Haiti earthquake children sold by their parents for less than 76p each to traffickers, say Unicef

* Over 76% of Haitians live on £1.50 a day
* Parents forced to sell children to traffickers
* They believe their young will have better life - but most don't

As Haiti continues to slowly rebuild following the earthquake which devastated the Caribbean island in January 2010, it has come to light that helpless children are being trafficked for as little as 76 pence each.

Registering 7.0 on the Moment magnitude scale, the earthquake - which struck on January 12, 2010, near capital city Port-au-Prince - killed between 100,000 and 300,000 people, and displaced well over a million.

Aftershocks were felt for weeks afterwards and, with conditions difficult to build in, there were further complications when there was a cholera outbreak in makeshift camps last year.

Over 76 per cent of the country are living on less that £1.50 a day, and just when you thought that the horror could not be any worse, charity Unicef have found that a number of children - many of whom lost their parents in the tragic earthquake - are been sold for next to nothing.

 Devastation: Men attempt the massive clean up job following the earthquake which killed up to 300,000 people.Displaced: Over one million people lost their homes after the earthquake in January 2010

Vulnerable: Young children in Haiti are being sold by their parents for as little as 76 pence

Traffickers, wanting to cash in on the chaos, have been buying the children off their desperate parents, and some of them are grabbed in neighbouring Dominican Republic while they are scrounging for food.

A small amount of the children might manage to end up in the arms of loving and wealthy western families in Europe and America - who are none the wiser - but most are forced into more sinister jobs, such as prostitution and other criminal activities.

Parents, struggling to even feed - never mind educate - their young ones, are selling them on to the traffickers, who promise to hand their offspring a better chance in life.

Wanting to stop the problem at its source, a number of NGO officials have begun to pretend to be interested buyers, in the hope that they can stamp out the horrific problem.

Brigade de Protection des Mineurs (BPM), a group funded by Unisef and who work with the help of the police, monitor the camps and Haitian borders to look out for children who are vulnerable.

But it is difficult to keep track of all of the children - some of the camps contain over 80,000 families, and many of them do not have any identification.

38-year-old Melissa Nau, who gave birth to five children and suffers from disability, sold four of her young ones for only 50 Haitian gourdes (76 pence) each.

When a trafficker called Jacques offered the money for the four children, aged between four and eight, she made the deal.

While the money she gained lasted but a few months, the children have gone for ever.

Research by the BPM uncovered information that chilled the mother - her children were handed false records and then illegally adopted by European families via an international adoption agency.

A Unicef spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: 'Well-meaning parents in the U.S. and Europe have no idea that children are being kidnapped, stolen and bought from the displacement camps of Port-au-Prince.'

BPM officer Françoise Moise revealed that trafficking had been a long-term issue in Haiti but has grown increasingly worse in the last year.

Even before the earthquake, every year almost 2,000 Haitian children were kidnapped or trafficked. Now the figure is believed to have quadrupled.

'Since the earthquake in 2010, rates of trafficking into the Dominican Republic have increased incredibly and that is the reason why we are here,' the 46-year-old told the Telegraph.

'People are coming into the camps posing as NGOs, and foreigners that have come to help Haiti.

'They also pose as Haitians living abroad coming to help and sometimes even Haitians living here, pretending to be members of their family.

'Most of the children that are trafficked into the Dominican Republic have fallen victims of prostitution or these children are adopted illegally.

'Whether at the airport, or the border, or the camps, we are trying to stop child trafficking from happening at all.'

The BPM stop cars at the borders of Haiti and check the travel documents of those under 18 years of age.

'The most difficult thing for us is when they have false documents for the children to cross the border because we don’t have the means of verifying whether these documents are fake or real,' Dieudonne Barnave, a BPM official, told the Telegraph.

Since last April the BPM has screened 7,000 children passing through the border and of those, 1,400 were found not to have the right paperwork.

In all, there have been 35 trafficking-related arrests but under current legislation in Haiti, there is no law against it.

 Help: Unicef and affiliate Brigade de Protection des Mineurs are trying to look after as many vulnerable children as possible

 Helpless: A child is saved by rescuers following the earthquake (left) and another gets used to life in a camp

Wyclef Jean’s Haiti presidential candidacy rejected

Haiti hip-hop star Wyclef Jean greets the crowd before officially registering as a presidential candidate at an office in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince in this file picture taken August 5, 2010.

Haiti’s provisional electoral council ruled today that hip-hop star Wyclef Jean was not eligible to run as a presidential candidate for a November 28 election.

Singer-songwriter Jean, 40, an international celebrity who is popular in his impoverished and earthquake-ravaged homeland, was left off the list of approved candidates published by the council.

A council member told Reuters yesterday that Jean did not meet several of the legal requirements to stand in the November election to choose a successor to President Rene Preval, who cannot run again after two terms.

He was among 34 candidates considered by the electoral authority, which had postponed announcing the final list of approved candidates from Tuesday.

Wyclef Jean says threats won’t deter candidacy

Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean said yesterday he had received death threats but they would not deter him from running for president of his native Haiti.

