Reunite 75 Exploited Children with their families

As LFBS approaches our 15-year anniversary this November, we are reflecting on the impact made possible through supporters like you. For 15 years, LFBS has worked in Haiti to protect vulnerable children and strengthen families by supporting children removed from critical situations, facilitating family reunification, assisting high-risk households, and reinforcing community-based child protection networks. In close collaboration with Haitian authorities, community leaders, local service providers, and partners such as UNICEF, LFBS has helped ensure that children can grow up safely within family environments.

LFBS has continued to strengthen its partnerships with both Haitian authorities and international organizations, reflecting the trust and credibility our team has built over nearly 15 years of service. Thanks to the partners and supporters who stand alongside our team - such as yourself - we have been able to accomplish incredible impact despite the challenging situation in Haiti. For the past several months, our team has been working incredibly hard and we are very grateful for their dedication. 

Over the past year we've been able to reunite 40 children and youth with their families in the Nippes Department, after Little Footprints was called upon by Haitian Social Services (IBESR) as well as UNICEF to assist in supporting the process of reuniting these children - who had been in orphanages - with their families. Our team, alongside IBESR, followed up with each family after they were reunited to ensure these children will have access to education; access to vocational training for youth; medical care if needed; and business start-up support for parents. Our teams continue to provide ongoing psychosocial support and mediation. In addition, our team did extensive community trainings in the neighbourhoods in which these children were reunited, to ensure that the neighbours and community leaders understood and supported the reintegration of these children back into their communities. 

Little Footprints was also recently selected by Haiti's social services agency, IBESR, to implement a UNICEF-funded hurricane response project in both the Nippes and Grand'Anse Departments—the only organization chosen by two separate regional IBESR offices to facilitate this work. This was through a cost-shared budget in which LFBS also contributed both in terms of human resources and finances. 

Over the past 4 months, our team was able to facilitate psychosocial support activities with nearly 2,900 children and emergency assistance and counselling support to 200 vulnerable families affected by the hurricane. We were also able to provide child protection and violence prevention education to more than 1,600 community members while strengthening local child protection systems and supporting government child welfare agencies.

We recently partnered with IBESR and members of the Southern Haiti Regional Working Group on Child Protection (GTPE-Sud)  to deliver children's rights awareness activities reaching more than 4,800 students, 112 teachers, and 55 community leaders in just three days.

In June, to mark Haiti's National Day of the Child, Little Footprints hosted our annual Street Child Meeting to motivate children who've been living in the streets to instead return home. This is especially important given the current context in Haiti as street children are often targeted for involvement in armed gangs and crime. The event was a wonderful success and we identified 17 new street children who were documented by Haitian Social Services (IBESR) and introduced to our team. We will be following up with any of those children who choose to reunite with their families and leave the streets! 

In addition, Little Footprints and IBESR collaborated to celebrate National Children's Day in both the Nippes and Grand'Anse departments through psychosocial animations and cultural presentations with children in each region. 

Through our business start-up program, our team has been able to support 32 families across three regions of Haiti in launching or expanding small businesses that are helping create greater financial stability - ranging from food preparation, produce sales, and meat vending to the sale of cooking ingredients, hygiene products, clothing, beverages, and footwear.

These initiatives reflect LFBS's commitment not only to supporting individual children and families, but also to strengthening the systems and partnerships that help keep children safe for generations to come. None of this would have been possible without your support! We are excited to continue creating a positive impact together.