Schools Not Slavery for Rural Haitian Children

In the Last Quarter 17 More Children Freed, Reunited with Family, Enrolled in Good Schools

Thanks to you and your generous support and the tireless work of Child Protection Brigades and Adult Survivors of Child Slavery, 17 more girls and boys are now free, home, and back in school. I am so grateful for the work that you are making possible in Haiti.

You are Building a Movement to End Child Slavery for Good in Haiti

Your generous support is equipping and mobilizing communities to ensure that every child grows up free, safe, and at home with their families where they are loved, protected, and educated. The Child Rights Training activities that you support are designed to ensure that participants demonstrate changes in beliefs and behaviors, so that children are protected from abuse and neglect and their exploitation in child domestic slavery ends.

Your support strengthens locally established child protection groups – Child Protection Brigades and branches of the Survivors of Restavèk (Slavery) Network – in their work to end child slavery. Child and adult survivors of slavery gain access to services that facilitate their liberation, rehabilitative care, and reintegration into family and community. Your gift also supports work with local and national government and civil society to make decisions and undertake actions that protect children.

The Work to End Child Slavery that You’ve Made Possible this Quarter

Here’s a look at some of the work to protect children from slavery and abuse that you made possible this past quarter:

• Thirteen communities on Lagonav Island, five Adult Survivor Networks in Port-au-Prince, and 35 Child Protection Brigades in Haiti’s north organized activities commemorating the National Day to End the Practice of Restavèk (Slavery)

• Five survivor branches in Port-au-Prince participated in three-day training workshops on designing action plans to protect children

• Thirty-five child protection committees in the north were trained in organizational structure and leadership, and how to design action plans

• Sixteen children are now enrolled in school thanks to the joint work of local authorities, Child Protection Brigades and our partner PDL in the north

• Nine communities launched child rights mini-reflection groups – a modified, less intensive version of our six-month Child Rights Training

• Seventeen children returned home to their families in Port-au-Prince

Your Generosity Supports Partnership and Networking with Key Policy Makers to Protect Children on Lagonav Island

Your generosity is supporting key networking activities to protect children. In a meeting with local authorities from each of the six communal sections on Lagonav Island, as well as the mayor of the island’s largest city, Ansagale, participants committed to continue prioritizing child protection and ending the practice of restavèk (household slavery). Local authorities reaffirmed their commitment to continue working with Beyond Borders on these issues. They shared that they view Beyond Borders as an organization that respects people, keeps its word, and does not come to do things “for” people/communities, but rather to collaborate and work together for lasting solutions to real problems. It is a partnership and collaboration that they, as authorities, will continue to promote and defend.

Your Generosity Supports Teams Intervening in and Seeking Prosecution of Cases of Slavery and Abuse

Liberating children from slavery through direct intervention and holding perpetrators accountable for exploitation and abuse continues to be a priority for Beyond Borders’ teams both in Port-au- Prince and on Lagonav Island -- and your support is making their work possible.

In Port-au-Prince, Beyond Borders works in collaboration with the Survivors of Restavèk (Slavery) Network (SRN); on Lagonav, we work with Child Protection Brigades, branches of the SRN and the Beyond Borders-sponsored SASA! activists’ network working to end violence against women and girls. All three entities work together to intervene in cases of abuse and slavery. Here are two recent interventions that your support made possible:

• On Lagonav – the photos of a 14-year-old boy with multiple signs of physical abuse surfaced and were brought to the attention of the Beyond Borders Lagonav team. Upon investigation, it was discovered that he was living in a situation of restavèk (domestic slavery) at the home of a local pastor. The team mobilized and began the steps of intervening on behalf of the child. The child has been removed from the home and is in the care of designated care takers. Financial support is being provided to secure legal support for the family of the boy.
• In Port-au-Prince – the Beyond Borders team continues to document individual cases of children identified as at-risk of exploitation and abuse. Out of 108 cases that have been classified as “high risk” 14 have been fully documented and are ready for intervention by authorities. Beyond Borders is working with the International Office of Lawyers (BAI) in Haiti to take the next steps to file official complaints at the State Prosecutor’s Office, and to begin the process of having the children safely and legally removed from the homes where they are being abused and enslaved and reunited with their families.