“There are people who think I’m a threat to their power and ambitions. I’m not going to give up. My will is to serve the Haitian people, and the death threats and intimidation won’t deter me,” Jean told Reuters.

Haiti’s provisional electoral council had been due to finalise on Tuesday the list of candidates who met the legal requirements to stand in the November 28 election that will choose a successor to President Rene Preval.

The announcement was delayed until tomorrow to allow more time to decide on legal questions about several of the 34 contenders, among them Jean.

Singer-songwriter Jean, 40, (picture) said he had received anonymous phone calls threatening that he would be killed unless he left Haiti. He was in hiding and has not appeared in public for two days, but sounded defiant.

“There are many people who died before me. If I have to die for the Haitian people, for the youth, I’m ready to die for them,” Jean said.

He is widely popular in his impoverished Caribbean homeland, which is struggling to recover from a devastating January 12 earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people and wrecked much of the coastal capital Port-au-Prince.

Haiti’s electoral law requires candidates to have five consecutive years of residency in Haiti, among other requirements, such as tax compliance.

Jean left his homeland at age nine to go to the United States, where he launched and developed his international musical career. His lawyers have said he is eligible to run and has maintained residency for more than five years in Haiti.

Legal challenges also have been raised against several other candidates, including Jacques Edouard Alexis, a former two-time prime minister, and Leslie Voltaire, a US-educated urban planner and former minister who has been heavily involved in Haiti’s post-quake reconstruction.

Jean has rebuffed criticisms that he lacks the experience and qualifications to be president, arguing that Haiti needs an international figure who can attract aid and allies.

He said his police security detail had recently been withdrawn without notice.

Police Chief Mario Andresol said that protection had been provided while Jean served as Haiti’s ambassador at large, and because of his celebrity. But it ended when Jean became a candidate because police would then have been obliged to provide the same security for all candidates, he said.

“If there is a specific threat, we’ll respond accordingly, but we have to be neutral and treat all candidates the same way,” Andresol said.

What Jean may lack in political experience he may make up for in popularity. He is admired by many Haitians, especially the young, who see him as a celebrity who never forgot his roots. Several Haitian youth organisations and Creole music groups are supporting his campaign as a candidate for the Viv Ansan-m party.

The three-time Grammy award-winner has said he will put his musical career on hold if his candidacy is approved.

Preval, who has been widely criticised at home over his handling of the response to the earthquake disaster, cannot run for re-election after serving two terms. —

Haiti Recovery Bogged Down 6 Months After Quake-Haitians fight for better homes-Haiti's orphans still in crisis-Haiti's quake victims fear rape

Quake victims struggle in Haiti

Six months after the earthquake, about 1.3 million Haitians still live in tent camps


Haitians not NGOs must be equipped to rebuild their country

Exactly six months after Haiti was struck by a deadly earthquake, aid agencies are still struggling to care for over a million hungry and homeless people.

The 7.0 quake on January 12 - the worst in the Caribbean nation's history - killed 230,000 people, destroyed 250,000 homes and displaced millions of people.

Though countries across the globe pledged billions in aid, rebuilding shattered lives has proven to be slow and challenging.



About 1.5 million people, which is one-sixth of the Haitian population, are still living in makeshift camps. Another 1.2 million people rely on aid agencies for clean water.

As reconstruction takes inordinately long, Haitians are frustrated and losing faith.

Al Jazeera's Lucia Newman, reporting from the capital Port-au-Prince, said: "Most people in Haiti don't even know that today marks the six month anniversary since the earthquake struck this country.

"They take things day by day here and now that we're in the middle of rainy season, it's even more dangerous for hundreds of makeshift homes to stay up and people have remained in the same tents simply because they have no where else to go."

Newman reports on a family of four whom Al Jazeera has been following ever since the earthquake to see how they have been coping.

Six months ago a devastating earthquake killed more than 230,000 Haitians. About 100,000 homes were completely destroyed, alongside 1,000 schools and many other buildings.

The scenes of devastation filled TV screens around the world. Half a year later the picture is eerily familiar.

Destroyed during the earthquake, the presidential palace remains rubble and a symbol of the vast destruction. Port-au-Prince is still covered in debris. About 1.3 million people live in 1,200 makeshift tent camps in and around the capital.

According to one estimate, less than 5 per cent of the earthquake debris has been removed. Of course, with 20 million cubic metres of rubble in Port-Au-Prince alone, removing the debris is a massive challenge.

If 1,000 trucks were working daily it would take three to five years to remove all this material. Yet, there are fewer than 300 trucks hauling debris.

Political roadblocks

The technical obstacles to reconstruction are immense. But the political roadblocks are larger.

Immediately after the quake $10bn in international aid was pledged. As of June 30, only 10 per cent of the $2.5bn promised for 2010 had been delivered. A lot of it has been held up in political wrangling.

The international community led by the US, France and Canada demanded that the Haitian parliament pass an 18-month-long state of emergency law that effectively gave up government control over the reconstruction.

