Urgent: 100+ Orphans Need Your Help

Written by: Bill Sherman on Tuesday, 19 January 2010, 3:00 PM

Instead of talking about social capital and social learning today, I’m going to ask for your help to save the lives of 135 orphaned children (including 26 infants) who may begin to die very soon.

While the medical cause of death will be dehydration, the actual cause of death will be death-by-bureaucracy.

Over the past five years, my business partner, Lonnie Harmon and his wife Kim Harmon have adopted five orphans from Haiti. As a result, they became responsible for the US charity that supports the Haitian orphanage of 100 people. They also have one child who was almost fully through the Haitian adoption process when the earthquake hit.

Early on there were reports of people robbing the orphanage for supplies.  The US military is ready to evacuate the kids to the US, but they’re waiting on ok from the State Dept to allow the kids to enter the US.

Most kids have been in the adoption process for several years and parents approved by U.S. These kids can be brought to the US and the adoptions fully (and safely) processed here.

Kim and Lonnie have been friends for ten years. They are exceptional people. According to Kim:

“We are going to start losing babies due to dehydration very soon if we do not evacuate these children quickly. We do not have time for a one-by-one assessment of the state of the adoption process and visas prior to evacuation.”

According to Lonnie, Fox News has caught wind of the story. On Monday, Shepard Smith covered the orphanage in his show. Lonnie and Kim got to see their son on tv. Lonnie was crying when he told me this story.

• Article about the orphans
• Fox News coverage about the orphans’ plight (the video here is actually of the orphanage)

Lonnie and Kim have asked for your urgent help.

Please take 10 minutes to call your congresspeople’s offices and ask them to request the State Department to let the children and infants into the US. The adoptions can be processed here in the US.

The name of the orphanage is Maison des Enfants de Dieu. (The US Charity is the “For HIs Glory.”)  These children had begun the adoption process before the earthquake. With so many records destroyed in the earthquake, it will take time to process these adoptions. However, these kids shouldn’t be left starving and dehydrated while in a legal limbo.

Bring them to the US where the adoption paperwork and visas can be processed properly while the kids are safe.

Here’s a link you can use to locate the phone #s for the offices of your senators and congresspeople. Please call today.

P.S. Some congresspeople have asked for contacts with the U.S. charity. If that happens, please contact me, and I can provide phone and e-mail contacts.

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