Schools Not Slavery for Rural Haitian Children

Thank you for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery initiative. We are grateful!

No child should ever be enslaved. Every child has the right to grow-up at home with their family, in a community that is committed to educating and protecting them. Every family has the right to earn a dignified living, so they can provide for themselves. No woman or girl should ever face violence, discrimination, or inequality.

Your belief in these fundamental rights and your generous gift to defend these rights is building a Haitian-led movement of women and men, teachers and parents, local elected officials and grassroots activists, and people from all walks of life who are committed to guaranteeing these rights.

Thank you for your generosity, your care, your concern, and your commitment to this human rights movement.

Jenny is Growing Up Free, Safe, and Enrolled in a Good School - Thanks to You

Jenny, 7, is a third-grader at Mondèzolivye School on Lagonav Island.

“I love mathematics,” Jenny told us. “After I finish school I would like to become an engineer!”

Your generous support for the Schools Not Slavery initiative means that more children like Jenny are growing up free and safe, at home with their families, and enrolled in a good local school.

Engaging Local Elected Officials in the Movement for Human Rights

Your generous support is making it possible to expand our movement building for human rights work to include engaging with local elected officials.

Sustainability is at the heart of the move to engage local elected officials. We seek to foster greater engagement from local elected leaders to leverage their democratically-elected authority to listen to their population, establish and strengthen relevant, local structures and practices that are sustainable and rooted in Haitian law, and that do not depend upon outside organizations to continue.

To do this, we’re undertaking the following specific initiatives:

• Engaging Local Mayors to Determine Local Needs, Assets, and Priorities – Beyond Borders has set in motion a strategy with Mayors and CASECs (district-level authorities) to assess their own communities’ needs and assets through social mapping and other tools. Initial meetings were held between authorities, Beyond Borders (BB) and our new partner, Rasin Devlopman (RD) to: discuss joint mission, vision, and ways of working; the priorities of local authorities, relationships between local authorities and external actors; uncovering realities in the municipalities; and defining next steps and establishing a calendar. So far, four out of six communal sections are ready to move forward with recruiting volunteers to be trained by BB/RD on a social mapping methodology and application.  Local authorities from these communal sections have committed to securing the necessary financial and in-kind resources needed to support these activities. Authorities from the two additional communal sections are very interested but uncertain how they will secure the necessary financial resources to proceed but are committed to continue trying.
• Development of Training and Implementation Guide – Beyond Borders staff is in the process of finalizing the social mapping training modules and implementation guide to be used to train teams of volunteers assembled by local authorities from communities within their communal sections. Trainings will be organized over the course of four days with each group of volunteers from each communal section.
• Prioritizing Child Rights Dialogue Groups – Beyond Borders staff met with authorities (CASECs) from all communal sections in the commune of Ansagalè (Lagonav Island) to discuss child protection priorities and initiatives for the commune.  All six CASECs are onboard for developing a protocol for the prevention of child human trafficking as well as a plan to roll out a new strategy for Child Rights Dialogue groups led by BB-trained volunteers recruited by local authorities.   

The Human Rights Movement-Building Work That You Make Possible

Ending Child Slavery - Activities include the creation and strengthening of Child Protection Brigades, follow-up with law enforcement and judicial authorities around specific cases of child slavery (restavèk), planning Zero Restavèk Campaigns, targeted child rights training, creation and strengthening of branches of the Adult Survivor Network and advocacy.

Additionally, your generosity has made these accomplishments possible:

• Nine children freed and reunited with their families and/or placed in Welcoming Families (foster families)
• 24 Child Rights dialogue groups with 250 people launched in partner communities
• New chapter of the Network of Adult Survivors of Child Slavery inaugurated on Lagonav
• 49 Child Protection Brigades received support visits
• Charges filed in three cases of perpetrators of restavèk with the State Prosecutor’s Office

Your generosity also makes it possible to build the Network of Adult Survivors of Child Slavery, giving those who’ve lived through child slavery the opportunity to become leaders in the fight against it.