Your Generosity Supports the Creation of 48 New Child Rights Training Groups

Your generosity supports work with Partners for Local Development (PDL) in Haiti’s north. Forty-eight community dialogue groups, with a total of 665 people, are now meeting regularly in three communities where PDL is working, using Beyond Borders’ Education is a Conversation (ESK) Child Rights Training methodology.

You are Building a Movement to Guarantee Universal Quality Primary Education

You are continuing to make work with 18 schools on Lagonav Island possible this year, all of which are in their second year of a two-year program to strengthen the quality of education through the use of strategies that include:

• native language instruction
• a participatory approach to classroom instruction
• nonviolent classroom management
• parental engagement strategies; and,
• education rooted in rural life (teaching through school gardens, crop management etc.).

Thanks to your support, Beyond Borders is also continuing to work with the Ministry of Education and education stakeholders on Lagonav Island to design and implement a new, comprehensive education strategy to improve access to quality education.

The Work to Guarantee Universal Quality Education that You’ve Made Possible this Quarter

Here’s a look at some of the work to guarantee universal quality education that you made possible this past quarter:

• Thirty-eight pedagogical visits to train teachers conducted with 18 schools
• The distribution of material creation kits for Mother Tongue Books -- books children write themselves, in their native language, telling stories about their own lives -- to 18 schools
• Forty-five teachers (13 women) participated in monthly training workshops
• Seven schools, which included 872 students and teachers, successfully organized community advocacy events
• Six community mapping workshops were organized with key education stakeholders

Your Generosity Supports the Work of Beyond Borders’ New Education Officer

Thanks to you and your support, Beyond Borders’ new Education Officer is convening monthly meetings with members from local government, the Ministry of Education, school directors, organizations working in the education sector, community leaders, parents and students with the aim of ensuring every child has the chance to go to school.

The first meeting was held last quarter – one in each of Lagonav Island’s six communal sections – with 182 participants. The objective was to carry out a participatory community mapping exercise that included a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) specific to each communal section. The workshops permitted the different actors to identify together the various issues affecting access to and quality of education in their communities, and to determine what solutions exist. In each communal section, participants agreed to work on a logical framework of results and activities, and to determine roles and responsibilities and mobilize logistics and resources to implement their plans.

Teachers Share What The Training You Make Possible Means to Them

Your generosity and solidarity is making a lasting difference for students and their teachers on Lagonav Island. Here are testimonies from two teachers who took part in teacher training made possible by you:

“I do not have words to express my gratitude for the trainers. I have had the opportunity to participate in many training sessions. If it was left up to the government, I would not have received any pedagogical training support because it is not a priority for the state. Now, I am equipped with more techniques and methods that I can use to teach my students better. I also learned how to grow and maintain a vegetable garden at the school with my students, and I have applied what I learned to set up a garden at home, too. Now I feel more prepared to teach! Thank you, Beyond Borders!”

~ Chelna Beauvoir, a teacher in the National School of Notre Dame de Lourdes in the community of Pikmi on Lagonav Island.

“Since this training began we teachers at the Jerusalem School have a new perspective on learning and teaching, and it is receiving praise from both students and their parents. Some of the specific things that teachers and parents praised are the Mother Tongue Book program and the increased knowledge gained from planting and maintaining school vegetable gardens. Before, we as a school did not place much importance on instruction in Creole. As far as a school garden, we did not even think about that. Thanks to you we have discovered the richness in teaching and learning in our mother tongue. The monthly training workshops also provide a lot of advantages. Teachers work better and school directors better understand their roles. The way we treat our students today compared to the way we did before this partnership is very different. We have learned about children’s rights which, in turn, helps us to treat them better now. Thank you to those who support this work!”

~ Joseph Anderson, Mixte Jerusalem School in the city of Ansagalè on Lagonav Island.

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. Thank you again for your extraordinary generosity and solidarity. All of us at Beyond Borders continue to send our best wishes for the health and well-being of you and your loved ones during these uncertain times. If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please call or write me anytime at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

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• See more from Haiti in our Winter 2021 Newsletter. (PDF)