Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – A month after the earthquake, 4,130 children in Haiti have been adopted at a distance by Italian families. This month, in fact, the Italian NGO active on the island experienced a real boom in membership programs to support long-distance adoption. Among the different organizations is the NPH Italy-Fondazione Francesca Rava, present in Haiti for twenty years and which has already supported 3,000 children. The priorities for children, at this moment, are two: first, the care of children in tent camps and secondly, the need for prosthetics as soon as possible for the many children amputees. Another organization that is strongly committed is AVSI, which saw in one month 50% more requests for at-a-distance support for Haiti. It had about 1,000 sponsored children and another 500 requests to sponsor came in recent days. "SOS Children's Villages" from the day of the earthquake has been working to respond to children's needs and to date have enabled 120 new long-distance adoptions and 300 long-distance sponsorships for the two SOS Children's Villages in Haiti in Cap Haitien (on the coast) and in Santo (Port-au-Prince). The support goes towards children sponsorship programs for orphans or those removed from their families, who are guests at the SOS Children's Villages. Before the earthquake, were 365 at-a-distance adoptions for children placed in facilities and 20 sponsorships. Besides this, the organization has already created 36 clinics on the island for distribution centers to meet essential civilian needs. Terre des Hommes, in the neighborhoods of Croix-de-Bouquets and Lalu, has received 110 requests. There have been a hundred, finally, even through Coopi, an organization that works primarily with water and health. (AP) (19/2/2010 Agenzia Fides)
