actor and activist sean penn joins us from port-au-prince. plus, how you can save a life. we'll give you all the information you'll need to help or even adopt these innocent kids. it's next on "larry king live." >> larry: our subject tonight is children, there's nothing more important than that, the children of haiti. first, let's check in with ivan watson, our cnn correspondent in port-au-prince. we understand there was some drama earlier today involving children at the airport on a plane. what happened? >> reporter: we're still trying to get to the bottom of this, larry. basically, there was a plane. it was involving a group called the utah hospital task force. and we believe that it took off with about 69 orphans, headed for miami. some of the children that were being placed on board that plane, there appears to have been some mix-ups, about 16 of them actually had to be taken off and were not allowed to go and some confusion about just where and how they should be going and traveling. a lot of bureaucracy to sort through, especially on this adoption issue, larry. >> an

using nanotechnology to convert plants into components. the first-ever hs hybrid. only from lexus. >> larry: we're back. still with us is kent page, senior communication officer with unicef. joining us from port-au-prince as well is annie foster, emergency team leader with save the children. in washington, david digs, cofounder and director of beyond borders. david lived and worked in haiti for a decade, still visits there regularly. ending child slavery in haiti is a beyond borders priority. and here in l.a., aaron cohen, head of abolishslavery.org. he's the author of "slave hunter: one of man's global quest to free victims of human trafficking." how much, aaron, is going on -- how much of this is going on in haiti? >> you know, larry, it's an incredible phenomenon in haiti. they have a cultural norm of slavery that's leftover from -- >> larry: how's it work? >> well, there's -- essentially, it goes back to male privilege. women have been debased to a level where they don't have the same social value as men, so they can't be there to protect their children. over 250,000 slaves end up in domestic servitude. >> larry: where people are taken from their homes and made slaves in other places? >> what happe

joining us from port-au-prince, dr. sanjay gupta, cnn chief medical koern and a practicing neurosurgeon. what's the latest on the medical situation? in the early days you painted a desperate scene. what's it like now? >> i think in many ways it has gotten better. it's all relative, as you know, larry. a couple of things have improved. we have more personnel, surgeons, actually, on the ground, being able to take care of patients. you're looking inside one of the tents here. a lot of post operative patients, patients who have had operations including amputations. they're in tents like this. they're actually inside a hospital. but this ends up being a good location to try to take care of these patients. lots of doctors. still short of nurses, still short of physical therapists which will be necessary. there's still work to be done. to your point, it's a lot better than it was a few days ago. it looks like it will be even better a few days from now. >> larry: heather mill, an amputee herself, will be with us. the amputation

. >> larry: joining us now from port-au-prince is jill gilbert charleston. what took you from this one to that country, gille? >> i decided to move to haiti because i think it was the right time to get involved into helping and providing my contribution to renewal, transformation of the country. i lived in the states for over 20 years now. i think it was the right opportunity, the right time. there were a lot of things going on that seemed right for me and the involvement to make a difference. i think as a haitian-american, i think it's important that we take seriously the opportunity that we need to come back home and give our share to help the country and provide assistance and help it move forward. >> larry: what do you do there? >> i work for a microfinance institution. i'm the chief financial officer. >> larry: can you say after the events of the last two days you're glad you went back? >> that's a very interesting question. i think someone else actually -- one of our sponsors from the states actually asked me the same question while we were in the offi

he'll be reporting for us tomorrow night from no doubt, port-au-prince. >>> let's go to michael holmesiew with someone in haiti. is that right? >> that's right, larry. a lot going on at the international desk. right here on the screen, this is very low tech. i have to show you. he is there in haiti. now, first of all, just tell me what happened. what was your experience of this earthquake? what happened around you? >> i was, i'm going to say hi to everybody. i was driving. driving back to my work. i was talking in traffic. i was on the phone. when i feel like my car was shaking. i thought that some other cars hit me. and when i look in front of me, i see a lot of people falling down and they were crying, crying, crying for help. and after that, my phone, i lost the communication. and after that, i went out of the car and i realized that it was an earthquake. >> so your photographs on your facebook page were among the first pictures we saw out of haiti. what sort of level of damage have you seen and what are your friends telling but? how bad this is, how extensive this is. >> to tell yo