Holding up the money was a pressure tactic designed to ensure international control of the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, which is authorised to spend billions. These maneuvers were met by protest and widespread hostility in Haiti, which forced the international community to back off a little.

Initially, a majority of seats on the commission were to represent foreign governments and international financial institutions. That has been reduced to half of the 26-member committee, but the money is still to be managed by the World Bank and other international institutions.

Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Jean-Max Bellerive, the Haitian prime minister, co-chair the reconstruction commission, which met for the first time on June 17.

Undermining Haiti

The strong-arm tactics by the Western powers to determine the make-up of the commission signify a continuation of longstanding policy to undermine the Haitian state's credibility and capacity.

For two decades Washington and its allies have deliberately weakened Haiti's government. Citing neo-liberal theories they demanded the privatisation of a number of state-owned companies and the reduction of tariffs on agricultural products.

This devastated domestic food production and spurred an exodus from the countryside to the cities, which exacerbated the destruction and death toll of the earthquake.

Washington also destabilised governments that put the interests of the poor over foreign corporations. On February 29, 2004, the elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by the US, France and Canada. This ushered in a terrible wave of political repression and the ongoing UN occupation.

Since that time Aristide has been in forced exile in South Africa and his Fanmi Lavalas party has been barred from participating in elections. They are again being blocked from participating in elections taking place on November 28.

All of this has created a situation in which there is no institution in Haiti with the credibility or capacity to undertake reconstruction.


The NGO republic

President Rene Preval's government has lost the support of the country's poor majority because of its subservience to Washington and the local elite. Preval recently defended the move to ban Fanmi Lavalas, which is still the most popular party in the country.

The 10,000-member UN "peacekeeping" force is widely disliked. In the two years after the 2004 coup, UN troops regularly provided support for the Haitian police's violent assaults on poor communities and peaceful demonstrations demanding the return of the elected government.

UN forces also participated directly in a violent political pacification campaign, launching repeated anti-"gang" assaults on poor neighbourhoods in Port-au-Prince.

The two most horrific raids took place on January 6, 2005, and December 22, 2006, which together left some 35 innocent civilians dead and dozens wounded in the densely populated slum of Cité Soleil - a bastion of support for Aristide.

In April 2008, UN troops once again demonstrated that their primary purpose in the country was to defend the massive economic divide in the country. During riots over the rising cost of food they put down protests by killing a handful of demonstrators.

Foreign-funded Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are widely discredited for contributing to a two-decade long process that has undermined Haitian governmental capacity. Sometimes dubbed the "republic of NGOs", in Haiti these organisations have a great deal of influence and are promoted as agents of relief.

In some circumstances, they are. But, how would we like it if all our schools and social services were run by private foreign charities?

In Port-au-Prince there is graffiti stating "Down with NGOs".

Two weeks ago Haitian journalist Wadner Pierre complained that "NGOs continue to humiliate and discriminate [against] the poor and respected Haitian citizens by assuming they are all dangerous, violent, or savage people, and they do not know anything, even how to put a tent up while ignoring the strength and courage of these people".

Over the past two months there have been a series of major demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. Demonstrators have called for Aristide's return and an end to the exclusion of his Fanmi Lavalas party.

Of course protesters are also angry about the slow pace of reconstruction and the six-year-old foreign occupation.

How to help

So, what should be the response of people who want to help?

Firstly, any serious reconstruction must build the Haitian government's capacity to provide housing, education, healthcare and other social services.

Aid must be directed away from neo-liberal adjustment, sweatshop exploitation and non-governmental charity, and towards investment in Haiti's government and public institutions.

Secondly, massive investment must be made in Haiti's countryside, where farming has been effectively destroyed. Haitians are poverty stricken partly because foreign aid policies favour sweatshop labour over agriculture.

For example, the US dumps rice on the Haitian market. Thirty years ago, Haiti produced 90 per cent of its own rice; today it is less than 10 per cent.

Thirdly, Fanmi Lavalas should be allowed to participate in elections and Aristide to return from exile.

Only when Haitians are allowed to run their own affairs will real reconstruction begin.

UN promises 10 million dollars to quake-hit Chile-Aftershocks shake Chilean city -

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Residents ran to open spaces as a 6.6-magnitude aftershock rattled the city of Concepcion


United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) and Chile's President Michelle Bachelet attend a news conference in Santiago, capital of Chile, March 5, 2010. Ban Ki-moon on Friday pledged 10 million dolllars aid from the Central Emergency Fund of the United Nations to the quake-hit Chile

Powerful aftershocks have rattled buildings and sent terrified residents fleeing into the streets in the Chilean city of Concepcion.

Fears of of additional damage in the tremors before dawn on Friday led officials to evacuate some patients from the regional hospital.

Patricia Correa, who was overseeing the hospital's emergency ward, said her part of the five-story building was "on the point of collapsing. The walls cracked".

The strongest of the aftershocks was a magnitude 6.6.

"Some chunks of buildings that were already in bad condition fell, but nothing significant," a senior government official in quake-hit Bio Bio region told local radio.

