The Lost Children of Haiti

Almost half the victims of the earthquake in Haiti are under the age of 18, which means about half a million children are still living on the streets, in crowded orphanages or in makeshift camps. Untold thousands of kids are separated from their families, threatened by hunger, disease, sexual assault and even a modern day slave trade.

We've just come back from six weeks around Port-au-Prince with an American charity called the Global Orphan Project. The catastrophe may have largely dropped from the news but we found that the emergency is still unfolding as rescue workers race the clock to save the lost children of Haiti.

Full Segment: The Lost Children of Haiti
Web Extra: Rogelin's Story
Web Extra: Why So Many Orphans?
Web Extra: Child Trafficking
Jean-Robert Cadet Foundation

Ten weeks after, Haitians walk an apocalyptic landscape. Many can't be certain of food or shelter. And for families with missing loved ones it is impossible to know who is living and who is dead. Survivors have raised urban campsites of sticks and cloth and plastic. It's crowded; water and sanitation are poor.

When "60 Minutes" arrived in January, the Good Samaritan Orphanage outside Port-au-Prince was overwhelmed. Even before the earthquake, orphanages like this were common because desperate families often feel forced to abandon their children to the care of others. But, now, new arrivals were pouring in.

We found Moise Vaval and Joe Knittig of the Global Orphan Project as they rushed food and tents to desperate children.

"One of them when we showed up the first time had one cup of flour and the children were asking their pastor, the caretaker, whether they were going to die," Knittig told correspondent Scott Pelley.

At a children's home, when the quake hit, the kids just happened to be in a prayer service under a mango tree. Their building crumbled. Global Orphan discovered the children, loaded up the survivors and checked them in to an emergency camp that it's set up outside the capital.

Moise Vaval is Global Orphan's country director and a Haitian pastor. While he was helping hundreds of orphans, we learned that he was also looking for his own missing son. Eight year old Jean-Mark didn't come home from school after the quake.

"Jean-Mark is a lovely child, a charming guy anybody who meets him man or woman you fall in love with him," Vaval told Pelley.

"You did something that I think is quite remarkable - you came back to work," Pelley pointed out.

"We are looking for one but there are hundreds here to care for," Vaval explained.

Vaval didn't know whether his boy was dead, injured or lost. We followed his search over the next six weeks, a search common to many thousands of Haitians.

"How is it possible to know how many lost children there are in Haiti now?" Pelley asked Marie de la Soudiere, who is responsible for UNICEF's program to unite lost children with their families.

"The answer is we don't know. We feel it's upwards of 50,000," she estimated.

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[kg04762]

Why are we sending money to a country that allows slaveray? We should stop all money until this practice is abolished. There are other countries that need our help as well and right here in the USA.

They either stop the pactice of using children as slaves or the get no more money.

Someone should point this out to all the celebrities raising money for them for Haiti.

These children are treated worse than dogs. They can be raped, made to sleep outdoors, worked relentlessly with no recourse.

Send a message to Haiti that this stops or no more money. They made such a big thing out of the missionaries trying to take children out of Haiti. What about allowing their own citizens to hold children as slaves.

American are just too gullible

[paceaj]

No, it's not that Americans are too gullible. It's that Haiti was/is so poor and poorly governed, before the earthquake and since, that there is no effective way to stop this practice. So do you make the Haitian people suffer even more by denying aid? You'd only make the situation worse. Learn something about the country and develop some compassion.

[shanehackettusa]

I've had the privilege of working with The Global Orphan Project on the ground in Haiti. They do incredible work and really have a caring heart to dedicate their lives, money and resources to caring for the poor. The founder, Mike Fox, covers all the costs of administrating the non profit so that all of the money donated goes into the field to help the kids. You can find out more at www.theglobalorphanproject.org. Thanks. Shane Hackett

[paceaj]

Shane, Thanks for all that you, Mike, Beth, and the others are doing. (Incidentally, I'm a former Kansas Citian.)

[paceaj]

This was an excellent report about a very, very tragic situation. Thank you, Scott! However, as the story indicated, the situation told here is not at all new. It existed long before the earthquake, which only made it worse of course. The heartbreaking condition of the common people of Haiti has changed little in the past two centuries. They have continually been exploited by the ruling elite, whatever their names, often with the endorsement of foreign authorities. Many efforts by the latter have been well intentioned, but misguided.

For a rather incisive and detailed description of this history, read Amy Wilentz' "The Rainy Season." While this book focuses mainly on the post-Duvalier period in the 1980's, not much has changed since then, despite the UN presence. (I understand she has a new book coming out on the last two decades.)

[SIKCHUTNAY]

THE CHILDREN AREN'T "LOST" THEY'RE IN IDAHO SOMEWHERE

[precoz22]

Yes it will be nice to help Haiti kids. Anything but to bring they over here where many parents are killing, abusing or exploiting their own kids. Just imagine what they can do to adopted ones. In top of that the punishment for those criminal parents are minimum.

[brute22]

It would be nice if we could donate to the armyranger/teacher who helped the slave children of Haiti he is one man alone who went through the same problems. Run the section again and post an address so the rest of us can help this man save the children we would be the first to donate!! Thankyou Tom and Crystal