Silsby-The Ultimate Savior Complex UPDATED

They say that you shouldn’t look directly at her. Unfortunately has slithered back into the media (again).

We are talking about the Laura Silsby case that we have followed from the beginning. May 17, 2011 marks the one year anniversary of her release from a Haiti jail after she was convicted for illegal travel and sentenced for time served. She wrote a partially-rehashed column this week exalting herself as saving jail souls and spouting off about her innocence. This article has been picked up by religious publications. http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=35318  [Baptist Press 5/17/11 by Laura Silsby]. Eighty percent of Haiti is Catholic and an additional sixteen percent are Protestant, so it is a miracle that most people she encountered were in that four percent of nonChristians . Seriously, it is not earth-shattering that the people that she read the Bible to would agree with what she is saying.

Most media, especially the religious media, have given her a pass on this declaration of innocence. We thought this would be a good time to rebut her story and explain to our readers the full details of what actually happened in Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR). So sit back and read the rest of the long story…

The Myth of the “Urgent Rescue Idea”

Laura says, “As I watched the desperate pleas for help and read about the many children struggling to survive in the aftermath of the earthquake, my heart was heavily burdened. As I prayed, I felt compelled by God to go to Haiti to help rescue some of these precious children.

In a matter of days, God provided a team of Christian volunteers, all the needed supplies and a former church retreat center that could be converted into an interim orphanage.”

Besides the bizarre notion of crossing the border with children to put them in a foreign orphanage, it is important to note that the Haitian language is Creole and the DR language is Spanish. Communication and education alone would be major issues that none of these “missionaries” seemed to consider yet they advertised for it in their flyer and verbally as you will read below. None in the group seemed to speak in Creole and they relied on recently-met locals for translations. No one should downplay the fact that none of these people are social workers and no background checks were done on any of these workers or supposed helpers.

A major unanswered question that you should ask yourself while reading: Why wouldn’t they establish the orphanage IN HAITI?

Those who did not follow this story closely could easily think that Silsby’s idea to go to Haiti started after the earthquake and that she went to DR for the first time in January 2010.  This is not true.

Laura Silsby has an adult son as well as two minor children. We contend that he was married in DR in 2009 when Laura took her 2 minor children that she has with her ex-husband, Terry, to the DR in 2009. “”The couple’s divorce was made final in January 2007 but the proceedings have dragged on in court, with Terry Silsby contending that his ex-wife took the children to a wedding in the Dominican Republic without his permission during his custodial time.” Last year, her ex-husband was so concerned that she wants to live in DR that “Terry Silsby said he’s concerned his ex-wife may continue the orphanage plans and take their children there.

“Statements made by my children also confirm that Laura plans to reside in the Dominican Republic. Both … have told me that Laura plans to take them with her to the Dominican Republic where she is going to set up residence,” Terry Silsby said in the affidavit, The Idaho Statesman reported.”

Jailed US Missionary Faces Business Woes
[Idaho Statesman 3/25/10]

[cached Clave Digital article(recently-defunct DR newspaper)].

Charissa Coulter, Laura’s nanny, personal assistant and one of ten that were jailed, was listed on her incorporation papers. Charissa’s dad said that Laura and Charissa traveled to DR and Haiti in July 2009. A villager says that  she went into the village of Callebasse at that time. Callebasse is one town where the group would recruit 20 kids after the earthquake.

“The two women made their first trip in July, said Coulter’s father, Mel, and in the weeks before the quake identified a hotel in the northern beach resort of Cabarate that would serve as a temporary orphanage…Laurentius Lelly, a 27-year-old computer technician, said he gave up his two children, ages 4 and 6, because Silsby had previously visited the area and earned people’s trust.

Lelly said he is no longer so sure about her trustworthiness, and said he was worried the Haitian judicial system would fail to properly investigate the case.”

Parents willingly gave children to U.S. Baptists, who are mostly from Idaho
[Oregon Live 2/3/10 by Associated Press]

Additionally, Laura incorporated New Life Children Refuge in November 2009. The details about the adoption villas  are in the incorporation documents,. Her mission was always to move children across an international border and try to adopt them out, though she continually claimed in the media that the children were not going to be adopted. Anyone that has any knowledge of international adoption knows that moving children across borders to adopt just is not ever legally done.

The incorporation papers can be seen here  and it is important to note that her EIN number # 27‐1394022 on her pdf plan is not registered with the IRS as a nonprofit.

The third name on incorporation papers is Kim Barton, Laura Silsby’s sister. Kim also states that this mission was planned for almost a year.

“Barton says her sister spent close to one year planning this trip.

“I don’t know the exact dates, but the only reason this got shifted into high gear was because of the earthquake,” said Barton”

Sister of detained Idaho woman in Haiti speaks out
[KTVB.com 2/3/10 by Edgar Linares]

The details of her mission are amazingly still available here.

“Silsby said the group planned to take the children to a rented coastal resort in the Dominican Republic while a permanent orphanage was being built. Plans to build the orphanage were already underway before the quake, Silsby said, but the disaster prompted them to accelerate the plan.”

Haitian Officer: U.S. Baptist Team Made Earlier Attempt to Take Children
[Christian Post 2/9/10 by Michelle A. Vu]

Teams of People

Laura says, “Teams of volunteers from churches across the U.S. had committed to help care for the children at the orphanage on a rotating basis.”

Prove it!

We do know that the widely-reported team of 10 that was there really was at least 14.

Four in her traveling group did not cross the border from DR into Haiti. They high-tailed it back to Idaho when Laura and the other nine were arrested. That seems odd if what they were doing was so legal and ethical!

“Eastside members arrested include Pastor Paul Thompson, 43, his son Silas Thompson, 19, and Steve McMullen, 56. Church members Matt and Lora Crider and John Requa were also involved with the project, but remained in the Dominican Republic and were not arrested.”

Detained Americans questioned by Haitian judge
[Times-News Magic Valley 2/3/10 by Frank Bajak]

“The plan had been to gather up orphaned children and take them across the border to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Eastside members Matt and Lora Crider and John Requa were joined in Haiti’s neighboring country by Nancy Rodriguez – wife of Paul Rodriguez, director of missions for the Magic Valley Baptist Association.

Then, just shortly after they arrived, came the arrests. Both Requa and Matt Crider said in interviews Sunday that, with little they could do from their end, they packed up and left for the U.S. a couple of days later, where they watched the rest of the bizarre case unfold.”

