Schools Not Slavery for Rural Haitian Children

462 Children Freed, 40,000 Abolitionists Trained, Thanks to You

Thanks to the generosity of supporters like you, since 2010 more than 40,000 Child Rights Activists – modern-day abolitionists – have been trained and mobilized in more than 100 rural communities and urban neighborhoods to build the movement to end child slavery in Haiti. In that time, these abolitionists have accompanied 462 children to escape slavery, return to their families, and enroll in school. Thank you!

Seven New Communities Achieve Slavery-Free Status in 2018

Your support also made it possible for seven new communities on Lagonav Island to achieve the status of ‘Zero Restavèk’ (Zero Child Slavery) communities in 2018, in which no child is enslaved or sent away from home, and every child is enrolled in a high-quality school.

Loudia is Free, Safe, and Enrolled in a Good School

Nine-year-old Loudia lives in Chenkontan, one of the seven new slavery-free communities. Thanks to you, Loudia is free, safe, and enrolled in Mount of Olives School, one of 25 schools in Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery Network. Your gift supports innovative initiatives in all 25 of these schools, including nonviolent, native language, participatory classroom management training for teachers and training for teachers, students, and their parents in how to plant and maintain robust school gardens.

Loudia, who is in the fourth grade at Mount of Olives, told us her favorite subject is math and that she dreams of becoming a nurse one day.

Isn’t this what we want for every child, the opportunity to grow-up free, safe, and enrolled in a good school where they can realize their dreams? Your generosity is making dreams like this possible for boys and girls like Loudia. Thank you again!

Adult Survivor Network Grows to More Than 900 Members

Donors like you are also making it possible to expand the network of adult survivors of child slavery in Haiti. Survivors support one another, raise awareness among neighbors about the dangers of the restavèk (child slavery) practice, and intervene to help children access protection and family reunification services.

With your support, survivors are stepping up to bring their important voices and experiences to the movement to end child slavery. Villien and Jessica are two of more than 900 adult survivors from three regions who are organizing at the local, regional, and national levels.

Villien said: “As survivors, it’s our duty to protect children from slavery. This is our message: don’t mistreat any child living with you. Send every child living with you to school. Care for every child living with you as if they were your own children.”

And Jessica told us: “I’ve taken part in advocacy and child rights training. We’ve identified a number of children in our community who were enslaved, and we’ve accompanied them so that they could be free and return to their families.”

Community-Based Movement-Building to End Child Slavery Expands

Your gift supports the expansion of community-based movement-building efforts to end child slavery across Haiti, including training and mobilizing new adult and youth abolitionists in urban neighborhoods and rural communities to end the enslavement of children as household servants, a practice that affects one in eight Haitian children.

For these children, going to school is a dream unfulfilled. Schools are far away or cost too much. Extreme poverty and hunger leads many parents to conclude they have no choice but to send their children away to live with another family, with the hope that this family will care for and enroll their children in school. Instead, children are abused and forced to work endlessly.

Abolitionists trained by Beyond Borders with your support both free children already enslaved and prevent thousands more from becoming enslaved by educating adults about child rights through door-to-door visits and by organizing large, public assemblies designed to reach the general population.

Your gift is also supporting the development of municipal advocacy units, made up of abolitionists trained by Beyond Borders and members of other organizations that support the movement to end child slavery.

Keeping Kids Safe by Lifting Families Out of Poverty

Your generosity also supports Beyond Borders’ Family Sponsorship Program, which empowers families to rise from poverty to independence with dignity. In Haiti, 24% of the population lives in abject poverty, earning less than US$1.23 per day. More than 6 million (59%) live below the national poverty line, earning less than US$2.41 per day. In rural villages, conditions are exacerbated by poor infrastructure and distance from services such as health care and education.

Empowering families to escape extreme poverty greatly impacts children, who are at great risk of being sent away to live with other families by impoverished parents who can’t provide for them or send them to school.

During the 18-month Family Sponsorship Program, families receive cash subsidies for the first six months, weekly coaching visits throughout, and two productive assets (farm animals, or the goods to start a small store) that they can use to generate new, sustainable income. Intensive training teaches participants how to manage their new assets, start saving, and generate increasing levels of family income and security.

Families graduate from the program once they are able to provide for themselves, and keep all their children at home and enrolled in school. In 2018, 229 families graduated from the program.

With support from people like you, we’ll begin work with a new cohort of 110 families in January 2019. You can learn more about the program on our website: http://beyondborders.net/become-a-family-sponsor/

The Goal: Every Child Grows Up at Home, Free, Safe, and in School

With your support, communities are building the movement to end child slavery, increasing their capacity to resist slavery and achieve the goal of ensuring that every child grows up at home, free, safe, and in school, surrounded by a loving family and community. Your support makes you part of this abolitionist movement too!

