JO - 'Jamaican couples want Haitian children too'

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

'Jamaican couples want Haitian children too'

BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, January 24, 2010


AMERICAN couples are apparently not the only ones lining up to adopt Haitian orphans, thousands of whom are without a home following the deadly January 12 earthquake which flattened sections of the country.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Wealthy Jamaicans, many of them unable to have their own children, also seem poised to join that race if a channel should open up to allow them a quick and smooth transition into parenthood."

"Dr William Aiken, consulting urologist at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, said he is aware of some Jamaican couples who are willing to adopt Haitian orphans if given the opportunity."

"While many will argue that Jamaica has its fair share of orphans to be adopted, Aiken insists that this is easier said than done. He told the Sunday Observer that there is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape which make it a long and tedious process for Jamaican children to be adopted."

&

"Tens of thousands of Haitian children are believed to have been orphaned by the earthquake, according to reports from aid groups on the ground in Haiti. But officials have not yet been able to provide a number. However, even before the deadly magnitude-7.0 earthquake, Haiti -- one of the world's poorest countries -- was awash in orphans, with 380,000 children living in orphanages or group homes, the United Nations Children's Fund reported on its website.
Some of the children, it said, lost their parents in previous disasters, including four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed about 800 people in 2008, deadly storms in 2005 and 2004, and massive floods almost every other year since 2000. Others were abandoned amid the Caribbean nation's long-running political strife, which has led thousands to seek asylum in the US -- without their children -- or by parents who were simply too poor to care for them."

JO - No rescue plan. ODPEM wants to set up rescue action plan this year.

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

No rescue plan

ODPEM wants to set up rescue action plan this year


BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com


Sunday, January 25, 2009


Jamaica does not have a specific response plan if a commercial jet should go down in our waters, or even on land outside of the two international airports. Neither has there ever been a simulation exercise to test the ability of emergency services to deal with any such accident, according to the country's disaster management agency, fire and airport officials.

Read the whole article here.