Saturday, January 16, 2010

Permission to Bring Orphans to Pittsburgh

Two sisters from suburban Pittsburgh who run an orphanage in Haiti have received permission to bring 150 Haitian children to Pittsburgh. Jamie and Ali McMutrie of Ben Avon have lived in Port Au Prince since 2007. Their three house orphanage was mostly destroyed by Tuesday's earthquake.
Former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan is part of a group looking to help the McMutrie sisters and the orphans. She says the only hurdle remaining is permission to land the plane in Haiti to pick up the children.
Doug Heckman is the husband of Jamie McMutrie. He says the sisters are running out of supplies.
"With the current state of Haiti, the government is essentially shut down. We know the adoption process is going to be frozen indefinitely. Essentially, there are a lot of parents here that were hoping to get their kids in the next couple of weeks. The adoption process for many of these kids was getting very close to the end."

Allegheny County officials are mobilizing workers and volunteers to prepare for the arrival of the children.

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