Thank You Again!

Thank you again for your generous support. We are deeply grateful for all that you are making possible for vulnerable families and children in rural Haiti If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please feel free to contact Beyond Borders’ Donor Engagement Director Brian Stevens at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net.

Links:

• See how our Family Sponsorship Program changes lives.
• Check out our 3-minute Schools Not Slavery video.
• [Google Map] See the schools in our Schools Not Slavery network.

We are Grateful for Your Generous Support!

Thank you so much for your generous support for Schools Not Slavery! We are deeply honored by your commitment to partner with us to keep children free, safe, and in school.

The 2018-2019 School Year Is Underway

The 2018-2019 school year is well underway on Lagonav Island and thanks to you, girls and boys in 16 rural communities are growing up free, safe, and enrolled in quality schools.

Fourth graders Nadia, Ruth, and Clarancia are excited to be back in school. Because of your support, they are learning in classrooms where teachers are trained in nonviolent, participatory, native language classroom management techniques that encourage curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in every student.

“I want to be a pharmacist,” Ruth told a recent visitor. “And I want to work with computers,” Clarancia said eagerly. Not to be outdone, Nadia quickly added: “I want to be a nurse!”

Protecting Nadia, Ruth, and Clarancia from Slavery

Your gift to Schools Not Slavery supports a host of school and community-based initiatives that work together to prevent children like Nadia, Ruth, and Clarancia from being enslaved and ensure that they grow up in homes and communities where they are loved, protected, and educated.

Your support for Schools Not Slavery is equipping parents, teachers, school directors, religious and other grassroots leaders to organize and transform their communities to stop the flow of children from the countryside to the city, where they risk becoming enslaved, to end violence and inequality against women and girls, and to ensure that even the very poorest families can earn a dignified living.

Your Support Expands Training for Grassroots Leaders

Each year, with support from people like you, Beyond Borders expands the Schools Not Slavery initiative to reach more rural communities and schools on Lagonav Island. The Schools Not Slavery initiative’s five year arc of intervention in these communities includes organizing, training, and equipping grassroots leaders with the skills they need to:

−Free and reunite children with their families,
−Keep other children from becoming enslaved,
−Step up to protect children from violence,
−Help parents and guardians use nonviolent methods to raise children,
−Enroll children in quality schools with well-trained teachers,
−Lift families out of extreme poverty,
−Balance power between women and men, and
−Step up to stop violence against women, at home and in society.

To realize these ambitious goals, in all 16 communities where the Schools Not Slavery initiative is working on Lagonav Island, Beyond Borders is using a suite of interventions designed in part and led by grassroots Haitian leaders. Many of these tools are proven globally and in Haiti to create change that is sustainable well beyond its initial introduction in a community. By empowering communities to transform themselves using these tools, we ensure local ownership that last well after the five year Schools Not Slavery initiative is complete in a community.

Empowerment Strategies Made Possible by Your Support

Here is a look at some of the strategies used to empower schools and communities and to strengthen families -- strategies made possible by your generous support for the Schools Not Slavery initiative:

Open Space: A participatory approach to collective decision-making used to facilitate town hall-style meetings to encourage reflection, exchange, shared leadership, and local initiative.

Education is a Conversation: This child rights training program uses stories gleaned from ethnographic interviews to help participants examine root causes of violence against children. In 22 weekly sessions, participants examine physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of children, parental responsibility, and activism. Participants practice intervention skills through role-play exercises.

Child Protection Brigades: Volunteer committees become lifelines for children needing protection services. Brigades raise awareness, intervene to protect children, and help children access protective services, including family reunification.

Adult Survivors’ Network: Adult survivors of child domestic slavery participate in neighborhood groups to find solidarity and healing, and to use their voices to make change.

Accelerated Education: Specialized classes help unschooled youth recapture six years of primary school content through an intensive three-year program.

Tuition Matching: Provides schools with financial stability to support operations and pay staff.

Textbook Banks: Provides Creole-language textbooks to students for minimal rental fees.

Adult Agro-Literacy Education: Illiteracy is a key obstacle to dignified livelihoods. Classes introduce sustainable agriculture techniques while building basic literacy, financial and entrepreneurial skills.

School and Family Gardens: School gardens create experiential learning, serve as laboratories for sustainable agricultural practices, and improve nutrition of school lunches. Outreach supports families to plant home vegetable gardens.

