People in Western nations speeded up adoptions of Haitian orphans that had been in progress, in order to remove them to a safer environment away from the disaster of their own country. The children were airlifted out of Haiti by some governments in the initial world reaction to protect the children coming from orphanages that were now piles of rubble. At first most of the children appeared to have been in the process of adoption, but some scooped children up and tried to take them out of the country without first obtaining approval of their status as adoptable orphans, or consideration of other available extended family who might want them. The Haitian government within a few weeks put a temporary stop on adoptions because of such misguided attempts (Velazquez, 2010).
There was a comment in one of the articles about the Dutch airlift that counselors skilled in handling post-traumatic stress disorder accompanied the children on the plane. Their presence appeared unnecessary as the children slept, ate and played (Dutch Airlift, 2010). The presence of the counselors was certainly helpful, and may have contributed to the ease of the transition at that particular time. However, there was no mention of helping the children with their new environment, as these children grow up between two different cultural worldviews, the Afrocentric one of their native country and the Eurocentric one of the new adoptive parents in the West.
According to Avant (2004), the Afrocentric worldview is the opposite of the Eurocentric worldview. The Afrocentric worldview is communal, as well as spiritual, with a holistic perspective of the interconnections of people and all things. Extended kinship networks and neighbors are important, with mutual cooperation valued and reinforced by shared experience. The Eurocentric worldview, in contrast, is much more individualistic and materialistic. Haitian children, coming from the Afrocentric culture of Haiti where they fit in without any effort, must now navigate a bewildering new world on both a physical and a cultural level. What sorts of counseling resources will this new group of adopted children and parents have to mesh their conflicting cultures within the new family?
Rescuing children from real or perceived difficult environments or disasters is not that unusual. It has happened many times over in the past, especially when it seemed there were no better alternatives if the children remained, in the particular cultural viewpoint of their rescuers. It happened in the United States during the Indian Adoption era from the 1950s to the 1970s, when child welfare agencies removed a large proportion of Native American children from poverty conditions, placing them with Caucasian families across state lines in a misguided attempt to provide them with a better life by removing them completely from their Native past. This was damaging to both the children and their tribes, resulting finally in the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 (George, 1997). These children, as they grew into adolescence and adulthood, had difficulties as they became aware of not really belonging in either world. They were not fully accepted into the white world of their adopted families, yet they had also lost their tribal identities (Abinanti, n.d.).
Overall, the perspective that the best thing for orphaned Haitian children is immediate removal from their country for adoption is questionable. Some thought needs to be given for any child adopted between cultures, and especially for children who experience trauma preceding that adoption. For those children already adopted, it should not be overlooked that it will be necessary to help these children draw strength from both cultural backgrounds and to resolve the differences, in order to grow up whole at home in both worlds. There is a need for continuing support for the new adoptive families to help these children maintain and value their ties to both cultures.
References
Abinanti, A. (n.d.). The Indian Child Welfare Act and CASA/GAL volunteers: Advocating for the best interests of native children. Available from http://www.casanet.org/program-services/tribal/index.htm
Avant, F. (2004). African Americans in rural areas. In T. L. Scales & C. L. Streeter (Eds.), Rural social work: Building and sustaining community assets (pp. 77-86). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Brooks/Cole/Thomson Learning.
Dutch airlift brings Haitian kids for adoption (2010, January 22). The Daily Triplicate, p. A10.
George, L. (1997). Why the need for the Indian Child Welfare Act? [Abstract]. Journal of Multicultural Social Work, 5(3/4), 165-175. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from Academic Search Elite database.
Velazquez, S. (2010). Haiti’s children: Is foreign adoption the answer? Who We Are: American Humane’s Blog. Retrieved April 23, 2010, from
http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/who-we-are/american-humane-blog/blog-posts/haitis-children-is-foreign-adoption-the-answer.html
