Word: children
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Launched in early February with the help of Haitian officials and aid groups like Save the Children, UNICEF's child registry is similar to one the organization created in South Asia after the tsunami in 2004. In the Indonesian territory of Aceh, the worst-hit area, aid workers took five months to compile the names of about 3,000 displaced children, 240 of whom were eventually reunited with a parent. Hundreds more went to live with relatives whom aid workers found by going door to door and matching information about birthmarks and other identifying details. Marie de la Soudi?...
That's the goal for Haitian children like 13-year-old Yvolene Avril, whose father died years ago and whose mother was killed during the quake by a falling wall. Aside from two half brothers from her mother's previous relationships, Yvolene can't recall any other family members. (Since the quake, one of the boys' fathers has agreed to care for them but not for their half sister.) One of St. Louis's jobs is to try to jog Yvolene's memory by asking about things like schools she's attended, friends she's had, birthdays and other celebrations...
...slogans is "No to orphanages." Part of what makes UNICEF's mission so urgent is the rampant child trafficking in Haiti, the western hemisphere's poorest nation. There are some responsible orphanages in the country, to be sure, but there are also scores of loosely monitored ones, and children who end up in the latter often get "adopted" by people who turn them into household slaves called restaveks or force them into prostitution. One of the more bizarre elements of the saga surrounding the 10 U.S. missionaries who were caught trying to ferry 33 children out of the country without...
...keep children out of risk, de la Soudière needs the help of people like St. Louis and Edith Philistin. A Haitian nurse volunteering on the U.S. naval hospital ship in Port-au-Prince Bay, Philistin was tending to a 6-year-old boy named Kenzie, who was getting emergency treatment for a fractured leg. Both of his parents had died in the quake, and when he couldn't name any relatives - child psychologists say it's not unusual in traumatic situations for a 6-year-old's memory to get cloudy - doctors on the ship were inclined to send...
...components of the registry's efforts is providing support - both moral and material - for such caregivers, whom UNICEF recruits from the children's neighborhoods. The amount of food, clothing and education assistance provided to foster families is not a lot - agencies don't want to encourage people to step forward just for the aid - but it's enough to make caregivers feel as if they're getting adequate backup. (See the destruction in Haiti from...