PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Her frail body lies almost motionless inside a rusted metal crib. Her diaper is soiled, but she doesn't cry. At 9 months old, she weighs just 5 pounds.
The staff inside the Abandoned Baby Unit at the government-run Hospital of the State University of Haiti call her Sarafina. She was dumped on the hospital's front steps: no name, no note.
But doctors know her story all too well - like the dozens of other special-needs babies crammed inside the unit, she was tossed out by parents who could not deal with her mental delay.
"We find them on the streets, in the hospitals, in sewers," Dr. Questly Bonne-Anne said amid the wails of bedridden, diaper-clad children confined two and three to small cribs. "We guess their age, we give them their names."
Sarafina, named after a musical where students struggle against apartheid, is among the lucky ones.
In this grindingly poor country, disabled children seem to disappear, hidden away as burdens in a culture where parents count on their children to someday provide for them. Even the healthiest of children face starvation, violence and child trafficking, but getting anyone to pay attention to the plight of those who are disabled has been difficult, say child advocates.
No one knows for certain how many disabled children are abandoned each year in Haiti, but the problem is growing, says Mariavittoria Ballotta, child-protection officer with UNICEF-Haiti.
With an estimated 50,000 children living in orphanages throughout Haiti, those with disabilities get lost in the shuffle.
The government's Institute of Social Welfare and Research,the agency responsible for such children's well-being and known as the IBESR, is ill-equipped and underfunded.
And so, many end up at the public hospital, according to child-care advocates.
The hospital has been hampered by corruption scandals, striking workers and high turnover of administrators.
"Most of the children in the Abandoned Baby Unit are handicapped, mentally challenged, past the legal age of adoption or have terminal illnesses. This makes it nearly impossible for IBESR to find homes in orphanages for these children," said Susie Scott Krabacher, the American philanthropist whose nonprofit Mercy and Sharing Foundation finances the unit.
Tucked away in the pediatric ward behind a frosted-glass door, the unit is a cramped 30-foot-by-15-foot box. Amid a faint "mama, mama" and the screams of malnourished babies with matchstick legs and oversized heads, older children sit and stare in an almost catatonic state.
Geraldine, 13, dressed in a light pink dress, rocks in her crib. Suffering from epileptic seizures, she arrived at the unit eight years ago. Her mother left her at the hospital during a doctor's visit.
Then there is Nena, the oldest. She's either 14 or 16; no one knows for sure. Unable to walk, she's confined to the crib. Once a vibrant child, she's slowly losing her mind.
Frustrated by a decade-and-a-half-long struggle to bring attention to the plight of the children, Krabacher has started a letter-writing campaign. Among those she's reached out to: Bill Clinton, former U.S. president and now U.N. special envoy to Haiti.
She's not seeking money, she says, just for him to push the Haitian government to make disabled children a priority.
"We are not asking for anything unreasonable, just for us to be able to use the resources we already have to do something, to make it as normal as possible for these kids," she said. "I want the government to take responsibility."
Jeanne Bernard Pierre, the director of the social-welfare agency, did not return calls seeking comment.
Two years ago, Haitian President Rene Preval sought to give the plight of Haiti's disabled greater visibility by creating an office for the integration of persons with disabilities. He named a longtime disabilities advocate and university professor to head it.
Michel Pean, who is blind, recently drafted 85 new proposals for the parliament to adopt. All are aimed at social acceptance, and in the particular case of children, ensuring they have a right to an education despite their limitations. Parliament is expected to receive the proposals soon.
In the past few years, an effort also has been under way to get parents to understand that children with disabilities can succeed.
Recently, Haitian newspapers heralded the story of 23 disabled high school students who sat for national exams, including one girl without arms who uses her toes to write.
"Progress is being made," said Pean, who credits nongovernmental groups and disabilities groups like his Haitian Society for the Blind with leading the effort through advocacy, protests and participation in radio programs. "During the past 10 years we have been able to fight for the rights of the handicapped. We've done a lot of work. There is still a long way to go."
Front Section, Pages 10 on 08/23/2009