sorties a day from a capacity that on an average day pre-earthquake was 13 commercial aircraft into port-au-prince airport. an extraordinary amount of work. it will remain critical to ushe port-au-prince airfield. we are getting a lot of great help from a lot of supporters to enable us to continue to increase the through put coming into haiti as well as our ability to contribute it to the areas most in need outside the nerve centers. >> no thought is being given to a second improved runway port-au-prince. can you say where these other air fields are? >> the first runway in the haiti proper will go into operation in the vicinity of jacquesnel. within the next 24 hours i mentioned the rotor wing insertion went into that yesterday delivering food and supplies that enabled us to also do the airfield assessment that's critical and we will continue to use that airfield for c-130 deliveries primarily initially supporting the buildup of the canadian humanitarian assistance efforts that will be centered there. and also integrating the aid necessary to the international communities to continue to deliver food and emergency supplies to the people in the southern provinces of hai

from 8:00 eastern tonight. soledad o'brien is on the scene for us in port-au-prince tonight. let's check in with her now. already donated, maybe she can convince you to do it. soledad, what's the latest from there? >> reporter: larry, maybe these babies can convince you to do it. look at them sleeping here. this is the back of a truck. 25 babies are here and it's become this makeshift nursenurs. across the way, another 100 plus other people. here's the problem. people are donating things like powdered milk, but infants can't drink milk, they have to drink formula, but they've run out of formula, so they're feeding the babies milk, so they get dehydrated and that gives them diarrhea. it's really, really critical. if you think of something to donate, formula is a good and important thing to get to everybody. and a big thank you for the folks who have been helping out with all their information and advice tonight. >> larry: we want to thank tamar han, the spokesperson for unicef. also there in port-au-prince, matt herric, an american red cross worker. these people have worked so hard past these six days. th

from port-au- prince. >> warner: jay newton small, thank you for joining us. we are hearing reports of tens of thousands, in fact hundreds of thousands of haitians fleeing the city. what have you seen? >> i have certainly seen that. the port is clogged with ferries of, you know, haitians trying to leave to go to safer areas. lecay is a very popular place which wasn't at all affected by the earthquake down south from here. people are trying to get anywhere out of town. if you go out into the suburbs, when you drive towards the dominican republic, everybody who has got family anywhere outside of port-au-prince has definitely gone to the suburbs, gone to be with their family outside of port-au-prince because they are terrified of the tremors that keep happening. and they are worried another big one could hit again. >> warner: then we also hear that the government is, one, not standing in the way of this. and two, is planning to build tent cities outside of town. >> well, frankly, one of the problems that haiti had even before this disaster was that it was too muc

from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. >>> joining us now, anderson cooper, the host of "ac 360." they travel outside of port-au-prince today. they went to a town which apparently got nothing. where were you and what happened or did not happen there? >> carl got there first. no humanitarian aid had been getting to the town until a world food program sent in a team last night. you saw doctors getting there today. >> yeah, we went in there. the main street collapsed. the mayor said the other 10% is just trying to get by. it really was a presession of the dammed there. relatives taking people to a make-shift clinic on doors, on mattresses salvaged from the ruins. and then there were very few supplies in the makeshift clinic. they were sending people out with broken limbs splinted with cardboard boxes and pieces of wood. >> i saw a little girl with her leg in a print. most of the focus has been downtown port-au-prince. and really, nobody had the time to go to leogane. it's the very early hours. it's just the beginning of some relief. larry, the need there is incredible. i was at a school where at least -- they believe 100

us. they are in port-au-prince. joseph fernandez, the lead ore of the search and rescue task force team. mark grossman, and eric fickus, fromi is from. joseph, how do you explain this? how did she? >> i think by the grace of god, as mimi said, and help from us. i saw her first come out after hours of guiding the operations and all these guys in the hole with her, and she started reciting all her information down to her driver's license number. and we had a lot of the pauses there between ricky and a, i and i said, is this a family member of mimi? and he said yes. i said, your mother is fine. and then there was huge pause. and the exclamation from ricky and my heart sank for a second there. >> larry: you have every right to feel great. dr. grossman, what medical treatment was immediately applied to mimi? >> really just trying to get her out of the hole. she was stuck in the hole obviously for five days. and even once she got out of the hole, the area was contaminated. we had been digs, and dust and food rothing and things going on. just to get her out of the area. but really, she was awake and talking and relatively stable.

