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Bereaved parents take away orphans

A

aidanjm

Lifer
Bereaved parents take away orphans

By Our Foreign Staff
(Filed: 01/01/2005)

Grieving families of children who died in the tsunamis in Sri Lanka are taking away orphans without official approval to replace their lost loved ones.

The government has pleaded with parents to stop, while Save the Children asked them to follow proper adoption procedures.

An official from the department of child care and protection said he had heard of a dozen cases in Galle and Matara, on Sri Lanka's southern coast, in which orphaned children had been taken by bereaved families.

The exact circumstances in which the children were taken, or if they were related to the families taking them into their homes, is as yet unclear.

The southern coast took the main brunt of Sunday's tsunamis. According to yesterday's figures, 28,500 people died on the island, with children accounting for a third of the victims.

Save the Children's office in Sri Lanka said it had also heard of impromptu adoptions.

"The families doing this are trying to deal with their own grief of having lost their children," said Maleec Calyanaratne, the group's spokesman.

"But they must understand that this is not the way to go about it."

She said the government's child protection authority was trying to track down families that had taken in orphans.

"We are advising people that they should follow the proper procedure of adoption otherwise there will be long-term problems."

Miss Calyanaratne said Save the Children had been receiving applications and requests from parents and families who lost their own children to adopt orphans.

 
Sex abuse fears as traffickers target orphans

DAVID ORR IN COLOMBO

A LEADING international aid agency has warned that children orphaned by last Sunday?s tsunami are being bought and sold by ruthless traffickers in Sri Lanka.

It is also being reported that children are at risk from sexual abuse in camps for displaced people set up by the government.

Save the Children Fund (SCF) Sri Lanka says its staff at a camp on the east coast of the island have come across evidence of children being bought for as little as 4,000 rupees or £21.

"One of our social workers has told us of young children being sold by adults in camps around the town of Batticaloa," said Tahirih Ayn, a child protection officer with SCF Sri Lanka in the capital, Colombo. "We believe two children were sold to traffickers from Colombo. We don?t know why they have taken the children but we fear they will be passed on to paedophiles or sold for some other form of exploitation."

SCF believes the trafficking of children could become widespread as the desperation of people who have lost everything grows.

It is not known how many children were orphaned or separated from their parents by last weekend?s disaster, which claimed the lives of nearly 30,000 people in Sri Lanka alone. In one camp for the displaced in Matara on the south coast, SCF estimates that 40% of the population are children.

"Some affected children are staying with relatives but others have been put into these camps alongside the adults," said Dr Vinya Ariyaratne, executive director of Sarvodaya, the largest indigenous aid agency in Sri Lanka. "Some of these children are being exposed to the threat of sexual abuse. We?ve had reports by our staff in Hambantota that drunken men have been trying to grab some of the children and take them away."

SCF also says it fears sexual abuse is taking place in the camps.

"These children should not be left in the camps with the adults," said Maleec Calyanaratne, of SCF. "It would be much better if they were moved to district hospitals".

Sarvodaya believes the best option for orphaned children is to be taken in by their next of kin. Where they cannot be looked after by relatives, the aid agency said they could be accommodated in orphanages run by Sarvodaya.

"The other options are that they be adopted by suitable families in Sri Lanka or, failing that, by foreign families," said Ariyaratne, "But they would all have to follow the correct procedures."

Another growing problem is that parents who have lost their own children in the disaster are said to be taking children from the camps set up in schools and temples.

"These bereaved parents are trying to take orphaned or unaccompanied children," said Calyanaratne. "They?re doing so either to make up for their own losses or perhaps because they feel it?s their duty to help. They?re acting totally illegally. Some of these children are very young and the problem is that it?s very difficult to trace and reunite the kids with any relatives once they?re removed."

Sarvodaya is reporting high levels of trauma among abandoned and orphaned children.

"Some are depressed and starting to show suicidal tendencies," said Ariyaratne. "Our staff are trying to help kids who are just staring out to sea all the time. They?re listless and showing all the classic signs of depression."

Sarvodaya is holding a meeting of 30 trained counsellors tomorrow to evaluate and tackle the problems afflicting children in the camps. An emergency team made up of personnel from SCF in Britain, Norway, the US and Japan has arrived in Sri Lanka to assist their local office in its relief operation.
 
"My kid just died. Think I might go out and get another one from the orphanage."


Hmmm... not sure what to make of this. 😕
 
Originally posted by: aidanjm
"My kid just died. Think I might go out and get another one from the orphanage."


Hmmm... not sure what to make of this. 😕
Click to expand...

Different importance of children in the culture there, perhaps? It's hard to guess what would happen in North America after an event of this magnitude, but maybe this is just instinct; after all, social services are a relatively recent invention, and in a less 'civilized' world, these kids would be dying if they weren't adopted by someone in very short order.

Quite an administrative nightmare though, and the potential for abuse is very real, too.
 
In the (hopefully) short term, these kids need food, shelter and hygiene. Unfortunately I'm sure some kids are going to be abused, but the situation there right now is so chaotic that focusing on just staying alive is the priority.
 
Originally posted by: Grunt03
As long as the Orphan children get a home and are looked after then I find nonething wrong with it.
Click to expand...

Possibly, but what might be wrong is the parents are not even dead, or if they are then the kids might be better off with their relatives (aunts, uncles, etc.). If they are very young they will have no idea of their past or relatives at all.
 
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