Haiti: Paris wants to accelerate the adoption of children

17 May 2010

Translation from French:

Haiti: Paris wants to accelerate the adoption of children

Keywords: Adoption, Children, HAITI, Nadine Morano

Delphine Chayet

17/05/2010 | Updated: 20:31 Reaction (37)

Little girls playing in the courtyard of an orphanage in Port-au-Prince on 18 February. Photo credits: REUTERS

INFO Le Figaro - A report will be delivered on Tuesday morning to Nadine Morano highlights the precarious living conditions of children in orphanages.

Four months after the earthquake in Haiti, more than five hundred French families still waiting for their adoptive child. On site, living conditions remain precarious. As advocated in a report to be delivered on Tuesday morning at the Secretary of State for Family, Nadine Morano, France is working to accelerate the adoption procedures. "The future of these fragile children and vulnerable we care so much," wrote Dr. Dominique Rosset, child psychiatrist and head of the mission which visited Haiti in early March. The experts visited 18 orphanages and 112 children who met since been returned to their adoptive parents.

The report argues for keeping the device home in Guadeloupe, a necessary step before departure necessarily shocking for France. "This allows a smooth meeting. Most parents have seen their adopted child as a photograph, "says the firm is Nadine Morano, who is expected to extend this scheme for several months. It costs 1,000 euros per child around. The mission also advises adoptive parents to pick up their children in Haiti, due to insecurity in this country destroyed.

The first host country France

More than 500 children have already been repatriated to France since the quake, according to the Service of Adoption. The Haitian government has taken over the course of proceedings in March, but the pace is slowed by a lack of resources. "For families who have an adoption decree, we obtained an acceleration of the issuance of passports. This phase lasted several months ago, it says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But the Haitian authorities are demanding and we await their response to others. "Thus, uncertainty remains for the 445 families who are still in the stage before an adoption order.

Meanwhile, the mission is concerned that the physical and mental state of children is deteriorating. In Port-au-Prince, many still sleep in tents for fear of aftershocks. "In the vast majority of the staff has little or no trained, can we also read in the report. The nurses seem "anxious, sad, exhausted, emotionally very available, and very difficult to support the link to the child."

Tracking children

Experts recommend a strengthening of structures to monitor these children in France. "But these children who have experienced extreme things are probably very fragile, and parents may miss signs of distress, confirms Dr. Anne Truchis, a pediatrician at the hospital in Versailles.They need to be received regularly in time. "But the time to get an appointment in a specialist consultation are now very long.

For the future, the report also recommends better management of the adoption. France is the first host of children adopted from Haiti. Questioned in the Senate, the Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, had said he had "great hope" to see Haiti signed the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Meanwhile, France has frozen all adoptions in this country.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2010/05/17/01016-20100517ARTFIG00602-haiti-paris-veut-accelerer-l-adoption-des-enfants.php