Across border, Baptists couldn’t help their peers
[Times-News Magic Valley 2/22/10 by Nate Poppino]

Jim Allen was one of the so-called “Haiti 10″. He was from Texas.”The Amarillo Globe-News reported today that Allen was joined in Haiti by his cousin, Paul Thompson, formerly of Amarillo, and Thompson’s son, Silas.” He made a last-minute decision to join them since he was a welder and thought he was going to be using his building skills yet he went into Haiti and was arrested. Paul and Silas Thompson are from East Side Baptist , one of the two Baptist churches that recruited members from Idaho. Carla Thompson is also related.

Texan among 10 Americans held in Haiti
[The Houston Chronicle 2/1/10 by Associated Press]

Drew Culberth is a firefighter from Topeka, Kansas. He also is related to the Thompsons. “Drew Culberth, the Topeka youth pastor and firefighter, arrived …Silas Thompson is Culberth’s brother-in-law, Paul Thompson is Silas Thompson’s son and Culberth’s nephew and Steve McMullen is a family friend. All three men live in Twin Falls, Idaho. The three men are expected to stay with Culberth for a time, according to the missionaries’ attorney Caleb Stegall”

Topeka Pastor Drew Culberth Arrives At KCI
[KCTV  2/17/11]

Steve McMullin was another Idahoan. He clearly tried to distance himself from Laura.
“NewsChannel 7 recently talked with Steve McMullin, one of the missionaries who had been traveling with Silsby.

“Laura was the one that told us what to do. It was her orphanage. She was the one that had been in there and decided what needed to be done. It was kind of her mission, and so we were just there as volunteers to help her,” said McMullin.”

Interview with Jailed Idaho Missionary Laura Silsby
[KTVB.com 3/22/10 by Dr. Nancy Snyderman / NBC]

Corinna Lankford and her daughter Nicole were from the second Baptist church , Central Valley Baptist. She is no stranger to missionary work. Not much is said about her, except for the following article which implicates her in the child-recruiting efforts.

“Yesterday, Moise, who lives in the village of Calebasse, an hour and a half’s drive from the centre of Port-au-Prince, described how she agreed to let her nine-year-old-twin sons, Volmy and Kimley, leave with the Americans for the Dominican Republic.

“They said they wanted to go with our children and told us ‘don’t worry, everything will be fine’,” she said. “They put the names of the children on a paper and asked me to sign the paper to accept. The white woman told me: ‘Don’t worry, you will be able to access your children.’ They showed me a brochure of the place where the children would be going to live. They told us they were going to help my boys. I gave them my boys because there is nothing for them here.”

She identified the woman as Corinna Lankford, one of the Baptists currently being detained in jail, and said a local man named Isaac had acted as a go-between.”

Haiti Mother Tells of giving twin sons to US missionaries
[The Guardian 2/3/10]

Then there was that little incident of the 8 arrested members passing a note to a reporter about fearing the lying Laura. The Daily Bastardette has the photo of that note and the story  here.

We’re not buying your “teams of volunteers” for the mythical orphanage, Laura!

In Haiti Days Before Arrest and Ample Warnings

“After a court hearing Monday for Silsby, Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said he heard evidence from a police officer who said he stopped Silsby from loading a bus with children near the Dominican Republic consulate in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. That was three days before her group was arrested while trying to cross into the Dominican Republic with 33 children.

“I found inconsistencies in some of Laura’s statements,” Saint-Vil told reporters, saying he planned to visit the Dominican consulate to resolve them.

The Dominican consul in Haiti, Carlos Castillo, has said previously that he warned Silsby she lacked the required papers to leave the country with the children and risked being arrested at the border for child trafficking.”

Freed missionary arrives in US from Haiti jail
[Breitbart 3/8/10 By Todd Dvorak]

“Mel Coulter, father of one of the detained Americans, Charisa Coulter, also said legal procedure probably wasn’t primary in the minds of his daughter and her colleagues. “Whether or not they went to the policy manual and checked off all the things that needed to be checked off, I don’t think that was their primary concern,” he said. “I think their primary concern was to help children who were helpless and homeless.”

New light was shed on the early activities of the missionaries by Anne-christine d’Adesky, a writer and human-rights activist from a prominent Haitian family who is a U.S. citizen. She emailed several U.N. authorities and said she met Laura Silsby, the leader of the American group, on Jan. 24 in a hotel in the Dominican Republic.

Ms. Silsby said her authorization to collect Haitian orphans and bring them to the Dominican Republic was from an unnamed Dominican official, according to Ms. d’Adesky’s email. “I informed her that this would be regarded as illegal even with some ‘Dominican’ minister authorizing, since the children are Haitian,” Ms. d’Adesky wrote, adding that she directed Ms. Silsby to U.N. agencies helping the Haitian government handle orphans and adoptions. In a telephone interview, Ms. d’Adesky said she recalled Ms. Silsby’s response: “We have been sent by the Lord to rescue these children, and if it’s in the Lord’s plan we will be successful.”

Ms. d’Adesky also told the U.N. officials that Ms. Silsby had planned to bring children back to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 25, four days before the group was arrested. She therefore urged the U.N. officials to “check on the orphanage” in the Dominican Republic because children might have been brought there before the group was arrested.”

Haiti Allows Adoptions, Queries Missionaries
[Wall Street Journal 2/2/10 by Miriam Jordan and David Gauthier-Villars]

One translator mentions how they were in Haiti a few days prior to arrest. “Adrien’s brother Isaac who also worked as a translator for the Americans said the Baptists met the man who appeared to be a policeman on two occasions in Port au Prince.

“We saw him in Petionville that was on Tuesday and on Thursday I saw him at the Dominican embassy He was helping Laura to get in touch with the Ambassador in the Dominican embassy.”

Interpreters: Detained Americans met with cop seeking kids’ passage
[KTVB 2/3/10 by Karl Penhaul/CNN]

Further evidence: “The Dominican consul general Wednesday rejected the claim from an American church leader that she thought her paperwork was in order when she attempted to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, saying he had told her it was not.

“I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking,” Carlos Castillo said he told the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, during a meeting Friday.

Four hours later, Silsby and nine other Americans were turned back from the border. They were arrested and taken to a jail in Port-au-Prince.

“This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal,” Castillo said.

Dominican official: I warned U.S. church leader about Haitian kids
[CNN 2/5/10]

The “Open Border” and The “Documents”

Laura says, “Government officials in the Dominican Republic (DR) were supportive of our desire to help and told us that we had authorization to bring the children to our orphanage in the DR. They confirmed that the borders were open between the two countries, with the normal border process waived given the humanitarian crisis.”