from over. >> pitts: maryse penette-kedar, a former government minister, gave us a sense of the scale of the problem in port-au-princee-kedar: all around here, we had most of government offices. you had the national palace here, the ministry of finance, and here you had the internal revenue. it's very important office. >> pitts: this was the tax office for haiti? >> penette-kedar: this was the tax office for haiti. that's the general tax office. >> penette-kedar: this is a huge catastrophe. i know a lot of you know that are... yes, they are buried here. >> pitts: they're buried here. >> penette-kedar: they're buried here. not very far from here you have the palace of justice that also collapsed. the ministry of finance that is in terrible shape. the ministry of health that collapsed. the ministry of interior that collapsed. and, you know, you have all the symbol of the states that today are non-existent. >> pitts: we noticed an israeli search and rescue team working at one of those buildings and went across the street to have a look. there's a man inside alive you think? >> there is man, there is a man alive. his nam

from europe in the cing 48 hours. >> ifi: yves colon, for those who ha not been to port-au-prince, give us a description of wt, before this ppened, it was. it was not t best of situatio physically, even bere this happened. >> no, it's not. u know, port-au-prince was a smalcity that was built for maybe less than 0,000 people, annow it's about two million pele. and it's-- its streets are clogged all the time wit traffic and housing is at premium in haitio the only place go is --s to crowd the house next door. so it'a very, very, very crowdeenvironment. and re and more people have beenuilding towards the hills, and gettinaway from downtown port-au-prince. so, yeah, it was not-- it s not a mfortable place to begin th. and overhe past 20, 30 years, it has gotten even me and more crded as more people from the cotryside have been coming in to theapital looking for work looking for educatio looking foa way to make a livi. so it's place, also, where there'very little control in building. nouilding rules, zoning rules per se . u might have-- you might tak a permito build a house in port-au-prince but youill not find a inspecto

from i reporter bryan corey. his mother-in-law, phyllis, is a missionary in port-au-prince. he's been sharing her pictures with us. you can see collapsed walls. they drive through the capital city. in this one we're about to show a dead body is lying in the corner. and here in the next one, one of the missionaries is treated a woman's injured foot. you can check these as well as other i reports out at ireport.com. if you have anything to stair with us upload. this video was uploads to the video website. it looks like it was shot after the quake hit. you can see the clouds of dust from the collapsed buildings billowing in the distance. we're all picking up some powerful firsthand accounts on twitter. richard morris, a well-known musician who manages the hotel wrote -- >> here's a chilling i-report to share with you from yvonne trim bell who has worked as a missionary in haiti for more than 30 years. here's what she writes, quote -- >> quite a chilling account giving us a sense of what it was to go through this experience, this ordeal besides the loss of life, this earthquake has also wiped out a keiland mark. this

from europe in the coming 48 hours. >> ifill: yves colon, for those who have not been to port-au-prince, give us a description of what, before this happened, it was. it was not the best of situations physically, even before this happened. >> no, it's not. you know, port-au-prince was a small city that was built for maybe less than 100,000 people, and now it's about two million people. and it's-- its streets are clogged all the time with traffic and housing is at a premium in haiti so the only place to go is -- is to crowd the house next door. so it's a very, very, very crowded environment. and more and more people have been building towards the hills, and getting away from downtown port-au-prince. so, yeah, it was not-- it was not a comfortable place to begin with. and over the past 20, 30 years, it has gotten even more and more crowded as more people from the countryside have been coming in to the capital looking for work looking for education, looking for a way to make a living. so it's a place, also, where there's very little control in building. no building rules, zoning rules per se . you might have-- you might t

us in port-au-prince tonight. let's check in with her now. if you haven't already donated, maybe she can convince to do it. soledad, what's the latest fromter: larry, maybe these babies can convince you to do it, because look at them sleeping here. this is the back of a truck. 25 babies are here, and it's become this makeshift nursery. across the way another 100-plus other young children. here's the problem, larry. let me show you. people are donating things like powders milk, but infants can't drink milk. they need formula. they ran out and they feed them milk and they get diarrhea and they get dehydrated. we need water and formula to come to the orphanages. there are so many orphanages here in port-au-prince. it's really, really critical. if you think of something to donate, formula is good and important to get to everybody. big thank you to the folks helping out with all the information and advice tonight. >> larry: we want to thank the spokesperson for unicef. also there in port-au-prince is matt merrick. they've worked so hard throughout the past six days and then continue to work. there's matt and we salute him. when you call it to

