An independent voice for ethical adoption
A Mother and Child, Divided After Earthquake, Reunite
Haiti—The baby, his left leg amputated, arrived by helicopter at a hospital in northern Haiti early this month with a wristband that simply said “Boy.” The staff there called him “Jean Pierre.” On Thursday, he became Kervins Noel again, after he was flown back here by the International Committee of the Red Cross.His mother, Eclane Noel, tearfully greeted her 2-year-old son, ending more than a month of separation. Even after she had located him, it took authorities nearly three weeks to reunite them partly because documents proving kinship were lost in the earthquake.
“I felt powerless,” Ms. Noel, 33, said. “I missed him so much. I knew God would bring him back to me.”
The Noels’ saga illustrates how the Jan. 12 earthquake not only ripped apart families, but also created bureaucratic nightmares in a nation where documents have been destroyed and guardianship questions are swirling in a country that has historically been vulnerable to child trafficking.
Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal
Follow Us
