Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010

Church hopes to bring back orphans

Effort bogged down in red tape

It would seem a no-brainer to allow 10 Haitian orphans to stay in the United States while their country rebuilds.

But bringing the youngsters to Johnston County - the goal of a Clayton church - isn't as easy as putting them on a plane and finding families to take them in.

Organizer Patrick Tormey said he had been told not to bother filling out the necessary forms because the U.S. government wasn't allowing it.

He's working with North Carolina's Congressional delegation to change that.

"Why do we have to let the border between Haiti and the U.S. get in the way of that?" Tormey asked, adding that the plan was similar to the temporary resettlement of Gulf Coast residents after Hurricane Katrina.

Don Owens, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, said the congressman's office was doing everything it could to help the effort. He said he was unaware of any blanket denials from the government. But he said the State Department has put the application process on hold, likely because of public health concerns and resistance from the Haitian government. Still, he's hopeful about the church's chances.

"We can make sure the process is fast and the decision is made quickly," Owens said, noting that the decision rests with the State Department and Department of Homeland Security.

Horne Memorial United Methodist Church sponsors the Ryan Epps Home for Children, an orphanage in Haiti.

The orphanage's current home, in a rented space, was badly damaged in the earthquake, and the church wants to bring the children here until a planned new building is finished.

For now, the kids, orphanage director Yvon Pierre and his family are sleeping on the ground in the yard of an acquaintance.

Fifty people are sharing the yard, and on Friday morning, Pierre reported that all of the children had come down with cold symptoms, including fever.

"We are hoping to be able to get a doctor in the area to check them out," said Valerie Carpenter, one of the Horne members who was in Haiti during the quake. She and her husband were scheduled to help out at the orphanage during their trip, but the quake derailed their plans.

The orphaned children have food and water for now, but those supplies could soon run low since Pierre is sharing them with everyone camped out in the yard. Four pallets of supplies left Clayton on Friday bound for the orphans; church members planned to get them on a Royal Caribbean ship bound for Haiti.

If church members can get the orphans "advanced humanitarian parole status," which would allow them to come to the United States for a year, they'd fly to North Carolina with Pierre's family.

Gaining that status would require an individual able to support the group financially, which Tormey said the church has found.

Once in Clayton, church members would take the kids in, and Pierre's wife, Eunide, would likely continue to be their teacher. Pierre would remain in Haiti to supervise construction of the new orphanage.

"That really is another big reason we wanted to get the children here," Carpenter said, noting that the security walls and foundation of the new orphanage suffered damage and need attention before construction can resume.

Plans for the new orphanage include housing for 32 children, a school for 180 students and a church. Horne church is continuing to raise money for the project.

But the orphans aren't the only people in Haiti the church is trying to help.

Last week, Tormey got a call from a woman in Rocky Mount who wanted him to fly her five relatives out with the kids. One of the relatives is a U.S. citizen; the others have green cards.

"They were caught in a situation where they had nowhere to go," Tormey said. "They haven't eaten for days, they were scared, they haven't had water."

Tormey sent Pierre out to pick up the family; they stayed in the same yard as the orphans before flying out Sunday night.