The chartered plane carrying the 53 orphans from earthquake-ravaged Haiti has arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport and the children are en route to Children's Hospital.
The plane arrived from Orlando, Fla., at about 9:30.
The rescue mission came in response to messages last week from sisters Jamie and Ali McMutrie of Ben Avon, who said this month's devastating earthquake endangered the health of 130 children in their care at the BRESMA orphanage in Port-Au-Prince.
While Ali McMutrie arrived in Pittsburgh today, one child -- Emma --couldn't be found during the rush to leave. She has since been found and she and Jamie McMutrie -- who refused to leave without her -- and the rest of the McMutrie family are coming back to Pittsburgh on a later plane.
Ali McMutrie verified that the other 90 children from the orphanage were being taken in similar rescue missions conducted by the Dutch and French governments.
The rescue mission also brought 2.5 tons of medical supplies, two doctors and a nurse with them to stay in Haiti.
Again as wonderful as this is, it bears keeping in mind that there's millions of Haitians who still need help.
UPDATE:BRESMA orphans arrive in Pittsburgh. Story here.
Michael Henninger / Post-Gazette
As the Post-Gazette reports here, Children's Hospital is ready to receive 53 children coming from the BRESMA orphanage in Haiti to Pittsburgh. There were some last minute hurdles on the Haiti end:
The original plane carrying a medical team, as well as Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, was forced to take off without the children, so the group stayed behind and managed to secure a C-130 military plane.
Security hurdles, caused in part by reports about the mission by the media, made it impossible for the group to get the children aboard within the two-hour window they had been given to be on the ground in Haiti, according to Paul Wood, vice president of public relations for UPMC.
"Word leaked and security at the compound [where the orphans were located before being taken to the airport] became compromised by the incredible needs of others," he said.
But the group was able to secure the C-130, which left Port-au-Prince at 11:23 p.m., carrying the children, the governor, Mr. Altmire and caregiver Ali McMutrie, one of the two Ben Avon sisters who ran the orphanage and refused to leave the country without the children, according to Mr. Wood.
Mr. Wood did not know whether other children and Ms. McMutrie's sister Jamie were still in Haiti.
PittBriefly has more photos of the preparations for the orphans here.
The exact number of children originally at BRESMA and number of orphans on the plane has varied in different reports: from 130 - 150 originally at BRESMA and from 61 to 53 children on the plane.
The following message was posted at That's Church last night:
“Please don’t panic about what you may be hearing on the media about numbers of BRESMA orphans who have left Haiti. You will know the accurate numbers as soon as we are permitted to say.”
An earlier article by the Post-Gazette has also reported:
About 90 other children from the orphanage were being taken in similar rescue missions conducted by the Dutch and French governments, he said.
So, that would be 5-6 children evacuated on Sunday, 53-61 today and about 90 being handled by Dutch and French governments. That would seem to account for all the orphans who were at BRESMA -- we hope.
Of course that would leave the entire country of Haiti which still needs help... .
UPDATE 6:BRESMA orphans arrive in Pittsburgh. Story here.
UPDATE 5: Overnight BRESMA update here (1/19/10, 3:00 AM ET)
UPDATE 4: Report from Bob Mayo's blog here. (For those coming to this blog from outside Pittsburgh, Mayo is an excellent and reliable reporter from WTAE.)
UPDATE 3: Best advice from Chris Potter (Slag Heap at Pittsburgh City Paper) here
UPDATE 2:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story here. [Completely new article, same URL]
UPDATE:KDKA is reporting on a "secret mission" (well, not so secret if they broadcast it on their noon news). They report that 60 more children will be flown to the US from the BRESMA orphanage. A plane left Pittsburgh today with Rep. Jason Altmire, and ten doctors from UPMC and McMutrie family members. See the video here.
WPXI story here. __________________________________________________________________
First, let's state from the start that the media has been mistaken in some of their reports; most notably when they claimed that all 150 children from the Brebis de Saint Michel de L'Attalaye (BRESMA) orphanage in Port-au-Prince -- run by Pittsburgh (Ben Avon) sisters Jamie and Ali McMutrie -- had received clearance to leave Haiti and come to Pittsburgh.
The children are in various states in the adoption process and many were never slated to be adopted in the US to begin with (for example, we've received numerous hits from France and the Netherlands in the last couple of days).
What's most important to know now is that the situation at BRESMA is still dire. Getting water and food into the walled-off orphanage is dangerous because there are Haitians understandably desperate for supplies surrounding it. At this point, the BRESMA orphanage probably needs security as much as supplies.
Those following the situation on Twitter at #BRESMA know that rumors abound and that people are "retweeting" old information. Virginia Montanez at her That's Church blog took the extraordinary step of removing several older blog posts so that people would not stumble upon outdated information, post rumors, or give out too much information in their comments which could possibly lead to breaches of security that could endanger the orphans. (I'm seeing GPS coordinates being tweeted publicly which I'm sure is a bad idea!)
What we all need to understand in this era of texting, IMing and tweeting is that the old saying, "A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on" is more true now than ever before.