And

“After meeting with a senior official at the DR Consulate, I was told that the documentation we had was sufficient given the humanitarian crisis and told to proceed to the border.

At the Haitian border, we were stopped and told that we needed one more document. I was asked to return to the same Haitian Social Services office that had told me earlier that day that there was no one that could help us. I willingly agreed to return the next morning. The border chief said that the rest of the team and the children could go to a nearby mission for a medical examination and deworming treatment, while they awaited my return. We then sang the children to sleep and shared Jesus with several of the border guards, and one gave his heart to the Lord. ”

Well, this is what Haiti’s Social Affairs minister had to say about the open borders.“”This is totally illegal,” said Yves Cristalin, Haiti’s social affairs minister. “No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people did not have that authorization.”

Americans arrested taking children out of Haiti
[Reuters 1/30/11]

Shady character that helped obtain some type of document: “CNN talked to the translators who been with the group in Haiti and he also talked to Laura Silsby from the jail in Haiti where she is being held.

Haitian translators who worked with the detained American missionaries say the group may have looked for help from a man they believe was a Haitian policeman and a Dominican official
In a jailhouse interview over the weekend, the Americans conceded they didn’t have passports or any permission from the Haitian government to take the kids out of the country.

Steve Adrien was one of three young men who translated Creole to English for the American Baptists during their trip.

“They said that they have legal paper that they can take them to the doctor but that they didn’t have it from the Haitians. So they met a police guy and he told them that he could help and he was helping them with some paper.”

He said the meeting did not take place in an office.

“We did not meet him in a police station but in the street in a car.”

Adrien’s brother Isaac who also worked as a translator for the Americans said the Baptists met the man who appeared to be a policeman on two occasions in Port au Prince.

“We saw him in Petionville that was on Tuesday and on Thursday I saw him at the Dominican embassy He was helping Laura to get in touch with the Ambassador in the Dominican embassy.”

…””We went to the Dominican consulate and were told to proceed straight to the border.”
But she had no authorization from the Haitian government to take the children out. Haitian police stopped the Americans’ bus at the border before it managed to cross. Minutes later Isaac Adrien – the only one of the three translators who made the trip to the border – says he heard Silsby put in a phone call.

“She called Jose, the guy’s name was Jose.”

“Who’s Jose?”

“He was a policeman at the Dominican border.”

“Is he Haitian or Dominican?”

“Dominican he came and talked to the Haitians but they would not listen to him.”

On Tuesday night CNN went to the jail to talk once again to the American Baptists. They asked them if they knew a Haitian and a Dominican policeman. Initially they declined to answer that question and instead they responded by breaking into singing hymns. Later team leader Laura Silsby conceded she knew a man she described as a Haitian policeman she also said she knew another man she described as a Dominican coast guard.

CNN asked her what her relationship was to those men, and if she asked them for help to cross the border. She simply responded that, “God put them in her way.””

Interpreters: Detained Americans met with cop seeking kids’ passage
[KVTB 2/3/10 by Karl Penhaul/CNN]

The Pastor that assisted in recruiting: “A pastor who says he gave 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries permission to move a busload of Haitian children to the Dominican Republic says the group acted “with a good heart.”

However, he says they didn’t complete the required paperwork. The missionaries were later arrested after Haitian authorities said they tried crossing the border without documents.”

Pastor Says He Gave Permission to Take Haitian Children
[Fox News 2/3/10 Fox News]

Then there was this local DR article that discusses how paperwork was not even in order on the DR side. “I warned the lady (Laura Silsby) not to try to cross the border with such children without the proper authorization from the Haitian authorities, because if I tried, I could be accused of child trafficking.

Dominican Consul General in Port au Prince, Carlos Castillo, says he issued the same warning to Silsby, who headed a group of 10 American Baptist missionaries who was detained by Haitian authorities on 30 January in the area of Malpaso he attempted to travel to Republic Dominican on a bus with 33 Haitian children.

Castillo told Silsby KEY that came to his office at the consulate in Port au Prince on Friday 29 January and told him he expected a document authorizing the Dominican migration authorities to come to the country with the Haitian children, supposedly orphans. The official said he immediately contacted the Director of Immigration, Sigfrido Pared Perez, who informed him that in that institution was no request for Silsby.

“I explained that it was not appropriate that those who had to give the appropriate permissions were the Haitian authorities, the Haitian Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs,” the consular official.

In this case, Castillo gave a verbal report last Friday to the Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and Immigration, Rosario Graciano de los Santos.

KEY Deputy minister told the consul he told Silsby did Dominicans legalization of documents, but documents to assert Haitians in the Dominican Republic. “What this lady (Silsby) is a pure state of illegality, that’s what it seems I can not certify it until they pass a definite process,” argued Graciano de los Santos.

Silsby said Castillo told him that his lawyer in the Dominican Republic named Sencion, Hidalgo and Jose Altagracia Ovando, whom he described as his counterpart at the orphanage supueto that 10 Americans settle in Cabarete, Puerto Plata, were people who were doing efforts in Haitian affairs department in the Directorate of Migration in order to get permission to cross the border with Haiti’s children.

According to the Consul, the only document that showed Silsby was the charter and commercial registration of an NGO in the Dominican Republic and organization New Life Children’s Refuge, Idaho, USA. Castillo said the charter of the NGO in the country is 2009, but can not remember the specific date of issue.

“I explained that this document (the charter) gave her no power or authority to cross with these children,” the official stressed.”

“REGISTRATION NO.

But not only made illegal in Haiti. The charge of registration and supervision of the National Council for Childhood and Adolescence (CONANI) Rosselys Polanco said in that state there is no application for the orphanage, according to Silsby, installed in Cabarete to accommodate children. “Nobody can hold children when they have a legal incorporation and registration CONANI” said Polanco.

He explained that to obtain registration be exhausted in a long series of processes, whose details are on the next page and include registration with ONAPI, the decree of incorporation and accurate data on its operation.

Polanco explained that CONANI has about 312 registered non-governmental institutions working with children, including over 100 with permanent residential care property. She added that because of the earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, the country has reached some 600 Haitian children, who are in hospitals and shelters that oversees CONANI.

Among the NGOs where CONANI residential care and the Embassy of Haiti Haitian children have sent SOS Children’s Villages set in the Jardines del Norte. This institution came last Thursday that 13 children were in an Orphanage in Haiti, according to Nancy Montoya, SOS Children’s Villages advisor to the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and Wilfredo Rosario, director of that program in Los Jardines del Norte. Rosario explained that the admission of these children is temporary and will then be returned to Haiti and, if they find their families will be brought to SOS Children’s Village in Port au Prince, whose facilities are being extended to accommodate more children.”

