Schools Not Slavery for Rural Haitian Children

Thank you for your generous and faithful support for Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery initiative. More girls and boys in Haiti are growing up free, safe, enrolled in a quality school and living at home with their families, where they belong.

Your solidarity is making it possible to set long-term goals to advance the rights of children to get a quality education and to live free from violence and abuse.

Beyond Borders is working in 73 communities on Lagonav Island now to realize these goals, building the movements to end child slavery and guarantee universal access to quality education – thanks to you.

A Five Year Child Protection Plan – Made Possible by Supporters Like You

With your faithful support, Beyond Borders’ Child Rights Team articulated five-year expected outcomes they seek to achieve as part of their work to ensure that children enjoy their full rights, including the right to a family and to live in security.

5-Year Expected Program Outcomes:

1. Both program participants and communities more generally demonstrate changes in beliefs and behaviors that protect children and end their exploitation in domestic slavery.
2. Locally established child protection groups using a collective leadership model have increased organizational capacity to act to end child domestic slavery.
3. Local government and civil society make decisions and undertake actions to protect children.
4. Child and adult survivors of child domestic slavery have access to services that facilitate their liberation, rehabilitative care, and reintegration into family and community.

Beyond Borders continued to strengthen child protection awareness, mobilization, and engagement efforts already underway while expanding into 21 new communities on Lagonav. 

We are now working in 73 rural and urban communities across the island. Various initiatives in new and previously active communities mobilized people to:

1. Grow the base size, diversity and engagement of the movement;
2. Increase the capacity and leadership of people engaged by the movement;
3. Build collaborative structures, including Child Protection Brigades and Adult Survivor Network Branches aimed to advance shared agendas.

Local authorities continued to show active engagement and decisive leadership in defending, protecting, and promoting the rights of children, as demonstrated by leading on evaluating potential children-at-risk in urban Lagonav, and participating in rural child welfare surveys.

Having just completed Year Two of our plan, here are some of the highlights that supporters like you have made possible:

• 37 Social Maps were completed and/or updated
• 21 Baseline Knowledge, Attitude, Practices surveys were conducted
• 606 people graduated from 42 new rural and urban Child Rights Dialogue Groups established
• 91% of rural Child Rights Dialogue Group participants declared that they are now using dialogue as the primary form of discipline with their children
• 83% of rural participants declared that they do not belittle or bully their children (or other children) anymore
• 82% declared having a greater love/affection for their children (and/or children in general)
• 16 new child protection structures (Child Protection Brigades or Adult Survivor Network Chapters) were created
• 68 child protection structures conducted organizational self-assessments to identify capacity-development needs to sustain their movement-building efforts, including mobilizing new community members and conducting advocacy
• 32 Child Protection Brigade members were trained on Action Plan Design; 34 members were trained on advocacy techniques
• 79 activists were trained in Child Development and Conflict Management Techniques
• 11 members from 2 new urban Survivor Network Chapters were trained in the Ti Rankont Sektè (a small group meeting) methodology and 22 groups were organize and run by adult survivors over a 3-month period with 304 participants from their communities
• 83 adult survivors of restavèk were trained in the Open Space* methodology
• 13 psycho-social support groups for adult survivors were established, meeting quarterly
• 6 children received one-on-one psycho-social support
• 37 children received various forms of support interventions
• A Child Welfare Censuses was carried out in 23 rural communities to determine: the number of children living in the community; who they are living with and in what conditions; if they are living in a potential restavèk** situation or at risk of entering into a restavèk situation; and/or if they are at risk of violence and abuse; the results of these censuses will inform initiatives and interventions moving forward

Your generosity and your faithful solidarity make these five year objectives and all of the work outlined here possible. Thank you for your care and concern for the rights of children in Haiti!

* Open Space is a technique for running meetings where the participants create and manage the agenda themselves.

** Restavèk means a situation in which a child is sent by their parents – who lack the resources required to support the child – to live with a host household in exchange for help around the house. Often the child suffers exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

A Five Year Plan to Improve Access to and the Quality of Education – Made Possible by Supporters Like You

With your faithful support, Beyond Borders articulated five-year expected outcomes to achieve as part of our work to equip and mobilize communities to improve the quality of and increase children’s access to primary education.

5-Year Expected Program Outcomes:

1. School-aged children in partner communities attend school in increased numbers
2. Schools improve education quality

Our primary education partner on Lagonav Island, the Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC) accompanied seven schools to complete the foundational two-year training program aimed at improving the quality of education. The program introduces educators to new methods and approaches to deliver primary education in Haitian Creole that is participatory, nonviolent, and rooted in local culture.

