Since the massive earthquake that rocked Haiti on January 12, Americans have started to adopt helpless orphans from the country.   The earthquake has killed an estimated 200,000 so far, and the death rates don’t seem to be slowing down.  According to the president and CEO of Joint Council on International Children’s Services, Tom Difilipio, calls and emails are pouring into the organization inquiring about adopting children abandoned in Haiti.  The answer to these requests is yes.

As claimed by UNICEF, Haiti had 380,000 orphans before Tuesday’s earthquake.  There’s no telling how high that number has climbed to since then.  At least 1.5 million people are homeless and desperate for help. 

“Everybody here [America] and in the world wants to do something. I think it’s a way that people are opening up their heads and their hearts,” said Mary Ross Agosta.  Agosta is a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Miami; an organization that shelters children until they are adopted.   

Last week, 54 Haitian orphans arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and were taken in at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.  Seven of these children were adopted immediately.  According to the Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh, people as far away as Alaska are willing to take these kids into their homes.  An estimated 100 people have called the charity in hopes of adopting. 

Despite the desperate need for adoptions, the process is a grueling one.  Spokesman for U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, Chris Bentley, says that the children coming America now were already verified as orphans before the earthquake.  The families adopting also need to be cleared. 

Tom Difilipio claims that this kind of adoption is a minimum two-year process, and that some families have waited five years.

The Homeland Security Department is trying to work on making the adopting process easier.  So far, the U.S. has just set up a base in Puerto Rico that will serve as a place for the children to wait to be adopted by Americans.

According to State Department spokesman Darby Holladay, the orphans are a prime concern of the government.  Darby says that the U.S. is working “around the clock” with Homeland Security and the government of Haiti.  

UNICEF is also taking a step to help determine the status some Haitian children.  The organization will help find out if some kids are missing from their families, or really are orphans.  UNICEF would help reunite them with their family, or set up an international adoption. 

The situation in Haiti as a whole is devastating.  Knowing that there are homeless children roaming around the country is upsetting, and Americans stepping up to help these orphans is extremely heroic.

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