“WORK BINACIONAL

The Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and Immigration, Rosario Graciano de los Santos, said the Jan. 25 Dominican and Haitian authorities in Jimani met and agreed to be alert to prevent child trafficking. “We agreed that unless a child does not come with a consular agent of a foreign embassy, a consulate abroad or an agent of UNICEF, was not going to happen,” said Graciano de los Santos, who attended the meeting with immigration.” [Cached Clave Digital article, google translated]
I guess Laura’s operation was not as solid as she claimed.

The fact that the orphanage was not registered also shows that they were in no position to undertake DR to US adoptions either. DR is a Hague country.

Even the self-described documents by those arrested clearly are far from any kind of child immigration or adoption requirement.

“When asked if he had seen the documents, Allen said he did see them when the children were being loaded onto the bus. The documents, said the American volunteer, were filled out as each child boarded the vehicle.

“I didn’t look at the documents and read the documents, but I watched them write down their names and write down their birthdates and I watched the pastor sign it,” he said.”

That sounds SOOOOO Official!

Freed Haiti Volunteer: I Thought We Had All the Paperwork
[The Chirstian Post 2/20/10 By Michelle A. Vu]

Recruitment and the Children

Besides the Corinna Lankford incident explained above, there was evidence of the recruitment of 20 kids from Calabasse.

“On Tuesday Jan. 26, a local orphanage worker fluent in English acting on behalf of the Baptists convened nearly the entire village of about 500 people on a dirt soccer pitch to present the missionary’s offer.

Isaac Adrien, 20, told them the Americans would educate their children. He said relatives would be able to visit the children across the border in the Dominican Republic.

Many parents jumped at the offer.

“It’s only because the bus was full that more children didn’t go,” said Melanie Augustin, who gave away her 10-year-old daughter, Jovin.

Adrien said he met the Baptists’ leader, Laura Silsby of Boise, Idaho, in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 26. She told him she was looking for homeless children, he said, and he knew exactly where to find them.

He came home to Callebas, where people scrape by growing carrots, peppers and onions, and convened the meeting. That very day, he had a list ready of 20 children.”

Parents willingly gave children to U.S. Baptists, who are mostly from Idaho
[Oregon Live 2/3/10 by Associated Press]

“Vargas said most of the children are between 3 and 6 years old, and unable to provide phone numbers or any other details about their origins.

The Americans apparently enlisted a clergyman who went knocking on doors asking people if they wanted to give away their children, the director of Haiti’s social welfare agency, Jeanne Bernard Pierre, told The Associated Press.

“One child said to me, ‘When they came knocking on our door asking for children, my mom decided to give me away because we are six children and by giving me away she would have only five kids to care for,”‘ Bernard Pierre said.

Detained Americans questioned by Haitian judge
[Times-News Magic Valley 2/3/10 by Frank Bajak]

“A mother in a remote village outside ¬Haiti’s main earthquake zone has told how she allowed her twin sons to be taken by American missionaries now under investigation for child trafficking, because they promised to provide a life of hope and opportunity for her children.

Maggie Moise, who has eight children, said she was contacted by a local man who works in an orphanage in her village and was told that “some white people” wanted to help her family…

Yesterday, Moise, who lives in the village of Calebasse, an hour and a half’s drive from the centre of Port-au-Prince, described how she agreed to let her nine-year-old-twin sons, Volmy and Kimley, leave with the Americans for the Dominican Republic.

“They said they wanted to go with our children and told us ‘don’t worry, everything will be fine’,” she said. “They put the names of the children on a paper and asked me to sign the paper to accept. The white woman told me: ‘Don’t worry, you will be able to access your children.’ They showed me a brochure of the place where the children would be going to live. They told us they were going to help my boys. I gave them my boys because there is nothing for them here.”

Haiti Mother Tells ofgiving twin sons to US missionaries
[The Guardian 2/3/10]

Infant girl severely malnourished, despite supposedly having supplies and a firefighter volunteer on bus: “The regional manager has said to have this information from the Haitian Social Welfare Institute, which handles adoptions and temporarily entrusted the children to SOS Childrens Village. A little girl, a few months, was hospitalized on Saturday, “because he suffered malnutrition.” “You can not take advantage of our helplessness in this way,” said Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue minister.

“This is a robbery, not an adoption,” said Yves Crystal colleague, Minister of Social Affairs. “No child may leave Haiti without proper authorization and these people had no such authorization.”

Niños ‘en adopción’ tienen sus familias
[Listin.com 1/31/10, google translated]

“Our understanding is that they had lost parents in the quake or possibly some had parents abandon them before the quake,” said Laura Silsby, a member of the group. 

The 10 Americans were arrested trying to drive a bus with the children across the border Friday night. As they were crossing the Dominican border, one of the children started crying so loudly it alarmed the guards, who looked inside and found that the children had no papers.

No passports, no documents – but one of the children did have a flier from the “Americans’ New Life Children’s Refuge” promising an education, a swimming pool and tennis courts in the Dominican Republic.”

Baptists Offered Kids Pool, Tennis Courts
[CBS News 2/1/10]

“The children taken by the Baptists are now being cared for in an orphanage run by the Austrian-based organisation SOS Children’s Villages.

Its spokesman, George Willeit, said workers were searching for their families. “One nine-year-old girl was crying, and saying, ‘I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.’ And she thought she was going on a summer camp or… something like that [when she was taken],” he said.”

US Baptists ‘knew taking children out of Haiti was wrong’
[The Independent 2/2/10 by Paisley Dodds]

Laura’s OWN mother said that Laura knew they were not orphans!

“Interviewed Thursday night, her mother said Ms. Silsby knew many of the children weren’t orphans but that the parents had signed them over to her to give them a better life. “She has no desire to exploit, no desire to take advantage,” Adonna Sander, at her home in Buhl, Idaho, said of her daughter.”We knew they had parents, she knew they had parents. They’re saying, ‘Take this child.’ ”

Missionary Stumbles on Road to Haiti
[WSJ 2/3/10 by Joel Millman, Jeffrey Ball and Mark Schoofs]

Then there is this: “”A few days before their arrests, the ten volunteers attempted to take 40 children to the Dominican Republic, the officer,who requested not to be identified for fear of reprisals, told CNN on Monday. The officer thwarted the group’s plan after he was alerted by a concerned citizen about the bus loaded with Haitian children.”