Additionally, thanks to the support of people like you, Beyond Borders funds were used to support initiatives with 30 other schools and the larger network of schools that have graduated from the program in previous years.

In addition to providing on-going technical financial management support to MCLC, Beyond Borders’ Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team also began providing additional support to strengthen MCLC staff capacity for planning and implementation, including digital data collection methods.

The community-based branches of the Beyond Borders-supported Ansagalè Communal Section Education Platform demonstrated intensified engagement to increase stakeholder mobilization, providing critical leadership to build the movement for universal access to education in seven communal sections.

Regular meetings were held within the branches to discuss problems identified and propose solutions and follow up actions. In some branches, data was collected on the status of children in their communities regarding school attendance and enrollment that continues to inform their review and revision of action plans and interventions.Several branches also organized friendly intra and inter-school recreational and academic competitions.

Ministry of Education School Inspectors on the island continued to play a larger and more integral role in movement initiatives, despite lack of sufficient support from the mainland. In a number of communities, education stakeholders organized local resources to fund local education initiatives, and to support kids to enroll in school and stay enrolled in schools.

Here are some of the highlights that supporters like you have made possible:

• Seven schools completed the 2-year MCLC teacher training program
• 100% of students (342) completed the school year in these seven schools
• Schools received monthly technical support visits, in addition to the provision of didactic training materials, and Mother Tongue Book* creation materials
• Multi-day training workshops were provided to staff from all seven schools on school administration, classroom management and preparation, and literacy
• All 21 teachers from seven schools are using at least two new teaching techniques they learned over the course of the 2-year program
• Various advocacy and community mobilization activities were organized with school staff, parents, and students
• Seven branches of the education platform convened General Assembly meetings
• Localized awareness-raising and mobilization action plans for the education platform branches were revised and updated; this included targeted outreach to households and/or schools identified as having children not attending school or dropping out
• 115 children were supported to enroll and/or stay in school; children received school materials, uniforms, and financial assistance
• Ministry of Education School Inspectors showed increased engagement and proactive leadership; 25 schools in seven districts received at least two visits from Ministry Inspectors during the year

Your generosity and your faithful solidarity make these five year objectives and all of the work outlined here possible. Thank you for your care and concern for the education of children in Haiti!

Thank You Again

I am grateful for all the good work and long-term planning that you are making possible through your support for the Schools Not Slavery initiative – especially in these challenging times in Haiti. Thank you again for your extraordinary generosity and solidarity. If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please call or write to me anytime at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

Links:

• Register now for Hands Together With Haiti on Oct. 25th!

Thanks to You, 105 More Children Free, in School; 4,300+ Adults Join the Movement

Your generous support is building a movement to ensure every girl and boy grows up free, safe, in school and at home with their family, where they belong.

Thank you for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery project on GlobalGiving. We are grateful for your solidarity!

I’m happy to share wonderful news from the first six months of 2023: thanks to you and your generous support, 105 more children benefited from child protective support services that included interrupting violence, liberating children from domestic servitude, accessing interim care, legal support services, psychosocial support, family reunification, and ensuring reunified children attend school.

Thank you for making this kind of life-saving and life-changing work possible – even in profoundly challenging times in Haiti.

4,386 Women and Men Participate in Child Rights Awareness-Raising Activities

Your generosity is also growing the movement to end child servitude by supporting awareness-raising activities on Lagonav Island and in Haiti’s Artibonite region, where Beyond Borders recently expanded our Child Rights training.

With your support, 4,386 people participated in awareness-raising activities, such as door-to-door “Zero Restavèk”* Campaigns, Open Spaces and conferences organized by Adult Survivor of Restavèk Branches and Child Protection Brigades on Lagonav and in St. Raphael in the Artibonite.

* Restavek is a Haitian Creole word. Here is how our friends at Restavek Freedom define the word: “Restavek (a Haitian creole word which is from two French words: “rester” and “avec”) refers to a child who has moved from his or her biological family to stay with a host family and serves the family as a domestic child; this new social environment is characterized by the violation of his/her rights, such as: his/her rights to go to school, and rest and play and be protected from all forms of exploitation and abuse.”

New Advocacy-Awareness Raising Tool Piloted on Lagonav Island

Thanks to your generous support, we are excited to launch a new advocacy tool to create greater awareness of the 2014 Haitian law that makes human trafficking – including the restavèk practice – a crime punishable by prison time. Most Haitians (including law enforcement and judicial officials) are unaware of this law. In 2021, BB staff teamed up with lawyers from the Office of Human Rights Defenders, with whom BB now has a signed strategic partnership agreement, to put on a mock criminal trial of a fictitious accused perpetrator of restavèk. One hundred sixty-three people in four urban Lagonav neighborhoods watched the film and took part in Q&A sessions that followed. This new tool will be added to protection programming across the island.

