No name, no parents, nowhere to live
Source: Agencies |
January 28, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
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THE children with no names lay mute in a corner of the General Hospital grounds on Tuesday, three among thousands of boys and girls set adrift in the wake of Haiti's earthquake.
"Hi, Joe, how are you?" the American doctor tried, using a pet name the staff had given a boy of about 11.
There was no response.
"Joe," "Baby Sebastian" and the girl who didn't even have a nickname hadn't spoken or cried since they were brought in over the previous 48 hours - by neighbors, passers-by, no one knows who. "Sebastian," only a week old, was said to have been taken from the arms of his dead mother.
They're lucky: Haitian-born Dr Winston Price and the staff were treating them for infections and other ailments. Hundreds of thousands of other hungry and thirsty children are scattered among Port-au-Prince's squatter camps of survivors, without protection against disease or child predators - often with nobody to care for them.
"There's an estimated 1?million unaccompanied or orphaned children or children who lost one parent," said Kate Conradt, a spokeswoman for the aid group Save the Children. "They are extremely vulnerable."
The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, has established a special tent camp for girls and boys separated from their parents in the January 12 quake, and who are in danger of falling prey to child traffickers and other abusers. The United States-based Save the Children has set up "Child Spaces" in 13 makeshift settlements. The Red Cross and other groups are working to reunite families and get children into orphanages.
The post-quake needs of Haiti's children have outrun available help. Some youngsters have been released from hospitals with no one to care for them - there just aren't enough beds.
"Health workers are being advised to monitor and send separated/unaccompanied children to child-friendly spaces," the UN humanitarian office said in its latest situation report.
The plight of the young is poignant even in a country where the UN estimates a third of the 9 million population needs international assistance in the quake's aftermath. "We still have a huge distance to go," said John Holmes, the UN relief coordinator.
The monumental scale of the Haiti disaster - perhaps 200,000 dead, a capital city on its knees - has severely strained the world's ability to get relief supplies through Port-au-Prince's overloaded airport and crippled seaport.
Some 800 to 1,000 aid flights were still awaiting permission to land, a seven-day backlog, officials reported on Tuesday. On top of that, "trucks are needed," UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva - especially small trucks as "the streets are extremely congested."
The UN's Holmes estimated that 2 million people need food, but only 500,000 have received some so far.
"Hi, Joe, how are you?" the American doctor tried, using a pet name the staff had given a boy of about 11.
There was no response.
"Joe," "Baby Sebastian" and the girl who didn't even have a nickname hadn't spoken or cried since they were brought in over the previous 48 hours - by neighbors, passers-by, no one knows who. "Sebastian," only a week old, was said to have been taken from the arms of his dead mother.
They're lucky: Haitian-born Dr Winston Price and the staff were treating them for infections and other ailments. Hundreds of thousands of other hungry and thirsty children are scattered among Port-au-Prince's squatter camps of survivors, without protection against disease or child predators - often with nobody to care for them.
"There's an estimated 1?million unaccompanied or orphaned children or children who lost one parent," said Kate Conradt, a spokeswoman for the aid group Save the Children. "They are extremely vulnerable."
The United Nations children's agency, UNICEF, has established a special tent camp for girls and boys separated from their parents in the January 12 quake, and who are in danger of falling prey to child traffickers and other abusers. The United States-based Save the Children has set up "Child Spaces" in 13 makeshift settlements. The Red Cross and other groups are working to reunite families and get children into orphanages.
The post-quake needs of Haiti's children have outrun available help. Some youngsters have been released from hospitals with no one to care for them - there just aren't enough beds.
"Health workers are being advised to monitor and send separated/unaccompanied children to child-friendly spaces," the UN humanitarian office said in its latest situation report.
The plight of the young is poignant even in a country where the UN estimates a third of the 9 million population needs international assistance in the quake's aftermath. "We still have a huge distance to go," said John Holmes, the UN relief coordinator.
The monumental scale of the Haiti disaster - perhaps 200,000 dead, a capital city on its knees - has severely strained the world's ability to get relief supplies through Port-au-Prince's overloaded airport and crippled seaport.
Some 800 to 1,000 aid flights were still awaiting permission to land, a seven-day backlog, officials reported on Tuesday. On top of that, "trucks are needed," UN spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva - especially small trucks as "the streets are extremely congested."
The UN's Holmes estimated that 2 million people need food, but only 500,000 have received some so far.
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