Haitian Officer: U.S. Baptist Team Made Earlier Attempt to Take Children
[Christian Post 2/9/10 by Michelle A Vu]

“He added that a policeman believed the group was trying to sell the children for $10,000 each, an allegation denied by the church members.

“As far as we know they would have been, I say it clearly, sold for $10,000 each,” said Georg Willeit, who runs the SOS Children’s Village outside Port-au-Prince. “That’s what one of the policemen told us. Every child was very desperate, hungry, thirsty. They all were in a bad condition.”

“One of the elder girls told us, ‘I’m not an orphan. I still have my parents,'” he added. “She thought she was going on a summer holiday vacation given by friendly people from America and the Dominican Republic.”

Baptist group denies trafficking in Haitian kids
[MSNBC 2/1/10]

“Even though this orphanage had been planned for some time – the earthquake expedited their plans.

They found the perfect place – an abandoned hotel in the Dominican Republic.

“They thought they had everything documented the way they should and their paperwork was in order and they have been trying for the last week to finalize those arrangements and have run into a number of hurdles,” Mel Coulter said.

A big one came on Thursday.

Charisa called her parents hysterical locked in an alley by someone with no hope of getting out.

“They had children with them on the bus, but she said, ‘We’re locked in an alley and we can’t leave.’ She said they didn’t have any water or any food or anything,” said Brenda Coulter.”

Family speaks out after Idahoans arrested in Haiti
[KTVB 1/30/10]

Not Orphans “All 33 children US missionaries tried to take out of Haiti illegally after the January earthquake have parents, aid workers said Wednesday, as they were finally reunited with their families.

“It has turned out that all of the 33 children have parents. SOS Children’s Villages is convinced that in most cases, the best place for a child to be cared for and protected is within the family,” a statement from the group said.

Some parents told the judge they willingly handed over the children because they could no longer care for them following the devastating quake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital.”

All 33 children in Haiti “orphan” drama have parents
[Channel News Asia 3/18/10]

Silsby Contacting/Harrassing US APs

“A local family says the ring leader, Laura Silsby, tried to take their adoptive children too.
The Pickett’s are learning how to breakdance, braid hair, and moon-walk like Michael Jackson.
They’ve also learned how frightening a phone call can be.

The Pickett’s say the missionary charged with kidnapping in Haiti, tried to take their children.

While Richard Pickett was in Haiti, Malinda received three separate phone calls from laura Silsby saying she wanted to help out.

“When they get to the Dominican, I’ll help you get them over. And I told her no,” said Malinda, “my husband is over in Haiti advocating for our adoption to be finished and get our kids home and you know at this time I don’t think we need any help.”

Malinda says the phone calls raised some red flags. “Do you realize?” she asked Silsby, “we’ve been waiting 5 years to get our children, you know it’s not that easy to just go to Haiti and pick up kids. You know, you can’t do that.”

“She kept persisting, and Malinda kept saying no, don’t bother our children,” said Richard, “and Laura decided to show up at the orphanage anyway, and ask for our children, and said that malinda had sent her there. And our children were not there at the time, they were with me.”

With all the information surfacing about Silsby’s money woes, Richard Pickett thinks she was financially motivated to get his children.

“And maybe do a mild form of extortion, because here we are, obviously interesteed in caring for our children and if she had them in the Dominican, she could use us as leverage to have us pay for their support,” said Richard.

The children are recognized as the Pickett’s adopted children in haiti. But in the US they aren’t yet. Instead of getting visas, they have humanitarian parole visas, only giving them 2 years here, yet another legal battle the Pickett’s will face.”

Adopted Children Safe in Bowling Green
[WKBO 2/6/10 by Rachel Collier]

Adoptive parent support groups chatter indicated that she contacted others by phone and email leaving her cell phone number. She wanted to know if the orphanages that the APs adopted from would give her some kids.

The DR Orphanage

“The missionaries’ account of their activities in the Dominican Republic was hard to verify. They said they had been in the process of buying land and building a complex in Magante, on the north coast of the country.

Mayor Aniceto Balbuena said that he had been approached by two women about building an orphanage, but that the idea had fallen through because of a legal entanglement.

In Fermathe, where most of the children were born and raised, it was clear that while their homes were woefully lacking in many ways, some of the children — and perhaps many of them — were not orphans.

Kisnel and Florence Antoine said they sent two of their children with the Baptist missionaries because they had offered educational opportunities for the children in the Dominican Republic. Ketlaine Valmont said she had sent a son.

They trusted the Americans, they said, because they arrived with the recommendation of a Baptist minister, Philippe Murphy, who runs an orphanage in the area. A woman who answered the door at Mr. Murphy’s house said he had gone to Miami. But she also said that he did not know anything about the Americans. ”

An important part of the story in that a former orphan in Mr. Murphy’s orphanage was setting this up and the possibility of name-dropping can’t be dismissed here. Mr. Murphy was not involved in Laura’s mission, but these locals did not pull that name out of nowhere-it shows the kind of opportunist that Silsby really is.

Parents Tell of Children They Entrusted to Detained Americans
[The New York Times 2/2/10 by Ginger Thompson and Shaila Dewan]

“When questioned by telephone, the priest told Listin Diario that the property on which until 2006 ran a three-star hotel, was converted into a school where he taught technical courses and language classes to economically disadvantaged youth and a retreat for church staff members of the Catholic flock of several towns in the country. Both the school and withdrawal are operated by the Innovation Foundation.

Similarly, the priest Hernandez Rodriguez showed he has reports indicating that Mrs. Laura Silsby, head of the group of Americans held in Haiti on Saturday while traveling in a bus with 33 Haitian children, aged between two months and 12, bought land in the hamlet of Yagua Magante section of the municipality of Gaspar Hernandez, Espaillat province.

The link between Lavonne Laura Silsby and Bishop Julio César Amaro Corniel was independent real estate agent, Jose Hidalgo, who said he was looking for several days in Cabarete suitable facilities to house the 33 infants, but there under the rents are quite expensive, they resorted to the prelate who rented part of the premises of Education and Training Center.

The seller of property stated that the main principles of the Catholic Church hierarch of the Diocese Gaspar Hernandez, Joba Arriba, Jamao, Pedro Garcia and Puerto Plata, demurred to rent the premises, under the pretext that was used for manufactured Training Center and the hotel retreat, but they say the urgency of finding a place to house orphans and homeless children in Haiti, the priest agreed to rent for six months, forty-five rooms for a total of U.S. $ 7,000.00 per month.

