems, with it the opposition of private orphanages has made this task more difficult.
,
Keywords: child sexual abuse, child trafficking, family, Orphan children
FIRST POST: June 13, 2023
,