SASA!: A community mobilization approach to prevent violence against women and HIV. Created by Raising Voices in Uganda, the methodology cuts the risk of partner violence in half. In 2015, Beyond Borders completed the adaptation and pilot of SASA! for Haiti. SASA! is both a Kiswahili word meaning “now” and an acronym for its four phases: (S)tart, (A)wareness, (S)upport, and (A)ction.

Asset-Based Poverty Reduction Program: By employing a graduation model, over the course of 18-months Beyond Borders is able to train, support, invest in, and mentor each family, ensuring that they are able to sustain themselves even through challenges. Families receive cash subsidies, dignified housing, healthcare, weekly coaching visits, and a small business, usually livestock. Graduates are supported by Village Committees made up of local residents who volunteer to serve in solidarity with their neighbors.

Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA): Groups of people save together and take small loans from those savings. Beyond Borders has recently introduced this strategy with the Adult Survivors’ Network and Child Protection Brigades.

Families Empowered to Lift Themselves Out of Extreme Poverty

Marie-Ange and her family were one of the very poorest families in their community. They were selected to take part in Beyond Borders’ 18-month anti-poverty initiative made possible in part by Schools Not Slavery supporters like you.

The integrated investments they received as part of the program included building materials for a sturdy new home and a sanitary latrine, the choice of two productive assets (animals or the goods to start a small business) that allowed the family to begin earning an income, a water filter to ensure they had access to clean water, and training in animal husbandry and basic business skills.

The weekly coaching they received provided ongoing training and encouragement, helped them resolve issues, and showed them how to begin to save and plan for the future. To ensure that they didn’t prematurely sell their livestock to respond to a crisis or hunger, they were provided a small weekly stipend (less than $6 US) for six months and free healthcare.

Soon, the goats and pig they chose as their two assets gave birth to piglets and kids, which they sold to earn money for other expenses.

In September 2018, Marie-Ange and her family graduated from the program and now they are able to meet all their basic needs for food, shelter, clean water, health care and education, and save money -- even buying more animals.

Two-hundred and twenty-nine families have successfully completed the 18-month program on Lagonav Island since its launch in October 2016. Later this fall, we hope to begin work with 110 new families. You can learn more about the program on our website: http://beyondborders.net/rise/

"Life has changed for me now," Marie-Ange said. "I am not the same person anymore."

Thank You Again!

Thank you again for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery initiative. We are deeply grateful for all that you are making possible for vulnerable families and children in rural Haiti

If you have any questions about what you read in this report, please feel free to contact Beyond Borders’ Donor Relations Director Brian Stevens at (305) 450-2561 or b.stevens@beyondborders.net. 

Links:

• Check out a new video on our 18-month anti-poverty initiative.
• We've earned Charity Navigator's highest rating: 4 Stars.
• Get the latest from Haiti on our Facebook page.

• Read Beyond Borders Fall 2018 Newsletter (PDF)
  

Thank You for Your Generous Support!

Thank you again for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery Initiative in the 2017-2018 school year. We are so grateful!

We are deeply honored by your commitment to partner with us to keep children free, safe, and in school.

Since 2014, Schools Not Slavery supporters like you have helped parents to find and free more than 300 children from slavery, and ensure that they have access to a high-quality school in their community. You’ve also prevented thousands more from becoming enslaved through your generosity.

Thank you for all that you do to promote liberty, dignity, and hope for children and families in rural Haiti.

The Coming School Year on Lagonav Island

This fall, all across America, young children will sharpen their pencils, crack open fresh new notebooks, and head back to school. For many rural Haitian children though, going to school is a dream unfulfilled.

Children who are too poor to go to school are being sent away to cities. But instead of being sent to school, many get trapped in a life of servitude -- a modern form of child slavery called restavèk.

But in rural communities on Lagonav Island, people like you are helping to change this story.

Thanks to you, vulnerable boys and girls are in school, not enslaved.

Your continued support ensures that children grow up at home, where they belong, in a community that loves, protects, and educates them.

What You Made Possible for Girls and Boys This Past School Year

Your generous gift ensured continued access to quality education for rural, impoverished children, many of whom are among the most at risk of being trafficked to cities as household slaves, or restavèks.

