A Central Alberta mother is relieved a young girl from Haiti could soon be safe in her arms.
Hours after a powerful aftershock shook Haiti, details emerged Wednesday about the federal government’s rescue plan for orphans already in the adoption process.
In cases where the Haitian government has signed off on the adoptions, Canada will grant temporary resident permits to orphans to allow them into the country, it was announced.
“It’s phenomenal news,” said Anna-Marie Loomis, a Caroline-area woman who is adopting a seven-year-old Haitian girl named Dalina.
She believes her daughter will be fast-tracked to Canada, but hasn’t yet had many details confirmed by the government.
Loomis said she’s heard that within seven to 10 days, the temporary resident permits will be printed and travel arrangements to Canada will then be made.
“This is definitely something that’s making my heart a little lighter,” said Loomis. “Especially with the aftershock today . . . resources are getting tighter at the orphanage and they’re concerned about potential rioting, too.”
Loomis and her husband Neale have already adopted two children from Haiti — Emmanuella, nine, who is the half sister of Dalina, and Antoine, seven.
They feared they might have to start the adoption process all over after the earthquake which has devastated the country.
Loomis is pleased the government has said it will cover the orphans’ medical needs until they’re covered provincially. Dalina was severely malnourished when she was brought into the orphanage, Loomis said, and there could be complications, although “she’s not suffering from any terrible ailment” right now.
Wednesday’s aftershock was a catastrophe for one Central Alberta-based aid organization.
Dozens of orphans in Mirebalais no longer have a solid roof to sleep under, after Haiti Children’s Home — sponsored by Haitian Children’s Aid Society — was damaged in the tremor. It was then condemned by the UN.
“I was pretty upset about this. I haven’t had any tears until I heard the house was damaged (this morning),” said Patti Vold, Aid Society board member from the Ponoka area and an adoptive parent of Haitian-born children herself.
“It was my other house. I tell people I have a second house in the Caribbean, I just don’t tell them it’s in Haiti with 49 children.”
The group is frantically putting the necessary documents together to get the 49 orphans included in the U.S.’s “humanitarian parole” measure recently taken to provide medical care for orphans within the safe confines of the U.S.
Assuming they get in, Vold said, the nine orphans who were already in the adoption process will be picked up from the U.S. by their parents. She said the rest of the children will hopefully be put up permanently in an empty nursing home in Nebraska.
Of the nine adoptive children, three are bound for locations in the U.S., while five are bound for Alberta and one for B.C.
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com