UN support

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, arrived in the capital, Santiago, on Friday, promising support for Chile.

"The Chilean government is asking for international aid and we will give it," he said.

Meanwhile, Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing Chilean president, met with Sebastian Pinera, her successor, and they promised to try to avoid letting the March 11 hand-over of power interrupt aid efforts.

"The new government will have an immense challenge," Bachelet said.

Pinera has even before his inauguration named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work.

Officials were still struggling to determine the death toll of the magnitude-8.8 quake, as well as the damage to roads, ports and hospitals.

Disaster officials announced they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead in the hardest-hit part of the country - an error that would drop the official death toll to about 540 if there were no other mistakes.

But interior department officials said that from now on, they would release only the number of dead who had been identified: 279 as of Friday.

Uncertainty to remain

Doubts over the death toll are likely to persist, partly because an undetermined number of victims were washed out to sea in the ensuing tsunamis and some bodies may never be recovered.

"The number of disappeared is very difficult to determine," Patricio Bustos, a government forensics specialist in the city of Talca, said.

"It can take a very long time."

The government said on Friday it had removed Mariano Rojas as head of the Navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific immediately after Saturday's quake.

Port captains in several towns issued their own warnings, but a national alert never came, and some say that failure led to deaths.

The United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki Moon committed the UN to giving Chile 10 million dollars from an emergency fund at a joint press conference with Chile's President Michelle Bachelet on Friday.

"The UN will authorize 10 million dollars from a central emergency response fund," Ban told journalists. "We will also establish a working group to look at Chile's most urgent needs," he said.

During the same conference, Bachelet said that she welcomed 2 million dollars' worth emergency material from China on an early Friday.

"This is a gesture that shows the excellence of the links we have had with China," Bachelet told the press conference in response to a question from Xinhua. "It has been the same with the free trade agreement and the cultural exchanges we have had," she added.

Chile experienced an earthquake measuring 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale six days ago, which killed 279 people, at the last official count, but which may prove to have killed more than 1,000 once all the dead have been confirmed.

Chinese officials said Friday's flight represented the furthest geographical distance that the nation had sent aid and the furthest geographical distance from which Chile had received assistance. It is the first time China has sent a cargo plane to South America carrying material alone.

"It is not easy to cross the world," Bachelet told media. This really expresses the authentic willingness to support Chile, and " we are very grateful," she added.

Chile has received aid from 86 nations and 16 non-government organizations. Bachelet also highlighted aid from Bolivia, sent by both Chileans living there and Bolivia's government, even though the two nation's have not had diplomatic relations since the mid- 1980s. Ban said that 14 UN agencies are taking part in such efforts.

Ban and Bachelet said that they had already begun working with Sebastian Pinera, who will take over Chile's presidency on March 11.

Related:

Chile looks ahead at "enormous task" in rebuilding, Chilean UN envoy says

UNITED NATIONS, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Chilean UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz said here Friday that with the "broad estimate" of damage for the quake-hit South American country being at around 30 billion U.S. dollars, Chile is planning for the "enormous task" in rebuilding.

"What we have ahead is enormous task of reconstruction," Munoz told reporters at a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. "But Chile is standing up -- we are recuperating." Full story

Chile announces national mourning period for quake victims

The Chilean government announced on Thursday that a three-day national mourning period will start Sunday for victims killed in last week's massive quake.

According to a law signed by President Michelle Bachelet, Chileans are asked to demonstrate national flags in front of their homes during the period, so as to pay tribute to the victims and offer condolence to their families.

Chile earthquake much stronger than Haiti's but far less damage. Why?

Father and son looking for food among the destrustion of chile earthquake.


People collect petrol at a damaged Petrol station.


Dog search and rescue any survivor or corpses.


Chile Port is destroyed with tons of containers scattered around.

The earthquake that struck Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti in January.

But, initial reports show that damage was much more contained. While the death toll of 214 is only preliminary and is expected to grow, it’s still a thousand times lower than that of Haiti’s.

One emergency official quoted by Reuters said the number of deaths was unlikely to increase dramatically.

IN PICTURES: Images from the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile

Because of its long history with earthquakes, which has contributed to an earthquake “consciousness” in Chile, and infrastructure that is built to higher standards, many hope that Chile will be spared the vast destruction that struck Haiti, even as it deals with one of its worst natural disasters in decades.

“Chile has a long story of earthquakes, but I think this was the worst ever,” says Paula Saez, an aid worker at World Vision in Chile.

The 8.8-magnitude quake that struck about 200 miles south of Santiago, is being billed as one of the world’s largest in a century, but it will most likely not go down as one of the deadliest. In part, that’s because Chile sits in the “ring of fire” earthquake zone and is accustomed to massive temblors, including the largest on record, which hit in 1960 and registered 9.5.
A few more days until full damage is known

The government says that it might be another 72 hours before the real extent of the damage is known, as telecommunications are down in Concepcion, the city closest to the epicenter of the quake. Also, the earthquake impacted many rural areas, where the population is dispersed and hard to account for.

