Behind Bars On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the small Caribbean nation of Haiti, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving dozens thousands of people in urgent need of medical care. Due to inadequate infrastructure, Haiti's population died and for some families, children were orphaned. Once other countries gained attention, such as the United States, child adoptions and trafficking began to occur even though some of these children still had parents. In one such case, ten Americans from the Eastside Baptist Church organized their own rescue mission to Haiti after the earthquake. These 10 Americans took 33 children from Port-au-Prince and brought them to the Dominican-Haitian border on a bus, but did not have proper papers with them, so they were turned away. This group's plan was to bring these 33 children to a rented beach hotel in the Dominican Republic for accommodation. The Americans were later imprisoned for allegedly trafficking Haitian children to the Dominican Republic. Once sent to prison, they were to be tried in a Haitian court, even though most Haitian courts were paralyzed by the earthquake. That group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, said they were "just trying to do the right thing," which was likely their real intention. Some of the 33 children, aged between 2 months and 12 years old, said they still had parents, and the prime minister said some of those parents might have given their children to the Americans in the hope that they would reach the UNITED STATES. .In a way, these Americans showed moral courage because they saw that after the earthquake, the people of Haiti had nothing left, and so to try to bring these children into Dominican Republic, they would be... middle of paper ......world. Standing up, even if it means having to do it yourself, while everyone else is retreating, could show people that there is another side to life. I think being on the other side is something bigger than yourself because a chain reaction happens. People will start doing what they think is right, instead of being a regular, ordinary person, and dare to be different. I try to do the exact same thing every day making a difference, even if it means completing a small task, because I know that a small act of kindness can start a chain and lead to something big. The ten Americans tried to do an act of kindness that might lead other people to do the same, and if everyone followed such an example, the world would be a better place.BibliographyFebruary 2010 http://www.msnbc. com/id/35181444/ns//world_news-haiti_earthquake/