Reports of Child Trafficking from Son of God Orphanage in Carrefour, Haiti–Volunteers Petition for Investigation UPDATED

Volunteers from the Son of God Orphanage are reporting that some children are missing (and presumed trafficked) and some children are being abused in the Son of God Orphanage in Carrefour/Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

They are petitioning for CNN reporter “Amber Lyon to bring their international media voice and passion for ending slavery into the Son of God Orphanage. Please urge CNN to expose the corruption within the Haitian government, and allow international organizations to secure the children from the child traffickers who are now controlling the orphanage”

The petition is at http://www.change.org/petitions/the-freedom-project-expose-human-trafficking-at-son-of-god-orphanage-in-haiti

The blog Belief Net [Tom Davis 10/17/11] post Haiti Human Trafficking: It’s Easier to Look the Other Way reports the following:

“We have had people on the ground in this orphanage trying desperately to get medical care for children who are starving, who have been burned. They have firsthand accounts of the conditions these children are facing.

In July, the previous director was imprisoned on human trafficking charges. Children are missing. “

“International rights groups have compiled evidence and continue to gather more evidence that organ and child trafficking cases have been traced directly to SOG. The orphanage director was imprisoned in July as a part of a police led operation where he sold a child from the orphanage.”

A graphic example of the abuse is at the blog.

Second Volunteer Blog

A second volunteer Seth Barnes reported on October 15, 2011 in his blog post Help stop Haitian officials from trafficking orphans, “Backed by corrupt government officials, an orphanage we work with in Carrefour/Port-au-Prince, Haiti has been trafficking its orphans.

Suspecting foul play, we’ve been investigating for the last year. We’ve not been ready to go to the media until we had the facts.

As a result, the orphanage director is now in jail, but the 75 children left in the orphanage are still in danger. A worker said, “The kids are in terrible condition – the doctor gave them some prescriptions, but we doubt that the medicine will ever be administered to the children. Instead, the medicine will probably be sold.”

The problem is that those running the orphanage are still protected by corrupt government officials. Our goal is to get this information to media outlets in order to put pressure on the government to protect the kids.

An AIM staff member just returned from Haiti and filed this report:

The situation at the orphanage is an EMERGENCY right now as kids are sick and dying and still disappearing. We’re trying to mobilize any connections in politics and media to expose the corruption and put an end to it. The lead investigator, said we “hit the jackpot of corruption.”

What we’ve discovered:
• Food gets donated to SOG orphanage, but disappears very quickly, while children remain malnourished.
• Reports by the children of physical abuse by orphanage workers.
• Reports by the children of sexual abuse by orphanage workers.
• Clothing when donated, instead of going to orphans, gets sold.
• Dozens of children have disappeared.”

A second graphic story of neglect and abuse is told at this blog.

While the bloggers are indicating that the children may be trafficked for organs or sexual abuse, due to so many stories about trafficking for adoption and the ramp up of international adoption in Haiti in the past six months, we feel it is necessary to add adoption trafficking to the possible list of reasons . Often the traffickers are the same people.

Update: The Haiti Government Shut Down Son of God PERMANENTLY on Friday October 21, 2011.

“Police officers and child welfare officials sealed off the unpaved street in front of the Son of God orphanage and the children who lived there were loaded into a UNICEF bus and taken to new homes.
Diem Pierre, general coordinator of the Institute of Welfare and Research, said the government closed the orphanage permanently because inspectors found children were living in unsanitary conditions. He said the inspection was prompted by complaints from U.S. missionaries.

“We found kids with health problems,” Pierre told The Associated Press. “They looked as though they hadn’t eaten. They looked malnourished.”

Such enforcement actions are rare in Haiti. Officials complain that child welfare workers lack the resources and training to investigate the several hundred orphanages and group homes in a country in which many parents are forced to abandon their children because of poverty or as they seek work abroad”

“The Son of God orphanage is a three-story building in Carrefour, a densely packed and dusty city along the edge of the sea to the west of downtown Port-au-Prince. The director, Maccene Hypolitte, was arrested in July on suspicion of involvement in child trafficking based on allegations presented by U.S. missionaries. Under the Haitian legal system he has been jailed pending a judicial investigation and has not been charged.

The report compiled by a coalition of five U.S. Christian missions and the aid group Catholic Relief Services alleges that Hypolitte had offered to let a missionary take a child away to receive medical care in exchange for a payment of $1,250, a figure that was later raised to $2,000. The missionary, working with Haitian authorities, returned later with part of the payment and Hypolitte was arrested.”

“His wife, Marie Andree Hypolitte, has been running the orphanage with the couple’s 30-year-old daughter, and she denied any wrongdoing. She the American missionaries have accused them of trafficking and abuse because they want to take over the business.

The wife said that the poor conditions of the orphanage, including dirty mattresses on the floor, holes in the concrete walls and the smell of urine, were proof that the family was not involved in any criminal activity.”

” Seth Barnes, executive director of one of the groups, Adventures in Missions, based in Gainesville, Georgia; said he and workers at six other organizations learned of the problems after visiting Son of God last year to check on donations of clothes and other goods and to see if the children needed any help.

Barnes said they found that donated clothes had gone missing and donated food disappeared from storerooms even as the children appeared to be going hungry. He said some kids simply vanished without any records or adequate explanation from the staff of the orphanage.

Barnes described conditions as “horrific” and said they began complaining to local authorities.
“We knew as of a year ago that there was a serious problem,” he said.”
Haiti closes orphanage for child neglect
[MSNBC 10/21/11 by Trenton Daniel/Associated Press]

REFORM Puzzle Piece