from where these patients live,r used to live. >> they n't have anyplacto go. keep talking to everyone, aski "where are you living in port-au-prince they say, don't have any home." i said, "okay, you need to tnk about discharge." and some othem will need follow up. we d't know exactly how we are going to deal with tha >> suarez: all the dtors we spoke with want to reminyou of one thing-this is not a crisis that will be over in a weeor a nth. port-au-prince pulverized health infrastructur and the lives ofts most ill patients, will take years toix. and dr. lassegue says, wle he's grateful r outside help, he wants to tell dors that the solutions and the w health stems will have to be run by haitiansfor haitians, even if they're funded frooutside. >> we know we ne help, but this iour plan. this is our vision of iti in 25 yrs to come so, help us. i may foll your advice, but don't tell me, "do thior do that." but don't forget-- it'my country, not yours. >> suarez: he kns most of the new help will go home, eventually, but he dsn't want haiti totallon its own when that happens. while general hospital ces, the cris is far from over. 's wel

us. tarmo, what was it like when the earthquake hit port-au-prince? oh. >> first of all, i want to give my respects to michael leaks who didn't make out from our building.learned some news today and it was -- it happened very fast. the buildings started shaking and then all of a sudden it all collapsed down while i was trying to get out of the building. >> and we know that the -- the top united nations officials were both official ly announced dead by the u.n. security general. where are you from originally? >> from estonia. >> and maybe you were in miami during this ordeal or are you in port-au-prince with your kids? >> i just arrived to miami. i spent the holidays with my husband. so i was home when i heard the news with my kids. >> you were in miami. >> tell me what it was like when you heard your husband was in the middle of the compound at the time of port-au-prince in this earthquake? >> it took my breath away. i had spoken to my husband 20 minute before the earthquake. so i started seeing images on the news of the devastation. my heart sank. so i meetly began to contact my family in crystal city, missouri. our family in estonia, and then reached

from where these patients live, or used to live. >> they don't have anyplace to go. i keep talking to everyone, asking "where are you living in port-au-prince they say, "i don't have any home." i said, "okay, you need to think about discharge." and some of them will need follow up. we don't know exactly how we are going to deal with that. >> suarez: all the doctors we spoke with want to remind you of one thing-- this is not a crisis that will be over in a week or a month. port-au-prince's pulverized health infrastructure, and the lives of its most ill patients, will take years to fix. and dr. lassegue says, while he's grateful for outside help, he wants to tell donors that the solutions and the new health systems will have to be run by haitians, for haitians, even if they're funded from outside. >> we know we need help, but this is our plan. this is our vision of haiti in 25 years to come. so, help us. i may follow your advice, but don't tell me, "do this or do that." but don't forget-- it's my country, not yours. >> suarez: he knows most of the new help will go home, eventually, but he doesn't want haiti totally on its own when that happen

from such a liberal perspective. and show the independents that we're willing to have a conversation with republicans. >> larry: thanks, john. john king reminding us that the only thing certain is uncertainty. let's go to port-au-prince. anderson cooper, the anchor of "ac 360." the latest, what i'm told, is an incredible survival story. what is this story? >> yeah. larry, a little 5-year-old boy found alive today. his name is manly. he was brought into general hospital, write just happened to be on another story. brought in by his uncle. not even professional searchers. huz uncle was digging through the home where his parents are dead. he heard manly saying, i'm here, i'm here. with five other friends with a pick ax dug into the hole and found him. this all according to the uncle. brought him to the hospital. he was covered in dust. totally disorient pdp this little boy looked on the brink of death. rushed into a room where a doctor and a nurse from the international medical corps immediately started attending to him. got iv fluids in to him. started checking for any broken bones or internal injuries. he had none. he was severely dehydrated. if you pinched your skin, larry, it would bounce right back to normal. if yo

