The Haiti Anniversary

A little over seven years ago I posted on my Facebook “Anyone want to sponsor a poor filmmaker to go to Haiti”. I was sick of English classes and film school and thought I could find a story about the earthquake that just struck. That was January, 12, 2010. Without a ticket I started to pack my bags, and at about two in the morning a ticket was pledged. Within four days of the earthquake a friend and I hitchhiked into Port au Prince. The scene was devastating. Buildings pancaked together, people looting shops, and burning bodies in the streets.

I found my self at an orphanage called the Masion Des Enfants De Dieu. It was a orphanage that specialized in international adoptions mostly to the United States. The orphanage building survived, along with all the children, but the kids where living under a tent in the court yard for fear of aftershocks. The wall surrounding the orphanage had fallen, making them vulnerable to armed robberies. Before leaving for Haiti I had spoken with one of the orphanage board members. He said that it was their intention to try to get the kids evacuated. I didn’t think it was possible.

​​Somehow CNN had caught word of this orphanage and had sent Soledad O’brien out with a crew to share their plight. They would do live updates on Larry king live and AC360 showing the kids living in the back of a box truck. The orphanage directer, Pierre Alexis, was even interviewed by Anderson Cooper on the Hope for Haiti telethon. One of the biggest in history. This coverage would drastically change their story.

The children up for adoption where not orphans in the traditional sense. Parents had given up their children because for reasons such as security or illness. They could not care for them so they decided to send them to the States. This sparked an international debate on what is an orphan, and should we be adopting overseas. I never formed an opinion, I thought of it as a gray area with no clear answers.

The story ends by (you, my reader) logging onto Hulu.com and watching the conclusion of the resulting film, “Adopting Haiti.”

This week I returned to Haiti. This was my first opportunity to see the orphanage since the earthquake. We had to drive by the compound twice because the area is totally unrecognizable. A new wall has been built around the compound and a park is established across the street where they had once been dumping bodies. It was exciting to see the change, and hopefully this speaks for the future of Haiti.

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