This evening, I walk up a steep hill covered in makeshift huts. I speak to a mother who is living in a fragile shelter perched on precarious rubble.

“We are worried about people who come to pick up our children,” she says. “It has happened here.”

At a crossroad next to a flattened school, a man waits patiently. Since the earthquake struck Haiti three weeks ago, he hasn’t seen his seven-year-old daughter.

He shows me Jaymmiqua’s birth certificate and explains that he has done everything he can think of to find her.

“I tried to look for her but I couldn’t find any information,” he says. “The neighbours said they don’t know where she is. The way the house is broken, there’s no way to check inside. It’s like my soul has disappeared with my daughter.”

Families torn apart after quake

Earlier in the afternoon, I spoke to children at World Vision’s children’s play area.

I met a nine-year-old girl whose mother was killed instantly in the quake, while her father, severely injured, was flown to Santo Domingo for urgent medical treatment.

“I’m afraid of another earthquake,” she said. “I’m afraid to be alone. I’m afraid of people who may come to do bad things to me.”

A 12-year-old boy, who lives on a roundabout in what used to be the smart part of town, recalled, “I was on the street near my house and I felt a shake and I saw lots of dust. I just stood there. If I was supposed to run, I don’t know where I was supposed to go.”

“My mum was at the open market and when she tried to come back home, some blocks fell on her and killed her. People found her and I saw her. I felt shaken because I lost my mother.”

“My father has been living in Santo Domingo before the earthquake. I don’t know anything about him. I have a brother and sister but we’re not together,” he said.

When the earth split and plunged Port-au-Prince, it did not just destroy lives, businesses and buildings. The earthquake split families apart and left many children alone and vulnerable.

There are no short cuts in reuniting families

It will take weeks and months for children to be reunited with their parents and for parents to find their children.

World Vision has called a halt to all new international adoptions while working hard to protect and identify children in Haiti.

Taking children out of the country in the midst of chaos will permanently separate thousands of children from their families – a separation that could compound the acute trauma they are already suffering from and inflict long-term damage on their chances of recovery.

Let’s not allow the genuine desire to help those in need become an excuse for short cuts or easy answers.