That said, three sources -- CNN, WPXI and the KAS in Haiti blog -- are all reporting that five children from BRESMA have been evacuated to the US. These children were apparently all well along in the adoption process and had the most documentation available. Note that there is one main source for all these stories: Diana Boni. She has worked with BRESMA Orphanage directly for five years and is the Haiti Coordinator for Kentucky Adoption Services. However, CNN has actual video of children leaving Haiti on a military plane.
You can see WPXI's interview with Boni here (they've been repeating parts of it this morning). Her blog is here. She is quoted in Time Magazinehere.
You can view the CNN update on BRESMA here (original CNN story here):
I would still highly recommend going to That's Church, @JanePitt on Twitter, and Ali Pace's Facebook page for McMutrie Family-verified information. It may be slower in coming, but that is because their top priority is the safety of all those concerned and because they are busy working to get all the kids out. .
UPDATE: Most recent news here (1/18/10, 6:30 AM ET).
10/17/10, 4:30 AM ET, from the sister-in-law of the McMutrie sisters:
10/16/10, 10:27 PM ET: An APreport which was apparently also mentioned on CNN yesterday made it seem as though all 150 children from the Brebis de Saint Michel de L'Attalaye (BRESMA) orphanage in Port-au-Prince -- run by Pittsburgh (Ben Avon) sisters Jamie and Ali McMutrie -- had received clearance to leave Haiti and come to Pittsburgh.
There may be some movement on getting some children out of Haiti, but nothing seems to be truly settled as of now. The children and the McMutrie sisters are all still in Haiti and no one, at this point, knows exactly if and when they will get out and exactly where they will end up if evacuated. The complications in getting all the orphans out of Haiti are numerous because of the differing status of the children. Some are far along in the adoption process, but many more are not. Additionally, the adoptive parents are scattered throughout the US and the world.
A small bit of good news: according to Ali Pace, who is a sister-in-law of the McMutrie sisters, the orphanage received a small amount of water and supplies last night. They had run out of water entirely on Saturday.
Also, the donations of goods received at the drop-off point in the North Side of Pittsburgh yesterday was a great success and no more donations are being accepted as of now. You can still donate to the orphanage at: http://www.centeroflife.net/haiti. .
UPDATE 5: Most recent news here (1/18/10, 6:30 AM ET).
UPDATE 4: 10/17/10, 4:30 AM ET, from the sister-in-law of the McMutrie sisters: UPDATE 3: 10/16/10, 10:27 PM ET: UPDATE 2: They are now out of water. Contact anyone you can to help.
UPDATE: Very lastest update from the family via Facebook is here:
i'm sure you all know that the girls were on CNN (Anderson Cooper) last night. even though the show was on at night, they talked to the girls much much much earlier in the day. since then the babies have started to get very sick. the girls have started to get sick. the fact that CNN has found and interviewed them, unfortunately, doesn't mean much...call your senators. and donate. the senators and political higher ups are now involved. but, that doesn't mean that you should stop harassing them. we need them to stay involved. we need them to stay passionate about this cause. especially now that it's the weekend. so please just keep calling. call and call and call and call. email and email and email.
Stories in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review this morning agree that former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan claims that she has obtained "a humanitarian parole"/"one of two key permits" to allow the children of the BRESMA orphanage in Haiti to come to the US. Both articles also quote Rep. Jason Altmire on his efforts (along with Gov. Ed Rendell, Sen. Bob Casey, Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Mike Doyle) to secure passage for the children.
However, the P-G positions Buchanan's efforts as "one part of a two-prong push to get permission for the children to enter the country early" (with Altmire & others as the other prong), while the Trib has a somewhat different slant:
...Rep. Jason Altmire said he and other government officials -- including those in the White House -- knew nothing of such plans [speaking of Buchanan's efforts] and still were trying to secure the permits.
Bram Reichbaum of The Pittsburgh Comet blog was assisting Mary Beth Buchanan last night. I asked him (via email) if the two factions were working at cross purposes or if it's just a matter of everyone attacking the problem from different angles with their own resources (which could maximize the chances of pulling off a rescue). Bram answered as follows:
It was DEFINITELY different channels and not cross-purposes. We definitely got the impression that some Dems weren't thrilled with our attempts, but I never once got the impression either effort was screwing up the other one. If anyone succeeds in getting some aid thru it'll all be worth it.
For the record though we didn't know about what Jason Altmire was doing any more than he knew about our effort. ;) Cong. Tim Murphy was our man on the inside, called us every hour or so.
For those who don't know it, Buchanan -- a Republican -- may be a challenger for Democrat Altmire's House seat.
I say: The more the merrier.
I'm trusting that everyone has the best intentions and KUDOS to all of them for trying to work a miracle. However, it's likely going to be easier -- and nothing is the least bit easy in any of this -- to get the 30 children who are already well into the adoption process with American sponsors into the country than the 120 who don't already have future US homes. Jamie and Ali McMutrie have expressed their intentions to get all 150 children out together as a group because any child left behind would face a high risk of death.
BRESMA is running out of water and food and the children and staff are not safe. Let's hope all the parties involved can work some magic and that all of you reading this who have called and emailed these public leaders keep up the pressure.
NOTE: Photo removed at the request of the tweeter/photographer.
