Moral Headaches

I have been reading about the church group from Idaho who were arrested for trying to take orphans out of Haiti without the proper paperwork. "How could they do a stupid thing like that?" some may ask. Others might say, "How could they be arrested for trying to save children from such terrible conditions?" Haiti is full of dilemmas like that. The Haitian government is outraged at people trying to take Haitian children, yet they never seemed to be too upset at seeing hundreds of children living abandoned in the streets before the earthquake. This morning on NPR they interviewed a Haitian woman who was glad to let her own children go to a 'blan' even though she would never see them again. Again, "how could anyone ever do that?' we ask.
Haitian parents love their children as much as any parents. I have seen fathers and mothers carry their sick children on foot for miles, and wait for hours in the hot sun for just a chance at getting proper medical care for their child.
I think Haitian parents give up their children because they love them so much. A small chance, even a glimmer of a chance for their children to escape the hunger, squalor, and grinding day to day life of poverty is enough for a loving but hopeless parent to give up her beloved child to a stranger.
The Restavek system works the same way. Poor illiterate parents usually in the countryside will give their children to a distant relative or stranger for the promise of regular food, a place to sleep and an education. I saw many restaveks (Kreyol for "stay with") while in Haiti on my church mission. Whenever we were teaching a family we would ask if their "cousin' who was always dressed in rags and stayed in the kitchen, wanted to hear the lesson. "Pa okipe-l" (don't pay any attention to him) we were told. I never saw one whipped or physically abused. They were just treated as something slightly less than human. It wasn't until I left Haiti that I learned who these unfortunate children were-- restaveks. It is so sad. Slavery still exists in a country that prides itself in being the first country in the new world to throw off the yoke of slavery.
I understand that Haiti wants to protect its children from the flesh trade, and foreigners want to protect Haitian children from poverty. I believe that Haiti and the International community can and must learn to work together to achieve the same goals. I hope the church group from Idaho is released soon and realizes that they need to work within the system, and I hope that the Haitian government makes the system easier for caring, loving people from other countries to adopt Haiti's orphaned children.