The earthquake in Haiti opened up the world’s heart to helping the impoverished Caribbean country. While many texted donations, a handful jumped on planes and flew their way to the island nation to do whatever they could. In the end, 10 Idaho missionaries were arrested for allegedly kidnapping a bus-load of 33 orphans and spiriting them away to the Dominican Republic, where they were going to start an orphanage with what funds they had collected. The missionaries intended to act first and worry about the paperwork later.

The Washington Post dug up everything they could about the missionaries, right down to their foreclosures and inability to pay debts and employees. How despicable these people are, that they didn’t have money in a “wintery” economic climate, but still went out of their way to try to help children.

Photo Courtesy MCT

The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 3 that, pre-earthquake, Haiti had around 380,000 orphans.

“Many of Haiti’s hundreds of orphanages operate in virtually medieval conditions, with little money or regulation; only 67 are licensed for adoptions, and many aren’t registered with the government,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

Children are jammed into rooms in unsuitable living conditions, reporters who visited the orphanages said.

Tack on the fact that paperwork – if there is any – is buried under rubble caused by the quake.

It’s not as though the missionaries were ripping children from their parents’ embrace. They spent some time looking for who could leave now. In a country where countless people were dying by the minute, 33 children were picked up to be taken to safety and given medical treatment. Saving human lives should be of a higher priority than worrying about the red tape.

Concern over forms filled out in triplicate are also hindering medical airlifts. Before the arrests, the New York Times reported that the largest Haitian pediatric hospital was airlifting 15 injured children a day to American hospitals on private flights. After the missionaries’ charitable attempt, the hospital is only able to airlift three children a day, due to the hefty downpour of paperwork.

“At least 10 other children have died or become worse while waiting to be airlifted out of the country … Dozens of children are in critical need of care, and there has been no shortage of American hospitals or pilots willing to take them,” the Times reported Feb. 8.

The Times further reported that paperwork used to be something to worry about after the patient has been stabilized, but now it’s top priority.

Haiti’s weighted concern in documentation over helping their own people survive this disaster is atrocious.

While it’s arguable that the Idahoan missionaries were misguided, the fact that medical airlifts are delayed, causing the further deaths of child earthquake victims, needs to be addressed.

The Washington Post described their attempt to aid Haitian children as a “misadventure (that) can only make the work of those truly interested in the welfare of neglected or abandoned children more difficult.”

The focus should not be on the 10 American missionaries – it should be on the 33 Haitian children. It should be on the thousands left homeless and orphaned by these unfortunate circumstances. A person is more than a name on paper, and it’s appalling that such a fact has been forgotten.