Hidalgo said that after agreeing with the bishop Corniel Amaro sought the American volunteers, who accepted the premises and immediately instructed one of them, disaster experts, to make a list of arrangements had to be done to leased facilities to ensure the safety of children who were housed there, including stairs, doors and allotted an area for recreation of children.

Also, Ms. Silsby hoped to build an orphanage for as many as 200 children in Magante, on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. To that end, she incorporated New Life in the Dominican Republic in January through Jose Altagracia Ovando.

New Life Children’s Refuge began the process of buying land in Magante. One of Ms. Silsby’s colleagues in the venture – former dentist Rob Chenvert, now a realtor in the Dominican Republic who worked with Ms. Silsby to find land and buildings for the planned orphanage – said on Friday that the group had no contact with Mr. Puello until after the arrest.”

Obispo arrendó local a grupo de misioneros
[Listindiario.com –google translated 2/5/10]

“Matt Crider, who with his wife adopted a girl from China three years ago, was also moved by the plight of Haiti’s children. So when his church put out a call for volunteers, he and Lora took a couple of days to get ready and then went to help.

“There was a need, and rather than sitting on our couches we decided we’d do what we could to help,” Matt Crider said.

Requa arrived in the Dominican Republic on Jan. 28, with the Criders following the next day. They busied themselves working with another group from Texas to get the hotel that would serve as a temporary building ready for the children.”

Across border, Baptists couldn’t help their peers
[Times-News Magic Valley 2/22/10 by Nate Poppino]

Pastor Sainvil

Silsby’s  group involved Georgia pastor Jean Sainvil who is connected to a Baptist church. He gave many interviews that contradicted each other. One thing is known-he was not on the bus when the ten others were arrested.

“”Sainvil said the goal of his organization, New Life Children’s Refuge, was to move the orphans to a nicer orphanage in the Dominican Republic, which had a soccer field, classrooms and a swimming pool…“I got their phone numbers, their names, their children’s names, their children’s date of birth,” he said.”

Gwinnett Pastor Defends Missionaries In Haiti
[CBS Atlanta 2/2/10 by Rebekka Schramm]

Yet this article seems more likely the case saying that they met at the DR border. “They met on the Dominican border one week ago. Gwinnett pastor Jean Sainvil, loaded with supplies for Haitian earthquake victims, needed a ride…Sainvil, a native Haitian, became their guide, directing them to Delmas, where has contacts. Before long the bus was filled with 33 children ages 2-12 — some orphans, some handed over by their parents, Sainvil, pastor of the Gospel Assembly Church, told the AJC.”

Gwinnett pastor who aided Baptist missionaries says they’re no kidnappers
[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 2/4/10 by Christian Boone]

A WAOK article in February 2011 stated “Sainvil said he worked with Idaho-based New Life Children’s Refuge as an unpaid consultant because of his knowledge of Haiti’s customs, his background as an orphan himself and his fluency in French Creole and Spanish. Sainvil fell ill and was not with the missionaries when they were stopped on the border.”

Haiti News Blog on February 3, 2010 reported “Rev. Jean Sainvil is pictured in front of Gospel Assembly Church which he pastors, Wednesday Feb. 3, 2010, in Norcross, Ga. Sainvil traveled with a group of missionaries from Idaho to assist them in transporting orphans out of Haiti, however some, not including Sainvil, were arrested during their efforts.”

Who were the people NOT arrested other than Sainvil? The four other volunteers that were publicized claimed to have stayed in DR. Was Sainvil one of the group that took the original supposed 40 kids who were turned away from the border days before the arrest?

This is worth repeating: “A few days before their arrests, the ten volunteers attempted to take 40 children to the Dominican Republic, the officer, who requested not to be identified for fear of reprisals, told CNN on Monday. The officer thwarted the group’s plan after he was alerted by a concerned citizen about the bus loaded with Haitian children.”

Haitian Officer: U.S. Baptist Team Made Earlier Attempt to Take Children
[Christian Post 2/9/10 by Michelle A Vu]

Puello the Child Trafficker

He trafficked Dominican and Nicaraguan minors in El Salvador and entered the US illegally through Canada. Costa Rica was another location that he trafficked from. A whole book could be written about his trafficking ties.

He and his brother also operated a real estate business out of DR.

“The detained Americans were working with a non-profit group called New Life Children’s Refuge, founded last November by 40-year-old Laura Silsby, an Internet entrepreneur from Idaho. Several of the 10 Americans worshipped at Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho. Others worshipped at a different Idaho church, two were from Kansas, and one lived in Texas.

Lawyers for five of the jailed Americans say their clients were never represented by Mr. Puello. Jim Allen, a construction worker from Amarillo, Texas, only heard of the “aid trip” 48 hours before departure, according to one of his attorneys in the United States. That attorney, Reginald Brown of the law firm WilmerHale, said that Mr. Allen “was never represented by or associated with” Mr. Puello.
Caleb Stegall, a Kansas-based attorney for another four of the detained Americans, said that Mr. Puello “does not represent them, never has, and is no longer part of the case, if he ever was.” Mr. Stegall said he represents Paul Thompson, his son Silas Thompson, Steve McMullin, and Drew Culberth. The elder Mr. Thompson is a brother-in-law of Mr. Culberth and a cousin of Mr. Allen.”
It was unclear who originally hired Mr. Puello. Shortly after the group’s arrest, Drew Ham, one of the pastors at Central Valley Baptist Church, said that Mr. Puello had contacted the group’s families after the arrest and offered his services. Mr. Ham said he did a search for Mr. Puello on Google, and that Mr. Puello was later hired.”

Puello Probe Separate From Missionaries’ Case
[Wall Street Journal 2/14/11 by David Gauthier-Villars]

“He added that a policeman believed the group was trying to sell the children for $10,000 each, an allegation denied by the church members.

“As far as we know they would have been, I say it clearly, sold for $10,000 each,” said Georg Willeit, who runs the SOS Children’s Village outside Port-au-Prince. “That’s what one of the policemen told us. Every child was very desperate, hungry, thirsty. They all were in a bad condition.”

Baptist group denies trafficking in Haitian kids
[MSNBC 2/1/10]

Puello Torres was arrested March 18 by members of the Special Investigations Department of the National Drug Control (DNCD) in the parking lot of a burger from the Dominican capital.

