One of the most emotionally mixed days in Haiti last year was the day we visited the orphanage on La Gonave. We met 59 little ones; the girls sat on one long bench together, while the boys wiggled and squirmed on the other. The girls sat together, gently braiding hair, talking and giggling. The boys shoved each other, pushed each other and called out for more and more pictures to be taken. One little girl stood out from the others --Betsiina. She was to be adopted soon by a Canadian/Haitian couple. The other kids knew it. She was teased and told that her new family would hit her. She didn't want to go.
Many of the children, I'm told, have biological parents who live in the town adjacent from the orphanage. In some cases, the parents just can't provide for the children and so they are sent to the orphanage. In Betsiina's case, she was being sexually abused by her older brother while her mother was out looking for work during the day. And so she was sent to the orphanage where, her mother hoped, she could be better protected. It seemed that many of these children have no supervision during the day, no one to look after them except for older siblings. I kept wondering, does Haiti need orphanages for its children, or just free quality day care?
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