Help Stop Child Trafficking in Haiti

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After
continued visits to the Son of God Orphanage in Carrefour, Haiti, six
charitable organizations (Adventures in Missions, Bridgeway Church,
Timberline Church, Children’s HopeChest, Journey Community Church, and
Respire Haiti) have challenged the global community to force the hands
of international leaders in the closure and investigation of the
facility.

According to eye-witness accounts, the children at SOG are alleged to
have suffered severe human rights abuses at the hands of the director of
the orphanage, Maccene (Max) Hyppolite and his family. Despite
consistent delivery of relief for each child, including food, clothes,
and medicine, the children have continued to suffer from malnourishment,
curable diseases and parasites, as well as complete neglect of acute
medical conditions. A recent account included a one-year old baby who
was severely burned and not treated until almost two weeks later.

Police conducted a successful sting operation after numerous individuals
had been solicited by Hyppolite to purchase children. In July of 2011,
Max Hyppolite was arrested while attempting to sell one of the orphans
and he is currently in prison for child trafficking in Port au Prince.

Despite the arrest, continued accounts from as recent as October 13th,
2011 indicate that the situation has only become worse, and to date
there are 53 children who have disappeared and are unaccounted for. The
orphanage is currently being run by Hyppolite’s wife, Marie, who not only
continues to say she does not know the whereabouts of the children, but
has allegedly threatened the lives of the relief workers who have sought
assistance in from the Haitian government organization, IBESR (Institut
du Bien Etre et de Recherches). Given the sharing of information from
IBESR to the Hyppolite family, cause for speculation has arisen
regarding the government’s involvement in the trafficking of the
children.

The six organizations have worked together with change.org
<http://change.org>  to bring this issue to light. They have asked
the global community to give these children the voice that has been 
stolen from them in hopes of world leaders recognizing the human rights
violations occurring and the immediate call for the closure and
investigation of the Son of God Orphanage in Haiti.