CALLEBAS, Haiti AP – Parents in this quake-wracked Haitian village unable to feed or clothe their children handed the youngsters over to a group of American missionaries who promised to give them a better life.

In a testament to the misery of a nation that was the western hemisphere’s poorest even before a Jan. 12 earthquake, many Callebas parents say they wouldn’t know what to do if they had to take the children back.