Members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, traveled to Haiti on a self-imposed mission, they say, to save orphaned children. According to their plan, they intended to fly orphans out of Haiti and into the waiting arms of loving families in the Dominican Republic, saving them from the devastation left behind and providing them with food, shelter, and a new family in a new country. But not only were these missionaries without any paperwork or legal records to facilitate adoptions or the transport of Haitian children across foreign borders, some of the children were reportedly kicking and screaming that they already had parents and were not orphans.
For many years, sex trafficking has been rampant in Haiti. And since the earthquake, Haiti has become a virtual paradise for pedophiles looking to do something far more sinister than just assist people in need. So, questioning the motives of the missionaries is not necessarily out of the norm. Georg Willeit, who runs the SOS Children’s Village outside Port-au-Prince said “As far as we know they [the missionary children] would have been, I say it clearly, sold for $10,000 each. That’s what one of the policemen told us. Every child was very desperate, hungry, thirsty. They all were in a bad condition.” And Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has directly called the missionaries “kidnappers,” although they claim they were just trying to help orphans and “do the right thing.” Here’s what others in the media had to say:
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Okay here's my 2 cents on this mess:Well intentioned or NOT(?)..I find it most disturbing that those "missionaries" were in such a hurry to gather up children and take off for WHO KNOWS WHERE? _they didn't even bother to find out whether or NOT the children were indeed "orphans"_NOR did they seek the LEGAL authority to leave with ANY of the children! So umm_THIS is what passes for "missionary" work these days?! No. NOT where I come from_SMH.