"Many Haiti orphanages run by child traffickers, says J.K. Rowling's charity"
"LONDON, Sept 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Four in five children living in Haiti's orphanages have at least one living parent and are sold or given to the homes on false promises of an education or medical care, according to a charity founded by British author J.K. Rowling.
London-based charity Lumos said many orphanages in the poor Caribbean nation were run by enterprising traffickers who starved and beat children to attract sympathy and money from well-intentioned donors.
"When people hear the word 'orphanage', they imagine that it's a good thing or they imagine that it's necessary," Lumos Chief Executive Georgette Mulheir told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday.
"They do not imagine that so many orphanages are actually trafficking, beating, sexually abusing and starving children."
After the 2010 Haiti earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, she said many parents were being tricked or coerced into giving their children to orphanages.
"People need to recognise that this entrepreneurial approach to orphanages is actually trafficking. The people who do this need to be prosecuted so that fewer people will think that this is a good way of making money." Read entire disturbing article @: News Trust.org - By Lin Taylor