In downtown Santiago, a sense of calm prevailed, after initial panic. Residents began collecting debris that had fallen on the streets and attempted to reopen businesses by midday.

Chileans are well versed in what to do during earthquakes, with drills part of every child’s schooling. “Just in case” attitudes, which might seem obsessive in other parts of the world, are the norm here. One woman says she turns off the gas valve every time she leaves the house, just in case a quake strikes when she is out.

The Chilean National Emergency Office, which coordinates emergency responses, stresses that Chile is among the world’s most seismic. On its website the agency spells out how to prepare in the event of an earthquake.

That, as well as previous experience, helped many through this quake.

Learning from previous earthquakes

Leonel Araya, a doorman in Santiago who lost a child in a 1982 earthquake, says that he has learned from past experiences. “I’ve been through three big earthquakes, including a maremoto (tsunami) in the north. You learn from them, to be more humanitarian. To think about things better.”

He says he ran to open the door, to get his family under the frame to protect them.

“Everything else can fall,” he says. “I just tried to control the family, because you know, the family, the children, my wife, are really nervous. That’s one thing I learned. You need to keep them right next to you, because once, in an earthquake in 82, a son who’s no longer with me got away from me. And when I tried to grab him, he slipped out and was crushed by a wall.”

Silvia Vidalia, an elderly woman in a neighborhood in Santiago, also stressed the need to stay calm.

“The first thing you need to do is calm each other down. My husband, for example, who is 80-something, is very nervous. So the first thing I did was calm him down. And then, after that hellish shaking ended, we went downstairs because we live on the second floor. You have to find a safe place.”
Population less dense than Haiti

Chile will undoubtedly also be helped by the fact that the earthquake did not happen in as dense an area as Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where parts of the city and several government buildings were literally flattened. It will also be helped by better-enforced building codes, one of the most significant challenges in Haiti. A US Geological Survey researcher told Reuters that a low death toll could be attributed to strong building standards.

Maria Cristina Sepulveda, a pharmacist in Santiago, says she believes she survived because of the sturdiness of the buildings around her.

“It seems like where I live is very well built, because nothing happened to it. I’ve been there for 15 years. The old buildings are well built,” she says.

One of the challenges in the hours ahead will be the damage to infrastructure. Bridges have fallen and airports closed. Some areas are only reachable by helicopter, says Ms. Saez. She says the government is reporting that up to 400,000 people could be affected. The death toll could be higher since in many rural towns there are no hospitals to report figures.

It will also be a blow to the economy, especially given damage to the copper industry, the world’s largest.

“It’s the most difficult emergency that Chile has faced in a long time,” Saez says.

And the quake has, for now, left many in the nation stunned. After all, says Ms. Vidalia, no one can ever really be prepared. “We know this is a seismic country, but one’s never prepared.”

Chile earthquake relief: How one priest provides shelter for masses

Chile earthquake relief: Rev. Felipe Berrios stands in front of a model of the emergency wooden homes built by 'A Roof for Chile', a nonprofit that builds houses for the poor with the help of college students.


Student workers comprise the bulk of the workforce at A Roof for Chile. Another function of the nonprofit: helping people obtain micro loans and extending other forms of social assistance to the communities.


New townhouses will soon be home for 47 families now in temporary homes built by A Roof for Chile. The group also helps families get access to permanent homes like these. The organization's goal: Move some 20,000 people from shantytowns into such homes by the end of this year.


Elsa Gonzalez, community leader in Ochagaria, worked with Father Barrios toward the installation of the homes. International college students assist in planning and building them.



Ochagaria, a shantytown on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, has been one site to receive A Roof for Chile's emergency homes. A Roof for Chile has expanded its reach to 15 countries.


If anyone will play a crucial reconstruction role after the 8.8 Chile earthquake it is the Rev. Felipe Berrios, a Jesuit priest whose award-winning organization has in less than 15 years nearly gotten all Chilean families into permanent housing and expanded its work to 16 countries across Latin America.

Father Berrios, who set out to build emergency housing in Chile’s shantytowns in the late 1990s, had an ambitious goal when he founded a “Roof for Chile” in 1997: By the year 2000, he sought to construct 2,000 new homes throughout the country.

He reached the goal and kept going, expanding his organization regionally. The newer project, called “A Roof for My Country,” now aims to replace every shantytown in Chile by the end of 2010 – a goal the group still maintains is possible even after the 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country Feb. 27, killing more than 700, destroying more than 500,000 homes, and affecting an estimated 2 million residents.

IN PICTURES: Images from the magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile

“To get out of poverty you need a job, you need education and health services, but if you do not have a physical space to live in, the rest of it does not matter,” Father Berrios said in a December interview at his office on the outskirts of Santiago, which was bustling with college-age volunteers. “You need a place to be able to get a letter; you need to be able to say, ‘this is my home.’”
Rush to build emergency homes

While “A Roof for Chile” aims to find permanent housing for the 20,000 families registered as living in illegal settlements – when Berrios started the number was 135,000 – they are also rushing to build 30,000 emergency homes for those left displaced by the earthquake and tsunami in Chile.