An Adult Survivor of Child Slavery Shares Personal Testimony

Vano, 32, is a member of the survivors network in Port-au-Prince.

“This is not a small battle we are fighting – it is a very big one. There are some communities where we meet with families and parents who are thinking about and wanting to send their children to go live with other people but they have no idea the misery and suffering that their children might face. Sometimes when we are trying to bring a child home to their parents, the parents will ask what kind of support can we give them because they just don’t have the means to support them.  They do not comprehend the total depravity of slavery that their child is living in.

In the network that I am a member of, we meet together and talk about what we suffered, the situations we are encountering today, and what we are going to do about it now.  We do not want any other child to suffer the experiences that we suffered.” (Vano’s photo courtesy of Nadia Todres)

Guaranteeing Quality Primary Education - Beyond Borders and our primary education partner on Lagonav Island, the Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC), began working with local government representatives from the Ministry of Education to develop and roll out a new strategy to build and strengthen the movement to ensure access to quality primary education to all children living on Lagonav.

Included in this vision is the development of a Communal Education Platform (CEP) that will integrate all schools that have participated in MCLC training in the commune of Ansagalè along with others. The CEP, comprised of representation of all education stakeholders, will allow for school directors to interface with local Ministry of Education staff and local authorities to advocate for improved resources and influence education planning for their communities. 

Likewise, it will enable local authorities and Ministry staff to develop a joint education strategy for the island and play a greater leadership role in ensuring all children in their communities are able to attend quality schools.

Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) - Seven communities on Lagonav continue to work through SASA!* community mobilization programming to prevent VAWG. Nan Kafe and Matènwa continued to work through the Action Phase, the last phase of SASA! with an evaluation completed this quarter. The Rethinking Power team is supporting the Lagonav team in diving deeper into the data and determining an action plan moving forward. Masikren, Fonnèg, Chenkontan, Gransous and Bouziyèt are moving into the Action Phase.

In the Southeast, Beyond Borders’ Rethinking Power team continues to roll out SASA! and Power to Girls in eight communities in the area of Lavale. The program is in its final year of this three-year cycle and are working toward completing it by the end of this fiscal year.

Additionally, your generosity has made these accomplishments possible:

• 14 Girls’ Clubs played in the soccer championship with 97 girls participating
• 33 people from six organizations trained in SASA! Start Phase & Power to Girls Phase 1
• 50 local activists & local authorities dialogue about ways to foster trust between community members & authorities with a role to play in protecting women & girls
• Three-day interactive training with staff and Program Specialist on Action Phase and Phase 4 of SASA! and Power to Girls
• 15 Church Pastors and their wives trained on balancing power between women and men in their congregations 
• 50 journalists explored the imbalance of power in society and are now equipped to take this into consideration in their reporting

*Created by our friends at Raising Voices and adapted for Haiti by Beyond Borders, SASA! (Start, Awareness, Support, Action) is a ground-breaking, internationally-recognized model of community-mobilization to stop violence against women and the spread of HIV.

Empowering Families to Escape Extreme Poverty - Your generosity allows us to continue to implement the Family Graduation Program in three communities on Lagonav. The current cohort is now scheduled to graduate in September 2020. Through weekly home visits, case workers monitor, in real-time, participants’ progress against program indicators.

All of the 110 participating families have received at least one of two productive assets offered as part of the program. Twenty-four weeks of cash stipends have been distributed and Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) were created following training with program participants and community residents.  Twenty trained volunteers created four Village Committees across intervention communities comprised of 131 volunteer members (112 women), including community leaders, rural police officers, teachers, religious leaders, and volunteer Child Protection Brigade members.

Additionally, your generosity has made these accomplishments possible:

• 69 participants received two productive assets each 
• 220 goats, 18 pigs, 45 donkeys, and start-up funds for six small businesses distributed
• 103 families trained on animal husbandry
• 100 people trained on how to start a Village Savings & Loans Association (VSLA) 
• 3 VSLAs created 
• 40 families received materials to rebuild/repair their houses

Thank You Again!

