Schools Not Slavery for Rural Haitian Children

Thank you for your solidarity with the people of Haiti. Because of your generosity, your care, and your concern, today, more children are living free from slavery and abuse and are growing up at home with their parents, more students are enrolled in a quality school with well-trained teachers, more families are developing the means to earn a living and lift themselves out of poverty, and more women and men are organizing to prevent domestic violence and balance power between women and men and girls and boys.

Your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery initiative makes these kinds of transformations possible by strengthening social movements in Haiti led by Haitians themselves. Here is some of what has been accomplished thanks to your generous support.

Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery initiative directly served 11,365 adults and children from July-December 2017, including 4,960 women and 4,092 children in 14 rural communities on Lagonav Island. Your generous support makes this kind of impact possible.

Because so much of a child’s life is shaped by what happens outside the classroom too, your support for Schools Not Slavery is helping to transform the entire community, making it a safer, and more hopeful place for children.The Schools Not Slavery Initiative includes four priorities, around which our work is organized:

• Free and reunite children with their families and keep other children from becoming enslaved
• Enroll children in a nearby school and improve the quality of rural schools
• Lift families out of extreme poverty
• Prevent violence against women and girls and balance power between women and men and girls and boys

Free and Reunite Children with their Families

Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery initiative continued to work with grassroots leaders in 14 communities to protect children from slavery and abuse. Achievements include:

• Continued training 630 adults from seven communities in 38 weekly Child Rights Training groups
• Fifty-one new Child Protection Brigade (CPB) members joined existing CPBs, receiving specialized training in child rights, child development, referral systems, conflict resolution, and committee management. During workshops, members were taught how to best respond in cases of abuse or violence to ensure children access appropriate protection
• Fourteen CPBs organized awareness-raising activities to mark Haiti’s National Day Against the Restavèk Practice, November 17
• Twenty-four members of Beyond Borders’ Adult Survivors of Child Slavery network trained in advocacy techniques
• Five Adult Survivors of Child Slavery Network outreach assemblies drew hundreds of attendees in the new communities of TiPalmis, Nan Mango, Plèn Mapou, Betòti, and, Magazen to raise awareness and lay groundwork for new survivors’ network branches in those communities
• Three children were reunited with their families from child domestic slavery
• Nine Open Space gatherings were convened with in communities to advance child rights
• Four Open Space gatherings were convened with survivors’ network members to build connections and spark initiative, focusing on the theme, “How can we survivors contribute to the movement to end child slavery on Lagonav Island?”

Enroll Children in Nearby Schools & Improve the Quality of Those Schools

Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery initiative continued to support 25 network schools to improve the quality of and increase access to education for all children in the 14 communities where we work. Achievements include:

• Forty-one pedagogical technical support visits conducted at 25 schools
• Two day-long teacher training workshops held for 51 teachers
• First grade student workbooks and textbooks distributed to 25 schools to stock textbook banks that reach 3,076 students
• Monthly salary subsidies for 50 teachers at 25 schools
• Three pilot tuition match contracts signed with three schools
• Refresher workshop to build the capacity of six teachers who are providing Accelerated Education to 65 overage children who missed a grade or multiple grades because they were enslaved or because their parents could not afford to pay tuition fees
• Twenty-five schools held Open Space gatherings to increase parent engagement in school life

Lift Families Out of Extreme Poverty

Beyond Borders Schools Not Slavery initiative includes support for the Graduation Model, a program to empower the very poorest families to lift themselves out of extreme poverty. Two cohorts totalling 231 families are in the program. Ninety-eight percent of all 231 families’ school-age children in both cohorts now attend school. Additional achievements for families in the first cohort include:

• 0% of children are living with malnutrition
• 93% of families reported cooking at least one hot meal per day
• 84% of families reported having a vegetable garden or fruit trees
• 97% of families reported having at least two income generating activities
• 96% of families assessed the value of their assets to be greater than 13,650 HTG ($213 US)
• 92% of adults showed progress in their health and their capacity to care for self and family
• 0% of adults are living with an illness that keeps them from working
• 92% have a plan for their future
• 91% have a home in good condition
• 0% of families have children living in slavery

Families were successful in growing or multiplying their productive assets as shown in the table (see images section of the report) indicating the number of assets distributed at the start of the program and the number now. 

For those families in the second cohort, a three-day refresher training on productive assets was held that included discussion on:

• raising livestock in Haiti
• how to manage a small business
• how to build a plan for your future and how to follow a plan for your future
• how to care for and feed your livestock, and common illnesses that can impact livestock

Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls and Balance Power

Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery includes support to advance the movement to end violence against women and girls (VAWG). Work continued in seven partner communities on Lagonav Island: Masikren, Chenkontan, Bouziyèt, Gransous, Fonnèg, Matènwa, and Nan Kafe. Achievements include:

• Three monthly workshops with 66 Community Activists in which they share successes and challenges, and staff provide coaching to strengthen activists’ capacity to implement awareness raising activities;
• Two workshops with 66 religious leaders in which they received specialized training to build they capacity to promote VAWG prevention in their daily activities as religious leaders;
• Three hundred twenty-three community leaders, including 200 women, from diverse sectors (teachers, pastors, farmers, merchants, masonry workers, Vodou priests, local organization members, etc.) participated in bi-monthly meetings to exchange best practices and to strengthen their capacity to be VAWG activists
• Twenty-nine members of theater troupes took part in a three-day introductory workshop led by an experienced, Port-au-Prince-based troupe in which participants learned basic elements of how to use theater to raise awareness
• Twenty-five additional Community Activists were trained
• Two hundred and seven community leaders, including 127 women, participated in two half-day workshops to strengthen skills in implementing activities to prevent VAWG
• Ninety-five Community Activists, including 45 women, participated in monthly workshops to maintain and refresh facilitation skills

Thank You Again

Thank you again for your generosity, your care, your concern, and your commitment to vulnerable children and families in rural Haiti. We are deeply grateful for your support for the Schools Not Slavery initiative. If you have any questions about what you read here, please feel free to contact us anytime at (202) 686-2088.

Links:

• Check out Beyond Borders' Winter 2017 Newsletter.
• Read Eddy's story and how Schools Not Slavery can help.
• Watch a video about what Schools Not Slavery can do.