“We have to respond to this crisis,” says Claudio Castro, the social director for “A Roof for my Country,” which also recently began working in Haiti in the aftermath of its 7.0-magnitude earthquake that left over 200,000 dead in January. The group plans to build 10,000 emergency homes in the next four years there with university students from across Latin America.

“But we will continue with the goal of having no [shantytowns] in Chile by this year,” says Mr. Castro.

What that means for Chileans is obvious in the Santiago shantytown of Ochagavia, where homes made of all shapes, colors, and materials are plunked down haphazardly. Before the earthquake, half the community was scheduled to move across the street to a little neighborhood behind a gate. There, 47 two-story brick homes neatly lined both sides of a paved road in December. A small park sat in the middle and a community center was under construction.


It wasn't possible to immediately verify whether that project had been damaged in the earthquake.


Mass migration to cities complicates things

In his mission, Berrios is helping to tackle the urban poverty that remains one of Latin America’s most stubborn problems. Continued mass rural migration over the past five decades has made the region the globe¹s most urbanized as newcomers build illegal sheet-metal shacks on the periphery of cities.

Worldwide, the United Nations estimates that 25 percent of the urban population lives in poverty, and the problem is worsening. By 2050, an additional 3 billion people will live in cities, most of whom will end up in slums.

“The demand is so monumental that there is no country in Latin America that is able to address it alone,” says Erik Vittrup at the Latin America and the Caribbean office for the United Nations Human Settlements Program in Rio de Janeiro.
Three phases

A Roof for Chile carries out its work in three phases. First, construction of temporary homes; second, bringing in education, social services, and microcredit programs while helping families find land to build permanent homes on; third, creation of sustainable neighborhoods.

On a recent day in Ochagavia, Elsa Gonzalez, a community leader here, emerged beaming from a meeting of A Roof for Chile that focused on helping half the community find land for new homes. “What I most long for is having a faucet with water running from it,” said Ms. Gonzalez, who is saving money for the small down payment, a requirement for each resident. She’s building her nest egg by selling hot dogs and snacks on street corners. “I cannot wait to be able to flush [my own] toilet,” she says.

By the bicentennial of Chile’s independence on ­ Sept. 18, 2010, ­ A Roof for Chile seeks to have each Chilean family, like the Gonzalez family, either moved into or in the process of owning legal title to their land. By year-end, the group plans to have branches in every nation in Latin America. Their newest office opened in Bolivia last year and the next on the list is Panama. They have also begun trying to raise funds in the United States, particularly among Latinos in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles.

Earlier in December, Berrios explained that after “A Roof for Chile” meets its goals in Chile, the organization plans to tackle crime and justice and other types of discrimination. The reconstruction of the country will be a first priority now, says Castro, who began working for the organization as a volunteer, and like many former college interns and volunteers, now holds a senior post. “It will be complex,” he says. “We still do not have a number of how many people are homeless.”

Taiwan quake causes millions of dollars in damage-Quake jolts Taiwan, injuring 64 people-Chile, Taiwan, Haiti, Japan - 6-plus earthquakes in the last 48 hours

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Director Ku Kai-wen of Taiwan Seismology department at the Central Weather Bureau points to Richter Scale graphs after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan on Thursday


Firemen put out a blaze at a textile factory in Tainan, Taiwan, on Thursday in the aftermath of a 6.4-magnitude earthquake.


Damage from an early morning earthquake is seen in a home in Kaohsiung county Taiwan, on March 4.


A local Taiwanese resident in Kaohsiung county inspects the damage to his home after an earthquake jolted the island on March 4.


In Chaiyi county, Taiwan, evacuated students sit outside in the playground protecting their heads after a strong earthquake shook Taiwan on Thursday.


A landslide occurs in Jiaxian Township, Taiwan, almost immediately after an earthquake struck the area on Thursday morning.


A man looks at broken statues inside a temple damaged by a quake that hit Shanlin Township, Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan, Thursday.. An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 shook Taiwan early on Thursday, injuring 11, stopping transport and causing minor damage and fires in the southern half of the island.


Firemen battle a blaze at a textile factory that started shortly after a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted southern Taiwan, Thursday.


A woman walks inside a temple damaged by an earthquake on Thursday morning in Taiwan.


Smoke rises from a fire at a textile factory, which started shortly after an earthquake hit Tainan, Taiwan, early Thursday. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake shook Taiwan, injuring 11, stopping transport, and causing minor damage and fires in the southern part of the island.


A powerful earthquake that rocked southern Taiwan caused millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure and business operations, officials and companies said Friday.

At least 96 people were injured in the 6.4-magnitude quake which disrupted rail services, toppled farm houses, and momentarily cut off electricity to more than half a million homes.

A fire that broke out soon after the quake at Everest Textile and lasted for nearly a day was estimated to have caused at least 100 million Taiwan dollars (3.1 million US) worth of damage, said the company, located in Tainan county.