The defendant was hiding in the Dominican Republic after it was discovered that he used the country as a bridge to bring Haitian children to the U.S. after the earthquake of 7 degrees Richter of January 12 that devastated Port au Prince, the capital.

The Dominican Republic was also a fugitive from justice in El Salvador and Costa Rica, although the arrest was due to a request from the U.S., whose government wants to try him as an alleged leader of an illegal network introduced in these countries from Central and Caribbean, including Haitian children, according to local authorities.”

Suspenden audiencia de solicitud de extradición de asesor misioneros de EEUU
[Listin 4/28/10 google-translated]

Laura’s Unpaid Bills and Employees

“But even before Laura L. Silsby and seven other Idahoans ended up in a Haitian jail accused of trafficking in children, Silsby had a history of failing to pay debts, failing to pay her employees and failing even to follow Idaho laws.

Silsby has been the subject of eight civil lawsuits and 14 unpaid wage claims. The $358,000 Meridian house at which she founded her nonprofit New Life Children’s Refuge in November was foreclosed upon in December. A check of Silsby’s driving record revealed at least nine traffic citations since 1997, including four for failing to provide insurance or register annually.

Silsby is a longtime Treasure Valley businesswoman. In 1999, she founded an Internet business. As CEO of PersonalShopper.comnear Overland and Maple Grove roads, the mother of three was named eWomenNetwork’s international businesswoman of the year in 2006.

UNPAID WAGES

Fourteen claims, including two by the same employee, were filed against Personal Shopper Inc. for nonpayment of wages between Feb. 21, 2008, and July 21, 2009, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.

The total dollar amount of the 14 claims was $38,100.09. Department of Labor compliance officers determined that $30,620.26 was owed to the employees; the department also assessed a $4,000 penalty against the business.

The business’ former marketing director, Robin Oliver of Eagle, filed a civil suit against Silsby and Personal Shopper Inc. in October for alleged unpaid wages, wrongful termination and fraud.

The suit says that Oliver was promised an annual salary of $110,000, with twice-monthly payments of $4,583.33. The suit alleges that Personal Shopper was delinquent on five payments, for a total unpaid wage claim of $22,016.65.

“In multiple e-mails during 2009, Ms. Silsby repeatedly told plaintiff that she had investors ‘committed,’ that the money was being ‘wired,’ and that investors were going to be providing funds,” the suit says.

Silsby is due in 4th District Court at 2:45 p.m. next Wednesday; a jury trial is scheduled for Feb. 22.
Court records show that Silsby also is due in court in March to answer for another civil suit against her.

Beer & Cain, a Boise law firm, filed a civil suit against Silsby in January this year. The suit says Silsby owes the firm $4,526.59 and interest for services rendered. “The demand for payment was made on May 20, 2008, February 4, 2009, and April 3, 2009,” the suit says.

Attorney Dennis Cain declined Wednesday to comment on the suit.

SUITS, TRAFFIC INFRACTIONS

Court records also show that Silsby has been sued by several seeking payment for services or return of goods:

– On July 28, 2009, Disaster Kleenup in the Treasure Valley sued Eric Evans, Evans Construction and Silsby, asking for a lien in the amount of $3,225.79. A notice of voluntary dismissal with prejudice was recorded Nov. 8.

– On April 20, 2009, Les Schwab Tire on South Main Street in Meridian filed a suit for nonpayment. The business received a default judgment on July 2 in the amount of $1,058.91.

– On Feb. 12, 2009, Farm Bureau Finance Co. sued for return of a 2008 Yamaha YFM 25 RXL ATV, valued at $2,740, from the home where the New Life Children’s Refuge was based. A default judgment was entered May 7.

– On Aug. 28, 2007, Collection Bureau Inc. sued for $731.33, not including attorney’s fees and costs. The suit says the money was owed to the Kuna Rural Fire District for services. Silsby defaulted, her wages were garnisheed and the $1,077.33 judgment later was set aside.

– Two other small-claims cases in 2000 and 2002 were dismissed before trial or hearing.

– Silsby logged numerous traffic infractions. She was cited four times for failure to provide insurance/failure to register annually (1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001; the latter was dismissed). She was cited four times for speeding or driving too fast for conditions (2000, 2005, 2006 and 2007).

DEFAULT ON HOUSE

It’s unclear where Silsby resides, though Mel Coulter said he believes she lives in South Boise.

Her 16-year marriage to Terry L. Silsby, a real estate agent, ended in divorce in January 2007, according to marriage records.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Terry Silsby declined to comment.

Laura Silsby bought a house at 2828 S. Alfani Way in Meridian on Nov. 10, 2008. On Dec. 7, 2009, MetLife Home Loans foreclosed on the $358,500 house, according to the Ada County Recorder’s Office.

Laura Silsby, a local missionary to Haiti, left trail of financial woes in Idaho
[Idaho Statesman 2/4/11 Katy Moeller]

Prior NGO-Like Activities

When CEO of Personal Shopper, Laura had a “nonprofit “ that is unclear if properly registered and collected money from many schools for cleft palates using names of prominent organizations but not linking to them.

Laura says “. I am so grateful that we serve the Lord Most High who hears and answers the prayers of His people. Please continue to pray for the precious children of Haiti and that the new believers would grow in their faith and reach many others for Christ”

We will save our thoughts and prayers for the stolen kids and those that are still owed money.

“Silsby, 41, had been president of the web-based business Personal Shopper. The business, which was beset with financial troubles, filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy June 30; the company’s assets are listed as $10 million to $50 million; its debts to 200-plus creditors are listed as $50 million to $100 million.”

Laura Silsby says Haitian official had it in for her
[Idaho Statesman 1/10/11 by Katy Moeller]

Lastly, Laura filed another Chapter 7 bankruptcy May 4, 2011 Case Number: 11-01342-JDP.

This summation shows the following actions of Silsby:

• Premeditation of moving children from Haiti to DR for about 1 year prior.
• Previously visited and planned for kids.
• Charissa Coulter knew the plan from the beginning.
• No authorized paperwork at all-just handwritten information from relatives.
• Knew none were orphans.
• No real established position in Haiti or DR.
• Volunteers had no previous position in Haiti or DR.
• No proof that interpreters were to be in place for the children, so educational opportunities would not be available as promised.
• No background checks for volunteers.