port-au-prince-- at meaneverybody has somebody in pap. we nd all the help from the friends of haiti to co together; e communities to me together to assist usecause this igoing to take a ry long time. like wsay in haiti our motto : "with unity, we are strong >> yes, we're king donations fohaiti's earthquake saster... >> reporte but it is not only the haitian communitthat is assistinin the effort. harvest-time international a christian aid oup-- has faced milar challenges before. and its warehouse humm as palettes fled with everything from bottled wer to wheaties reeadied for transport. lena smolensky of harvest-me. >> all the procts are denitely needed. it doesn't matter how mu it is, if it's only one pie, or like a whole truckload, we c definitelyse it. >> reporter: their next b: finding a flight south. >> wve heard from others that she safe. >> reporter: but findi a flight north is whatchool principal rol grosshans is hoping for. her 15-year-old dahter was partf a school-run aid mission to haiti when the earthqua struck. the group in haiti continuedts work, distributingood. but amid the daster came a meeting long awaited f her daughter, f

us what this is like. a tent city next to a crumbled presidential palace. a haitian chiding dividing one haitian meal among eight members of his family. a 70-year-old woman rescued from the cathedral in port-au-princeoo weak to stand but strong enough to sing church when i means as she was carried out on a stretcher and only just this morning the photographs of the young 15 or 16-year-old girl being pulled out just a little more than two weeks after the earthquake. it's impossible not to be moved by the suffering. but also by the resilience and the dignity of the haitian people. it's our duty as neighbors and frankly as fellow human beings to respond to that responsibility and that responsibility does not end with the rescue. we need to help haiti to repiled in a way that leaves haiti better off and better prepared for any natural disaster to strike. since the quake america and the world have rushed with as much assistance as haiti's infrastructure has permitted. quickly deploying search and rescue teams, food, water, shelter, and several thousand troops. we're also well aware at the suffering and the heartbreak that has affected the hard-working haitian american community. indeed my home state of

us what this is like. a tent city next to a crumbled presidential palace. a child dividing one rationed meal among eight members of his family. a 70 year-old woman rescued from the cathedral in port-au-princeo weak to stand, but strong enough to sing church hymns as she was carried out on a stretcher. only just this morning, the photographs of a young 15 year- old girl being pulled out just a little more than two weeks after the earthquake. . . we must do what we can to help. there has been a tremendous outpouring of generosity from americans and from the international community. people have opened their wallets and their homes and have been working closely with dozens of families and we have been working very closely with dozens of families in massachusetts to expedite the adoption of haitian orphans that were already under way before the or earthquake. we're also making sure that they have relief effort for the thousands of haitian children who were orphaned or displaced by the earthquake. i want to commend dr. shaw, secretary clinton, and countless other americans inside americ government for their efforts that all this could be proud of. i would like to commend victoria belonged. the u

port-au-prince and other areas. what is holding it up? >> i actually don't think that your characterization is true. if -- the issue remains the limited infrastructure that is inhibiting us from bringing more and more food, water, shelter into the country, but the assistance that is getting to the airport is flowing out to the people of haiti. the challenges that we are not yet at the level where we can sustain a population of three million people. but we -- every day we're making progress. obviously in the last 24 hours we've had the arrival of the marine amphibious group that provides you several capabilities. one, another platform from which we can have helicopter flights into port-au-prince. you know, with the marines come manpower and vehicles. humvees so that now we can extend our region to more sections of the city and the outlying areas. the helicopter lift is important to that because we know the population in haiti is moving. and so we want to stay up with that flow. we're looking and have been experimenting over the last couple of days at finding ways to be able to airdrop more supplies particularly to the outlying areas to help feed and provide water to as many pe

from other countries who have worked against almost insurmountable odds to deliver the aid they already have. all of us are concerned that some humanitarian organizations have been unable to obtain access to the port-au-prince airport for several days. many tons of relief supplies have been flown to the dominican republic and trucked by land to port-au-prince. how expensive and time-consuming. it is needed now. i am aware that the port-au-prince airport can accommodate only a limited number of flights per day. it is my understanding that number now exceeds 120. i've asked our u.s. military to take immediate steps to ensure that these organizations have immediate access for their relief flights. again, i don't say this to detract from what they've done. they worked against horrible odds. if you are a child, dehydrated and dying and food and water is only a few miles away, and you are a parent of that child, you want that there then. fortunately, we have had, our u.s. government, the military, the u.n., and others have had to basically had to organize their own government, their own methods of getting through. and, mr. president, behind all that, though, has been the outpouring of generosity of americans of a