The tremor also disrupted operations in Southern Taiwan Science Park, a crucial component in the island's high-tech export industry, as production lines were temporarily shut down for safety evacuation.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), the world's two largest contract chipmakers, both reported a 36-hour production delay in their facilities in Tainan.

"The impact is limited and the insurance company will cover it," said a UMC spokesman. TSMC said it was still assessing the loss.

Taiwan High Speed Rail was forced to suspend services to southern Taiwan on Thursday following a minor derailing during the quake, but it declined to say how much revenue it lost.

The company resumed some services to quake-hit areas on Friday and is expected to return to a full schedule on Monday, a spokeswoman said.

About 99 schools have reported an estimated 40 million Taiwan dollars in quake damage to buildings and classrooms, according to the education ministry.

US-based catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT said in a note to clients that it estimated total economic damage from the quake to stay below one billion US dollars, including losses from secondary fires and landslides.

The US Geological Survey said the tremor struck about 70 kilometres (40 miles) from the island's second-largest city Kaohsiung, but was felt as far north as the capital Taipei, several hundred kilometres away.

The quake struck in a sparsely inhabited mountainous area in Jiahsian township in Kaohsiung county, an area still recovering from a massive typhoon that triggered floods and mudslides in August, killing about 700 people.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes as the island lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.

The 6.7-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Taiwan at 8:18 a.m. Beijing Time on Thursday has left 64 people injured, according to the latest statistics from local fire department.

Those injured have been taken to local hospitals, it said, without identifying them.

A blackout caused by the earthquake affected some 540,500 households. Electricity was restored at 2 p.m..

According to a separate report from education authorities, some 340 school buildings were damaged and classes were suspended in some schools Thursday. The report did not specify on the names of the schools.

The epicenter of the earthquake, at a depth of about 6 km, was 22.9 degrees north and 120.6 degrees east, at the juncture of the southern Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, the China Earthquake Networks Center(CENC) said.

Xinhua reporters in Taipei felt the quake when it hit and telecommunications went down for a short time after.

An official with Jiasian Township at the epicenter told local media that at least three small landslides were triggered by the quake and cracks were found in houses.

Taiwan media footage showed cave-ins, landslides, cracks in school buildings, and power cuts. Many travelers were temporarily stranded at stations due to the temporary closure of high-speed railways.

Local media in Taiwan said the military was mobilized to help in quake-relief efforts.

The tremor was also felt in the mainland's Fujian Province on the western side of Taiwan Strait.

A man who identified himself as Lin in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, said he was on the seventh floor when he felt a tremor. He said computer panels rattled furiously for a brief moment.

Residents of Xiamen, Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, all in Fujian, also said they felt an intense tremor when the quake hit.

An expert with Fujian Provincial Seismological Bureau told Xinhua that the earthquake had not caused any major damage in the province.

According to Taiwan's local authorities, the quake registered 6.4 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was at a depth of about 5 km.

Figures posted on the website of China Earthquake Administration (CEA) showed that a 7-magnitude occurred nearby in 1964, leaving 106 people dead and another 229 people seriously injured.

The Chinese mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) expressed sympathy through the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) for Taiwan people affected by the earthquake.

The mainland was deeply concerned about the injured and financial losses in Taiwan and hoped the people affected could resume their normal lives as soon as possible, the ARATS said in a letter to the SEF.

Yang Yi, spokesman with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, also sent "heartfelt sympathy and solicitude" for the people affected, and hoped they would recover soon and resume their normal lives.

"It's not clear how much damage the earthquake caused, but we can sympathize with those who are affected by it," said Lin Shengzhong, vice president of the All-China Federation of Taiwan Compatriots. "We are ready to initiate donations for them."

Chile, Taiwan, Haiti, Japan - 6-plus earthquakes in the last 48 hours

Chile, Taiwan, Haiti, and Japan all have had 6-plus earthquakes in the last week, with Haiti experiencing a major aftershock after the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. Whatever is going on, it's now clear to many that the World is experiencing large earthquakes at a greater rate.
The Taiwan Earthquake was centered in Kaohsiung and 3.1 miles below the ground. The quake disrupted train service and sent pedestrians running into the streets.

As of this writing, there's no claim that the Taiwan Earthquake is related to the giant 8.8 Chile Earthquake or for that matter the quakes in Haiti and Japan. But one element of evidence is obvious and that's the sheer timing of all of these great quakes.

Ten American Christians arrested in Haiti trying to take 33 orphans out of the country

Haitian authorities have questioned a group of 10 Americans who are accused of illegally trying to smuggle 33 children out of earthquake-shattered Haiti.

A prosecutor met with the Baptist church group at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince, where they have been held since they were arrested on Friday trying to cross into the Dominican Republic with a busload of children.

The Baptist missionaries deny charges that they were engaged in child trafficking and insist they were only trying to help vulnerable children left orphaned by the quake.
Haitian authorities said the five men and five women had no paperwork authorising them to take the children, who are aged between two months and 12 years.

The group, from the Idaho-based charity New Life Children's Refuge, were stopped at Malpasse, Haiti's main border crossing, after police conducted a search of their bus.