We are deeply grateful for your kind, thoughtful, and generous support for the Schools Not Slavery initiative. You are building a Haitian-led human rights movement through your support and solidarity. If you have any questions about what you read here, please contact Brian Stevens, Beyond Borders’ Donor Engagement Director, at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net. 

Links:

• Check out our fall newsletter for the latest from Haiti.
• [VIDEO]: Diana escaped slavery thanks to supporters like you.
• We are committed to financial transparency. Review our 990s.

More Girls and Boys are Free, Safe, and Heading Back to School Thanks to Your Generous, Kind, and Thoughtful Support.

Thanks to you, in 16 rural communities on Lagonav Island, young children are sharpening their pencils, cracking open fresh new notebooks, and heading back to school. That’s because your generous support for Schools Not Slavery is ensuring that every child in each of these 16 communities is enrolled in a quality school and no child is sent away to the city, where they risk becoming enslaved.

You made the first day of school on Lagonav Island a joyful and fulfilling day for girls and boys at 23 schools -- many of whom are brand new to Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery Network. That’s because 20 schools graduated this past academic year from the Schools Not Slavery teacher training program -- also because of your support.

Now, we’ve added these new schools and expanded the reach of our work to protect and educate every child -- an accomplishment made possible by your support.

I’m lucky because I have the chance to visit Lagonav and talk to teachers and students and see inside the kind of classroom that your support for Schools Not Slavery makes possible.

I get to see students devouring their Creole-language textbooks and classroom walls decorated with their work. And thanks to the training that your partnership supports, their teachers are committed to nonviolent classroom management and encouraging the unique creativity and curiosity of each student.

Outside the classroom, your partnership trains the local Child Protection Brigade and the local chapter of the Adult Survivors of Child Slavery Network to protect these same girls and boys from slavery and abuse.

And in addition to making sure every girl and boy is free and in school in these 16 communities, your generosity continues to support work to lift the very poorest families out of extreme poverty and to organize women and men to prevent violence against women and girls.

Thank you again for all that you are doing to promote liberty, dignity, education, and hope in Haiti.

Building the Movement to End Child Slavery

Here’s the work that your generosity is making possible in support of the movement to end child slavery: 

• Trained 1,934 child rights activists (1,266 women) using a nine-session grassroots, community mobilization methodology
• Trained 216 Child Protection Brigade members (73 women) to facilitate Open Space to mobilize their communities
• Used Open Space to facilitate town hall meetings with 1,169 residents (771 women) across 14 communities
• Supported 16 communities to hold awareness-raising activities with 1,754 residents to mobilize the movement to end child slavery and commemorate World Day Against Child Labor
• Delivered training to 28 Child Protection Brigade members and six volunteer Adult Survivor of Child Slavery organizers on how to provide psychosocial support to children experiencing trauma as a result of slavery or abuse
• Supported 62 child protection cells in 14 communities to roll out use of the Performance Assessment Tool to self-monitor their work and evaluate their effectiveness as local change agents for the advancement of child rights
• Supported Child Protection Brigades as they intervened to protect three children in crisis (one girl)
• Supported Child Protection Brigades to identify and recognize 34 residents (20 women) who practiced stepping up to protect children
• Held an Open Space meeting with 82 members of the Adult Survivors of Child Slavery Network (63 women) from Nan Kafe, Fonnèg and Chen Kontan groups
• Organized a workshop on child rights with 11 local government representatives (11 women)
• Organized a two-day training to build the advocacy skills of 28 Child Protection Brigade members (13 women)

Building the Movement to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls

Here’s the work that your generosity is making possible in support of the movement to prevent violence against women and girls: 

• Community mobilization for the prevention of violence against women and girls in seven Lagonav communities, with two in the Action Phase and five in the Support Phase of SASA!*.
• Convened 417 SASA! network members and Community Activists at bi-monthly network meetings for exchange, continue skills building, and planning
• Held monthly meetings with 91 Community Activists to reinforce community activism skills and encourage volunteerism for the achievement of SASA! community mobilization activities
• Shared preliminary results of Awareness Phase rapid assessment with 72 SASA! network members
• Conducted Support Phase training with 43 SASA! network members in Fonnèg

* Created by our friends at Raising Voices and adapted for Haiti by Beyond Borders, SASA! (Start, Awareness, Support, Action) is a ground-breaking, internationally-recognized model of community-mobilization to stop violence against women and the spread of HIV. Engaging all actors in the community — women, men, cultural and religious leaders, local officials, police, health-care providers — SASA! fosters critical reflection on gender and power and instigates local-level activism.