Partnering with Ansagalè Mayor’s Office to Protect At-Risk Children on Lagonav

BB’s partnership with local authorities in the urban neighborhoods of Ansagalè continues to deepen, with authorities showing increased leadership and responsibility in the fight to end the restavèk practice.

Previously conducted Child Welfare Surveys in a number of urban Lagonav neighborhoods noted a significant number of children living with families not their own (34%) with a number of children coming from outside the neighborhoods. This means the children are potentially already living in a restavèk situation or are at risk of entering a restavèk situation.

BB is partnering with the Mayor’s Office to carry out in-depth evaluations of each situation to better understand which children are in need of assistance, liberation, and/or protection. A project coordinator under the management of the Mayor’s Office has been contracted, as well as 26 community members who have been trained by BB staff to carry-out the in-depth evaluation. BB is providing financial, material and technical support, with the Mayor’s office leading the effort.

Your generous support makes partnerships like this possible. Thank you!

Your Generous Support Made Even More Child Protection Work Possible

Here’s a look at some of the other Child Protection work that your support helped make possible this past quarter:

• 15 children liberated among them 14 were reunited in their families; 1 was placed in a welcoming family
• 105 children benefited from child protective support services (interrupting violence, liberating children from domestic servitude, accessing interim care, legal support services, psychosocial support, family reunification, ensuring reunified children attend school)
• 410 participants in the ESK Child Rights Dialogue Groups in urban and rural Lagonav neighborhoods and communities take part in Open Space Sessions to further explore child rights questions
• 402 participants in the ESK Child Rights Dialogue Groups being implemented with partner RJM in Gros Morne with technical support from BB
• More than 550 people are participating in 42 ESK-Child Rights Dialogue Groups on Lagonav
• 21 ESK group facilitators and 4 supervisors) attended the refresher training on ESK Child Rights Dialogue Group facilitation
• 12 communities (8 in Lagonav and 4 in Gros Morne) validated their social maps with 147 and 410 community members participating, respectively
• 4,386 people participated in awareness-raising activities, such as door-to-door “Zero Restavèk” Campaigns, Open Spaces and conferences organized by Adult Survivor of Restavèk Branches and Child Protection Brigades on Lagonav and in St. Raphael
• 38 members of partners PDL and RJM staff/collaborators received technical support for conducting Knowledge, Attitude and Capacity (KAP) surveys in 38 communities in Sen Raphael and Gros Morne
• 56 Child Protection Brigades on Lagonav and in Gros Morne conducted organizational capacity assessments
• 13 Branches of Adult Survivors of Restavèk designed their own action plans to increase their advocacy capacity
• More than 130 adult survivors participated in multiple Psycho-Social Group Therapy Sessions

Community Members Talk About Beyond Borders’ Impact

“Before we minimized the practice of restavèk here. We did not pay much attention to it. We considered it normal. In fact, there were children in this community who were suffering in restavèk. But, when our community started working with Beyond Borders, we participated in some training. We learned for several months about the consequences of the restavèk practice. We came to see that staying with another family is often not a good thing for a child. Today it is different. We see things differently. Today in our community of Mon Chadel, it would be hard to find a child suffering in restavèk thanks to the knowledge, training and skills we received from Beyond Borders.” ~ Seme, Adult Survivor, 59-year-old mother of three, Child Protection Brigade Member

“If I had not participated in the [psycho-social] Groups Therapy sessions, I could have died already or could have become a major criminal. I believed that whenever someone looked at me, they were talking badly about me – I was ashamed of myself. I became very aggressive.

Today, because of this program, I have begun to know myself, I began to learn to manage my emotions. Today I am able to identify the good things in my life and have learned to value myself. Despite all I have lived [through], today I feel proud of myself. I would like to thank Mathania [BB’s Psycho-Social Support Officer and trained Psychologist] for her patience, her understanding and her willingness to talk with us. May God continue to bless you, and enable you to keep coming to sit with us.” ~ an Adult Survivor on Lagonav, participating in adult psycho-social therapy groups

Thank You Again

I am grateful for all the good work that you are making possible through your support for the Schools Not Slavery initiative – especially in these challenging times in Haiti. Thank you again for your extraordinary generosity and solidarity. If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please call or write to me anytime at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

Links:

• Visit the all new Beyond Borders website!
• Get the latest from Haiti in our Spring Impact Report.
• We are committed to Financial Transparency: read our 990s.