To the editor:

In defense of the 10 American missionaries accused of kidnapping children in Haiti, I would like to state the following. As director emeritus of Kansas University’s Institute of Haitian Studies, I speak from experience of some 50 years in Haiti, with stays of from three weeks to six months.

Countless times, parents, not just distant relatives, have thrust infants into my arms or pleaded with me to take their children as old as 10 years back to America with me. As an American speaking fluent Haitian Creole and with a car, they assume I can offer their children a much better life. This has occurred countless times and well before the catastrophic earthquake of Jan. 12.