Building the Movement to Guarantee a Quality Primary Education for Every Child

Here’s the work that your generosity is making possible in support of the movement to guarantee a quality primary education for every girl and boy: 

• Conducted monthly observation and coaching visits with 25 schools to support application of nonviolent, participatory teaching methods and classroom management techniques, and school gardening skills learned at workshops
• Disbursed monthly subsidies to 25 schools to increase fiscal stability and facilitate educators’ salary payments, to ensure participation in training and attendance at work/school
• Supported two hub schools to establish regional model schools to promote nonviolent, participatory education
• Continued accelerated education classes for nine students (six girls); seven students demonstrated readiness to advance to the seventh grade
• Supported five schools to conduct advocacy activities to promote the importance of Haitian Creole as language of instruction; 535 community residents participated
• Held a one-day workshop with 45 teachers (14 women) on how to prepare student assessments

Building the Movement to Lift Families Out of Extreme Poverty

Your gift supports a variety of economic initiatives designed to empower the 110 families in Beyond Borders Family Sponsorship Program to lift themselves out of extreme poverty AND ensure that they can provide for themselves long after the 18-month sponsorship ends. Here’s the work that your generosity is making possible in support of the movement to empower the very poorest families to lift themselves out of extreme poverty:

• Held program launch ceremonies in three Cohort 3 communities, convening 156 participants and family members (112 girls and women)
• Held three days of refresher training with 110 program participants, covering the following themes: the importance of goat farming; how raising pigs can contribute to families’ economic development; how owning a donkey can be useful to a family; and, the importance of small business management
• Procured, gave deworming treatment, and distributed 80 goats; livestock distribution continues
• Conducted weekly home visits with participants to track and encourage progress against socio-economic outcome indicators, coaching participants and discussing productive asset growth and management; backyard vegetable gardens; and, plans and goals for future
• Distributed 11 of 24 weekly cash subsidies of 350 HTG to remove immediate pressure from participants so that they can focus on growing new skills and building their livelihoods
• Conducted training on Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) with 100 Family Graduation Program participants, distributed materials, and facilitated the creation of three VSLAs with 140 members
• Facilitated a nomination and selection process to identify candidates to serve as volunteers members of Community Development Committees (formerly known as Village Committees); Community Development Committees serve as local solidarity support mechanisms for Family Graduation Program participants during and after their participation in the program; the hope is that they will also play a role in leading initiatives for local economic development
• Delivered training to 20 Community Development Committee members (five women) to orient them to their function and build knowledge of the program; these themes were covered: Objectives of the Family Graduation Program, Definition of Community Development Committees, Village Committees’ importance and the roles and responsibilities of its members, How to organize committee meetings and record minutes, Simulation of a Committee meeting
• Facilitated creation of four Community Development Committees comprised of 131 members (112 women) that include community leaders, school teachers, rural police officers, Child Protection Brigade members, and religious leaders
• Improved the food security of 29 families by providing training and materials to cultivate backyard vegetable gardens, rainwater harvesting systems were installed for the same 29 families to increase access to water for irrigation of home gardens and household use 

Thank You Again!

We are deeply grateful for your kind, thoughtful, and generous support for the Schools Not Slavery initiative. You are changing the trajectory of life for vulnerable children and families in 16 rural Lagonav Island communities through your support and solidarity. If you have any questions about what you read here, please contact Brian Stevens, Beyond Borders’ Donor Engagement Director, (305) 450-2561, b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

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