Officers said they were arrested because they did not have proof that the youngsters - many of whom were sick and dehydrated - were orphans.

The case could be diplomatically sensitive at a time when the U.S. is spearheading a huge relief effort to help hundreds of thousands of victims of the quake.

Yesterday, the U.S. military resumed medical evacuation flights of critically-injured victims to America, ending a five-day suspension caused by a dispute over where to treat patients and who would pay for their care.
Prime Minister of Haiti Max Bellerive said yesterday he was outraged by the group's 'illegal trafficking of children' in a country long afflicted by the problem.

But some parents say they would part with their children if it would mean a better life.

Adonis Helman, 44, one of some 20 Haitian parents interviewed at a tent camp yesterday said: 'Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners.'

'I've been thinking how I will choose which one I may give - probably my youngest.'

The arrests will renew concerns about child abduction, which has blighted Haiti for years. Even before the 7.0 earthquake struck on January 12, killing as many as 200,000, around 2,000 youngsters were believed to be being taken from the streets each year.

Aid groups say 500,000 children have either been made homeless or are in orphanages following the quake, and that rumours of child trafficking are circulating. In response, Haiti’s government has imposed strict controls on adoptions amid fears traffickers could exploit the current chaos.
Although hundreds of children have been flown to the U.S. to meet new parents, most were already in the process of being adopted before the disaster.

The 33 children, aged between 2 months to 12 years, have been taken to an orphanage run by Austrian-based SOS Children’s Villages, which is trying to find their parents or close relatives.

A spokesman said: ‘One child, an eight-year-old, said she thought she was going to some sort of summer camp in the Dominican Republic.

'She was crying, and saying, "I am not an orphan. I still have my parents".'

Yves Cristalin, Haiti’s social affairs minister, said: ‘This is totally illegal. It is an abduction, not an adoption. What is important is that a child needs to have authorisation to leave the country.’

Deb Barry, a protection expert at Save the Children, which wants a moratorium on new adoptions said: 'The instinct to swoop in and rescue children may be a natural impulse but it cannot be the solution for the tens of thousands of children left vulnerable by the Haiti earthquake.'

'The possibility of a child being scooped up and mistakenly labelled an orphan in the chaotic aftermath of the disaster is incredibly high.'
But Laura Silsby, the group’s leader, insisted that they had done nothing wrong.

At a police station next to the airport in the capital Port-au-Prince, she said: ‘We came here to help and we know God will reveal the truth.

‘I was going to come back and do the paperwork. They accuse us of children trafficking. This is something I would never do. We were not trying to do something wrong - we had permission from the Dominican Republic government to bring the children to an orphanage we have there.

‘We have a Baptist minister here in Port-au-Prince whose orphanage totally collapsed and he asked us to take the children.’

Sean Lankford, whose wife and daughter are among those arrested, said the group had rented hotel rooms to house the children until an orphanage could be built.

‘It really is shocking because it really is a rescue mission for these children,’ he added.

‘They’re really hoping to save their lives.’
The charity is buying land to build a home for up to 150 orphans and provide a place for adoptive parents who want to take the children back to the U.S, he said.

Clint Henry, pastor of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, which founded the group, said: ‘I know that there has been illegal activity down there and it’s unfortunate that we would be associated with that.

‘I don’t know what to say but God is in control and he’s got it figured out and we’re trusting him. It probably comes down to paperwork and we believed that we had done everything we needed to do.’

Max Beauvoir, head of Haiti's Voodoo Priest's Association, which represents thousands of priests and priestesses, said: 'There are many who come here with religious ideas that belong more in the time of the inquisition.

'These types of people believe they need to save our souls and our bodies from ourselves. We need compassion, not proselytising now, and we need aid - not just aid going to people of the Christian faith.'

Two-thirds of Haiti's 9 million population are said to practice Voodoo, a melange of beliefs from parts of west Africa and Catholicism.

A Haitian judge is expected to hear the case today to decide whether to bring charges against the group.

Relief workers in Haiti have begun to hand out women-only food coupons to ensure the most vulnerable receive aid supplies.

They said young men often force their way to the front of queues and even overpower women and children to get the best aid.

The UN World Food Program coupons can be exchanged at 16 sites and give a family 25kg (55lbs) of rice, which lasts a fortnight.











Held: The group of missionaries insist they have done nothing wrong, despite having no paperwork allowing them to take the children out of the country

 Questioned: Three of the women arrested for alleged child trafficking answer questions at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince


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Held: Looters are detained at an electric appliance shop in Port-au-Prince. One man was shot dead

 Arrested: More than 50 people looted an electrical appliance shop here on Friday. U.S. soldiers and Haiti policemen detained them after a gun battle



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Desperate: A crowd gathers hoping to receive food distributed by U.S. Army 82nd Airborne soldiers in the Cite Soleil neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince yesterday

Abducted? Some of the children suspected to have been taken by the charity

Arrested: Eight of the accused, including leader Laura Silsby, second from right, at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince

In ruins: A man balances a coffin on his head in Port-au-Prince as he passes a collapsed building

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