by Brian Shilhavy, Health Impact News:
In a tragic story that made headline news this past week, three leaders of a Haitian Orphanage were reportedly murdered by gangs in Haiti.
Davy Lloyd, age 23, and his wife Natalie Lloyd, 21, were the American leaders of the orphanage who were killed, as well as Pastor Jude Montis, age 45, who was the Haitian director of the orphanage of Missions in Haiti, Inc., an American non-profit corporation started by Davy’s parents in 2001, who are the directors of the corporation.
This story has been extensively covered in the corporate media with very little derivation from the original AP story that reported the incident.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
We really do not know the story that is behind these murders, as the deceased are portrayed as innocent victims of random gang violence in Haiti, which is reportedly common these days.
And while that is probably true, it ignores the larger issue of the presence of Christian orphanages in Haiti that have been shown in the past to be part of the huge child trafficking network operating out of Haiti.
In my research of Missions in Haiti, Inc., which is headquartered in Oklahoma, I could find no evidence of any known intentional child trafficking operating out of their business.
However, it is widely known that such Christian organizations have been used in the past to traffick children.
Much of this was revealed back in 2010, just after a massive earthquake hit Haiti, when Evangelical Christian Laura Silsby along with American Baptist missionaries from Idaho tried to traffick 33 children out of Haiti, claiming they were “orphans.”
They were also working with the Clinton Foundation. (One source here.)
Since this time, some organizations have begun to investigate the 30,000 + children living in orphanages in Haiti, which they claim is a form of “child trafficking.”
The Business of “Parentless” Children: Haiti’s Orphanage Crisis
A country vulnerable to natural disasters and plagued by political instability and corruption, Haiti was estimated to have a poverty rate of 52.3% percent in 2021 and ranked 179 out of 180 in the UN’s 2020 Human Development Index.
Haiti’s natural disasters, namely earthquakes, hurricanes and floods, have caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and perpetuated its economic insecurity.
Although private “orphanages” have existed for years prior, the three years following Haiti’s major earthquake in 2010 saw more than a doubling of child institutions in the country, increasing from 300 orphanages to 752 in 2013 alone.
This pervasive poverty and homelessness crisis has led to a total of at least 30,000 Haitain children living in orphanages.
About 80% percent of those children, contrary to the meaning of “orphan,” have at least one living parent. Unable to sustain their children’s wellbeing, these parents are persuaded to relinquish them to privately-run orphanages that promise the children will receive shelter, food and education.
This is often not the outcome. Instead, the children living in Haiti’s orphanages face exploitation and trafficking unintentionally funded by foreign donors.
“This orphanage business – where orphanages are established and recruit children to raise donations from foreigners – is becoming increasingly recognised globally as a form of trafficking,” says Jamie Vernaelde of Lumos, an NGO advocating for the end of institutionalization of children.
The orphanage directors pay individuals called “child finders” to single out struggling families and recruit the children into orphanages, convincing the parents of a better life and occasionally providing $75 as compensation.
Lumos reports speaking with children living in orphanages who said they were often beaten, denied adequate food and prevented from learning English so they could not interact with foreign volunteers, missionaries and tourists. One girl said she had to pay her school fees through prostitution. Others reported being forced to cook and clean and never attending school. (Source.)
More articles on this topic:
Charities and voluntourism fuelling ‘orphanage crisis’ in Haiti, says NGO
A Form of Child Trafficking in Haiti: The Orphanage Business
Child Trafficking and Adoption in Haiti
I did not find any evidence on the Missions in Haiti website that they were adopting children out to the U.S., but they do solicit funds from the U.S. to pay for the orphanage compound in Haiti, which includes dorms, a school, a church, and a bakery, originally a $1 million investment according to their IRS filings.
Much like State Adoption agencies in the U.S. where children in the foster care system are photographed and then published on the Internet for parents to purchase through adoption, such as this one:
Read More @ HealthImpactNews.com
