Sheila is 31 years old and administrative assistant since 2011. In 2017 she has also taken over responsibility for the 9 mentors working in the centre, with whom she regularly works out the teaching topics.
Sheila tells us about a regular day of work at the center:
"I leave the house at 7:40 a.m. and take the shared taxi to the office of YWCA Haiti in Pétion Ville. As soon as I arrive at the office, I spread out my documents and devote myself to my administrative tasks until the girls arrive at the centre. I look forward to their arrival every day at 1 pm. They are my greatest motivation. The girls always come directly ty desk and enter their names in the reception book. They often tell me how they are, what moves them and what they are concerned about before they sit down at their table with the mentors to do homework or take part in workshops. I make sure they are well, especially when they arrive with worries to the centre, what I don't like to see at all. I am always there for the girls and it fills me with great pride how positively they evolve when they are with us. Every day at 5 pm, when they leave the centre, the girls come back to me to say goodbye. I know that the girls are safe in the center and I hope every day that they will come back the next day healthy and unharmed".
YWCA Haiti was founded in 2008 and is committed with 4 employees and 9 mentors to the education and health of girls and young women from the slums of Port-au-Prince
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Christelle is 21 years old. She lives in a poor neighbourhood near the YWCA center and has been attending YWCA Haiti's Horyzon programme for 8 years. Before that, she felt she didn't exist at all and believed she was worthless because she was a girl. Only at YWCA Haiti did she understand that she also has rights.
In the workshops on self-esteem, she learned to believe in herself and that as a girl she can achieve anything. Cristelle has also become a better student thanks to the after school turorial at the center. Before she was teased because she often missed out on school. Today she is much more self-confident, can stand up for herself and has a big goal: she wants to become an office computer scientist and is currently learning for the last year of high school. She hopes that there will be more centers like YWCA Haiti, so that more girls will experience the same positive change as she did.
YWCA Haiti's programme reaches more than 400 girls and young women from the slums of Port-au-Prince every year.
In addition to tutoring, the girls also receive professional psychological support. They are trained in human rights, sexual violence, health, environment, ethics and self-respect.
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2018 was the third year of the current phase of our girls youth center program in Hait. As you can read in the annual report below, the program achieved its goals and made a positive impact in the lifes of the participating girls. This was possible thanks to the generous support from many donors like you. Therefore, we'd like to express our gratitude to you.
Haiti is considered the poorest country on the American continent. More than 80% of the population live on less than USD 2.41 per day. Extreme poverty, political instability and the huge damage caused by past natural disasters are the main factors behind the country's instability.
Young women and girls in particular suffer under these difficult circumstances. They are often victims of violence, have inadequate educational opportunities and are malnourished. As a result, psychological trauma and health problems are almost unavoidable. The Horyzon programme of the local women's organisation YWCA Haiti opposes this negative spiral. It promotes the development, health and economic independence of girls and young women and stands up for their rights.
In 2018, about 195 girls (5-18 years) have visited the Youth Center daily from Monday to Friday, where they have received professional psychological care and have been able to talk openly about their problems. The Youth Center has offered them daily school tuition and training on topics such as hygiene, sexuality, violence prevention, rights and the environment. In addition, this year the girls were able to have a cooked meal every day.
In the past year, 273 young women between the ages of 18 and 35 have learned at the Leadership Academy how to make self-determined decisions and thereby assume an exemplary and leadership function. In weekly intensive courses, they acquired leadership skills and worked on topics such as human rights, work ethics, sexual and health rights.
A highlight was the Summer Camp, which has taken place for the fifth time in 2018. A total of 198 girls were able to take part in leisure activities, discover new talents and hobbies and work up their school material during 6 weeks. For example, in this year's Poetry Slam Workshop the girls have learned how to express themselves better and how to debate. In the Mobi-Cinema, they have been informed about human trafficking in Haiti with a short film and learned how to protect themselves.
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