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STORY: HAITI / SOS CHILDREN'S SHELTER
TRT: 2:01
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRCITIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 3 FEBUARY 2010, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI
1. Wide shot, children playing in a ward
2. Med shot, boys playing wit straws
3. Wide shot, young girl walking
4. Wide shot, children standing around
5. SOUNDBITE (English) George Willeit, Spokesperson, SOS Children’s Villages:
“It is not surprising, if you now go into one of these refugee camps and ask if a parent would give away their children you will get many children if you really want to do that, because the situation here is really terrible but this is a misuse of the bad situations that the parents are in, this a business of making hope, hope for better life for the children. I am not going to blame the parents but it’s still not in the interest of a child to be actively separated from its existing family, that’s just a strange thing.”
6. Med shot, young boys playing with some chairs
7. Med shot, girl putting water on her face
8. Wide shot, girl playing with a container with water
9. SOUNDBITE (English) George Willeit, SOS spokesman:
“I do have a quote from one child yesterday she really want to go back to her family, but she clearly stated I want to go… father and mother are separated, and she clearly stated that I want to go back to my father because my mother gave me away. So they children are aware about what had happened and this is really hard and sad for them.”
10. Med shot, children seated on a metal bench
11. Wide shot, two girls on a swing
12. Close up, young girl on a swing
Austrian-run SOS’s Children’s Village in Port-au-Prince continued to care for Haitian children this week who were taken away from their parents and recently rescued at the Haitian border.
Ten United States citizens belonging to missionaries tried to take the 33 children into the Dominican Republic without official permission last Friday (29 January). They claimed that the children were orphans and that they were taking them to an orphanage in the neighboring country.
The parents of these children, ranging in age from 2 to 12, are still alive. SOS’s Spokesperson George Willeit said that taking children away from their parents is taking advantage of the unfortunate situation many Haitian parents are finding themselves in with the aftermath of the earthquake.
SOUNDBITE (English) George Willeit, Spokesperson, SOS Children’s Villages:
“It is not surprising, if you now go into one of these refugee camps and ask if a parent would give away their children you will get many children if you really want to do that, because the situation here is really terrible but this is a misuse of the bad situations that the parents are in, this a business of making hope, hope for better life for the children. I am not going to blame the parents but it’s still not in the interest of a child to be actively separated from its existing family, that’s just a strange thing. ”
There were reports that several of the parents residing in Callebas, a quake-wracked Haitian village near the Port-au-Prince had handed over their children willingly because they were unable to feed or clothe their children.
The parents currently only have telephone contact with the children and are not allowed to see them until the government gives them permission. Willeit said that the children are aware of the situation and one child had insisted on returning to her father instead of her mother who had given her away.
SOUNDBITE (English) George Willeit, SOS spokesman:
“I do have a quote from one child yesterday she really want to go back to her family, but she clearly stated I want to go, father and mother are separated, and she clearly stated that I want to go back to my father because my mother gave me away. So they children are aware about what had happened and this is really hard and sad for them.”
Many of the approximately 120 children in the SOS shelter are orphaned. SOS cares for and houses the children in several of its shelters in the country.