Questions remaining include the following:

• Why were there no supplies on the bus for the children when Pastor Sainvil says that they had a load of supplies when he met them at the border?Was that a different day that he was speaking of?
• Was the Jose that Laura indicated as either a Haitian cop or DR border agent that she called in Haiti the same as Jose Hidalgo, the real estate agent?
• How long was Silsby or other volunteers really planning on staying in DR?
• Did they first attempt to take 40 children out and were turned away as some reports indicate?
• How many orphanages turned them away when they asked for children?
• Did anyone try to stop the loading of the children on the bus?
• Did anyone ask how the families would be able to see the kids in the DR?
• Were the volunteers going to physically come back and bring them there, wire money or just wait for the families to somehow contact the orphanage in DR?
• What role did Pastor Jean Sainvil have in this trip? When did they meet him? When did he get ill and get off the bus prior to crossing the border?
• Was there any other adult on that bus that did not get detained? Who?
• When did they meet Jorge Puello?
• Exactly what did the volunteers know about paperwork, plans and recruiting of children?

The whole story and cover-up is maddening. After reading this, we hope your head doesn’t do this:

Update: In the Oregon Live 2/3/10 article by Associated Press mentioned above, one of the “orphan’s” father was interviewed. “Laurentius Lelly, a 27-year-old computer technician, said he gave up his two children, ages 4 and 6, because Silsby had previously visited the area and earned people’s trust.

Lelly said he is no longer so sure about her trustworthiness, and said he was worried the Haitian judicial system would fail to properly investigate the case.”

Now, there is a followup article on Laurentius Lelly aka Lelly Laurentius. Reunited Haiti Family Carries on 2 Yrs After Quake [ABC 1/21/12 by Trenton Daniel]

“The American missionaries arrived in a beige bus in the days after the earthquake, promising a better life for the children of this village in the mountains above Haiti’s capital.

The Idaho-based Baptist volunteers said they wanted to rescue the boys and girls they believed were orphaned by the Jan. 12, 2010, quake. But their effort to spirit away 33 children to the neighboring Dominican Republic failed when they were stopped by police and then jailed on kidnapping charges. It later came out that all the children had parents.

Two years on, residents of Calebasse describe a tempered sense of hope for their returned children even as they struggle against hardship. A humanitarian group has provided the families modest aid, and UNICEF has helped the children by building new schools.

“We still have problems but the children are able to eat and go to school,” said Lelly Laurentus, 29, a computer repairman who’s been unable to find work except as an occasional cab driver.

Laurentus, whose two daughters boarded the beige bus late that morning in January 2010, thought he was sending them to a better life.

A U.S. missionary accompanied by a Haitian translator had circulated among the homes of Calebasse, offering to bus children across the border following the quake, which officials said killed 314,000 people and left more than a million homeless. In the Dominican Republic, the children would find shelter and a school, the missionary promised.

Laurentus couldn’t resist the offer. His home had just collapsed in the earthquake and he was forced to sleep outside. Many Haitians of humble origins believe in lougarou, mythical werewolves that prey on children, and Laurentus is among them. He was terrified that in the dark, the shape-shifting beasts would fly from the mountaintops and attack his children as they slept.

“We had to confront the devils of night,” Laurentus said, standing outside his concrete house Tuesday as he waited for his daughters to walk home from school.

Everybody wanted a seat on the bus, a ready-made escape from the desperation that followed the quake, he said.

“If all the kids didn’t leave, it was because there wasn’t enough room on the bus,” said Laurentus.

Nevertheless, Laurentus felt ashamed for sending away his daughters, Leila, now 6, and Soraya, 5. A man should be able to support his family, yet he was powerless in the aftermath of the quake.

But the children never made it to the Dominican Republic. Police took them into custody and handed them over to SOS Children’s Villages International, a global group that aims to keep families together by providing support.

The Haitian government and foreign relief groups reunited the children with their natural-born parents in March 2010, a month after the “orphan rescue” grabbed international headlines amid an outpouring of legitimate efforts to help quake survivors.

The 33 were among more than 2,770 children returned to their families after the quake. At the time, UNICEF and other groups feared that child traffickers were taking advantage of the chaos and smuggling children out of the country.

Charges against all but one of the missionaries were dropped and they returned to the United States. Laura Silsby, the group’s leader, was convicted of arranging illegal travel under a 32-year-old statute restricting movement out of Haiti, but was later released and returned to Idaho.

SOS housed the children for a month as the government sought to locate their parents.

When their daughters were returned to them, Laurentus and his wife, Manette Ricot, 29, were given money from the organization to pay this year’s school tuition along with food like spaghetti, rice, oil, milk and sardines.

The leg up amounts to about $1,400 total, said Karl Foster Candio, a Haiti spokesman for SOS.[Now what are PAPs paying to adopt, again? 15-20 times that?]

“I know this doesn’t resolve their problems but it allows them to strengthen themselves so they can have better lives,” Candio said.

Ricot earns some money as a tailor when she can find the work, and her husband drives a cab part-time.

“Even though the tuition is paid for, life is still heavy for us,” she said. “After two years, we’re fighting to survive, because everything was destroyed. It’s like we’re starting over.”

Ricot and her husband use that extra money to feed the girls breakfast and buy school uniforms. But even now, they would still welcome the chance to send the girls abroad, legally, if the opportunity presented itself. They face a harsh reality in Haiti, a country where about 60 percent of the population is either unemployed or underemployed.

“I’m the one who should be working, to help them,” said Laurentus, who was forced to close his shed-housed cybercafe. He sold his three computers to pay for construction materials to rebuild his home.

Despite a multibillion dollar reconstruction effort, most Haitians remain hostage to the country’s relentless poverty. But the nation has made key advances in school reconstruction since the earthquake, which crippled an already fragile education system, damaging or destroying almost 4,000 schools, according to UNICEF.

Now more than 80,000 children in this country of 10 million people have been able to return to hundreds of repaired and newly built schools, the aid agency says.

Just before dusk, the girls stepped foot in the dusty courtyard. They wore royal blue uniforms and white ribbons in their pigtailed hair.

“Ca va?” Leila whispered in French, planting cheek kisses on her father, mother and their friends.
Laurentus rubbed Leila’s chin and she eased her way under his arm. Soraya held onto his leg.”

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Premeditated (since 2009, not after the earthquake) moving of children across an international border for the purpose of “adoption”. Dominican Republic is a Hague country so there is no way that Haitian children would have ever been able to be legally adopted from the DR without paperwork. DR is a hub for child trafficking. One of Silsby’s lawyers was in fact a child trafficker (Jorge Puello) and a registered real estate agent in DR. She was almost $400,000 in debt. Children in Haiti sell for $10,000 apiece and there were 40 children originally on the bus. Coincidence?