Neil Gaiman
My old friend (and for almost thirty years my family's doctor) Dan Johnson has a charity he started in memory of his son, Alec, who was drowned in 2014. One of the projects they are supporting is helping a couple who work in Haiti with abandoned children (and aren't part of the Haitian "orphanage industry"). The couple are raising funds to buy the compound they and the children are in, and I'm helping Dan by linking to https://cultivating-community.org/
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Cultivating Community

Cultivating Community, the mission of Transforming Individual Lives Today, a Vermont-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Cultivating Community
Aug 31, 2023 at 6:25pmMastodon for Android
Show threadCoastalCoastingAug 31, 2023
@neilhimself what does orphanage industry mean? Are orphans being made a commodity there?
Show threadMichael K JohnsonAug 31, 2023

@CoastalCoasting @neilhimself There's an extensively-researched report from LUMOS highlighting this problem in detail.

The majority (approximately 80%) of the children in "orphanages" in Haiti are abandoned by living parents; many are exploited sexually as well as physically abused in other ways. Many donations intended to help children in Haiti actually turn into supporting that abuse by funneling money to people running the orphanages, rather than supporting the children by equipping their parents to care for them.

Children with exceptional needs suffer even more; they are often considered cursed and even more frequently abandoned.

The center being funded by this appeal is specifically not an orphanage, and equips parents and foster parents to care for children, caring for the whole family, biological or otherwise.

Lumos

Lumos, fighting for every child's right to a safe and loving family

Show threadCoastalCoastingSep 1, 2023

@mcdanlj @neilhimself

the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs are full of horror. thanks for teaching that there's better support for them in the works. are the people who exploited those kids in jail now? weren't most of the orphans there under the care of missionairies, I'd been told that 20 years ago by someone who had done a lot missions there when she was younger. this is so shocking to grasp.

Show threadMichael K JohnsonSep 1, 2023

@CoastalCoasting @neilhimself There's a lot of horror. If you want more horror, read the LUMOS report itself. It's a hard read. ☹

There has been a lot of "missions tourism" to Haiti, with good intentions. Many individuals have built relationships and helped others. But also many relationships have been abused. There is a difference between visiting and working to help and investigating to identify wrongdoing. Most of the "orphanages" are local facilities, locally staffed, receiving western aid money. Not "under the care of missionaries" typically. Not all the orphanages maltreat the children. But even the best orphanage is not the same as being placed in a family, and this is true around the world, not just in Haiti.

I am not an expert on Haitian law or law enforcement, so I can't go into detail on what legal remedies and resources might theoretically be available. However, if you've been following recent news about Haiti, you will have seen there is a lot of lawlessness. The US Department of State has Haiti on its most restrictive level, "Do Not Travel," as a result. You can read about it here:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/haiti-travel-advisory.html

"Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure. On July 27, 2023, the Department of State ordered the departure of family members of U.S. government employees and non-emergency U.S. government employees. U.S. citizens in Haiti should depart Haiti as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transportation options, in light of the current security situation and infrastructure challenges. U.S. citizens wishing to depart Port-au-Prince should monitor local news and only do so when considered safe..."

It's a sad and hard situation. One Gift, One Child isn't fixing it all, but it's showing a different way to care for abandoned children than institutionalization of any sort, regardless of whether it is abusive.

Haiti Travel Advisory

Show threadCoastalCoastingSep 1, 2023

@mcdanlj @neilhimself

Thank you. Your thorough explanations and candor both.

Show threadStephenCSep 2, 2023
@mcdanlj @CoastalCoasting @neilhimself Travel warning: Do not travel to the USA known to have the worst outcomes and highest costs in the First World. Schools and churches at high risk of mass shootings.
Show threadMatunosSep 2, 2023
@StephenC @mcdanlj @CoastalCoasting @neilhimself clever, but as bad as these things may be, I'd wager if you had to choose between landing in the US and landing in Haiti, you'd choose the former
Show threadMichael K JohnsonAug 31, 2023

Alec was my younger brother. He was a brilliant applied mathematician, changing how we use computers to understand magnetic reconnection. This work helped us to understanding better how the earth's magnetosphere interacts with solar wind, something that sounds esoteric until you realize that the stability of our power grid and satellite navigation depend on an accurate understanding. It will also be essential if we ever achieve power generation by nuclear fusion.

He wasn't just brilliant, though. He cared deeply about others, and always in meaningful and concrete ways. Shortly before he died, he was telling me excitedly about his plans to visit his friends Pierre and Natalie in Haiti, whom he had helped financially for years in their work, rescuing and rehabilitating so-called "orphans" who were mostly abandoned. Pierre knew about this intimately, because he himself was abandoned by his living mother, disowned by his living father, and abused as a restavek (literally, "stay-with") child-slave.

If this makes you more curious about the backstory for this project, the long version with more details is here:

https://cultivating-community.org/rehabilitating-haitian-orphans/

Restavek - Wikipedia

Show threadFarce MajeureSep 1, 2023
@mcdanlj oh wow, Michael, I had no idea. I'm so sad this happened to your family, but so glad his memory can be put to such good use. Thank you for sharing.
Show threadMichael K JohnsonSep 1, 2023
@vathpela Thank you, Peter! ❤️
Show threadScott KnowlesSep 1, 2023
@mcdanlj Interesting. I was in USAF Nuclear Weapons Test Ban treaty monitoring program. I worked in unit operating magnetometers to detect variations in the Earth's magnetic field and sensors to detect variations in the Earth's electricity flowing in outer layer. The Magnetometers were 3' diameter, 6' high, buried 6 ', spaced 1 mile apart in compass points. Lead plates, 3' x 3' square, 1" thick were buried 6', 1 mile apart in compass points. Nuclear events create disruptions in both fields detected n 2nd derivatives of 0.5 Hz signal.
Show threadMichael K JohnsonSep 1, 2023
@wsrphoto My experience working with Alec on this was not on the physics side; I'm a software guy and my physics knowledge is sadly weak. But as he was writing code for the models, we had lots of discussions about how to structure the models for best performance, including on distributed supercomputers. So I hope I helped a little bit with the science at the time.
Show threadgoldendraegonSep 1, 2023
@neilhimself
Show threadGalaSep 9, 2023
@neilhimself thanks a lot for your help 🙏