Your support for Schools Not Slavery made it possible for teachers at 25 schools on Lagonav Island to be trained in a nonviolent, native language, participatory approach to classroom management that is not found in most traditional public and private schools. It includes the following five elements:

1. Native Language Instruction - Students are taught in Haitian Creole - the language they speak at home - instead of French, a language students rarely encounter in their daily lives. Once students are literate in their native language, schools introduce French as a second language.
2. Participatory Approach to Classroom Instruction - Rote memorization of French-language textbooks is the basis of instruction in most classrooms in Haiti. Your gift supported a participatory-based approach to learning, which is meant to foster intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills among students. Rather than simply copying, memorizing and parroting back lessons in French, students write their own stories in Haitian Creole about their own lives and share them with each other. The approach, first brought to Haiti by our primary education partner on Lagonav Island - the Matènwa Community Learning Center - is  known throughout Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery network as the ‘Mother Tongue’ program. Teachers also decorated the walls of their classrooms with the work of their students.
3. Education Rooted in Rural Life  - Your gift is supporting an approach in which teachers are rethinking the traditional approach to education in Haiti that has largely shunned any classroom connection with rural life and agriculture. By integrating agriculture into the classroom curriculum, teachers teach skills and develop habits that students will need to thrive and build better lives for themselves where they live, without having to migrate to the city. School gardens teach students agricultural science and mathematics, including techniques to improve yield and mitigate drought driven by climate change. Vegetables grown are used in daily school meal programs, with excess food sold in the market, helping students learn to manage money. Families are also encouraged to plant their own vegetable gardens at home.
4. Non-Violent Classroom Management - Authoritarian classroom management enforced via corporal punishment, shaming and humiliation is the norm in Haitian classrooms. Your gift supported the training of teachers in a non-violent classroom management approach that aims to teach students leadership and democracy by empowering them to develop class rules. Teachers then hold students accountable to the standards that they themselves established.
5. Textbook Banks - Students at all 25 schools had the textbooks that they needed, thanks to your support. Students borrowed books on a sliding scale fee, according to their ability to pay. The bank ensured that no student went without a textbook this past school year.

In addition to these five elements, your Schools Not Slavery gift supported staff salaries, and these activities at schools in our network:

Annual Third Grade Reading Assessment – Schools conducted a third grade reading assessment to determine the level of progress students are making in reading. The test assesses the main skills that are known to predict reading success within the early grades of primary school.

Parental Engagement Strategy – Parents at every school were invited to parent-teacher gatherings at which they were invited to provide feedback, share their own priorities for their child’s education, and ask for help in how best to support their child’s education. Your gift supported a day-long ‘Open Space Gathering’ for parents. They met with teachers and the school director for a day-long session in which the agenda was determined entirely by the participants of the meeting, a strategy designed to build parental ownership at schools.

Additional Material, Seeds, and Technical Support for the School Garden – Seed and tool banks, training in composting, natural pest management, live fencing, and rainwater catchment irrigation for students, families and the larger community around each school in our network were all made possible by your support.

Salaries and Benefits for School Staff, Teacher Trainers, and Agricultural Technicians – Your gift  also supported a portion of the salaries and benefits for staff at each school and the teacher trainers and agricultural technicians who are building the capacity of teachers at the school.

Preventing Violence Against Women & Girls and Lifting Families Out of Extreme Poverty

Your gift to Schools Not Slavery supports two other initiatives: Beyond Borders’ community-based program to prevent violence against women and girls -- Rethinking Power -- and an 18-month asset-building program designed to lift the very poorest families out of extreme poverty.

Lifting Families Out of Extreme Poverty

Families that are trapped in extreme poverty are the most likely to send their children away to the city to live with others, in the hope that it will mean a better life for their children. Often, those sent away become trapped in domestic slavery, abused, neglected, and never sent to school. Beyond Borders 18-month asset-building program accompanies the very poorest families as they develop the means to earn a living, provide for themselves, keep their children at home and in school, and escape extreme poverty. Your gift supports this effort. A total of 230 families on Lagonav Island took part in this program.

Rethinking Power

By addressing the root cause of violence against women and girls -- the imbalance in power between women and men in Haitian society -- Rethinking Power is leading people through an examination of their own power and how they use it. Working with civic and religious leaders, educators, and people from all walks of life -- from moto-taxi drivers to sellers in the local market -- Rethinking Power is implementing a methodology proven to reduce intimate partner violence community-wide by 52%. Your support makes the work of Rethinking Power possible.

Thank You Again!

We are so grateful for your generous support for Schools Not Slavery, and we are deeply honored that you chose to invest in the work of Beyond Borders on Lagonav Island. If you have any questions about this update, please call or email Brian Stevens, Beyond Borders’ Donor Relations Director, anytime at: b.stevens@beyondborders.net, or (305) 450-2561.

Links:

• We are rated a 4-Star Charity by Charity Navigator.
• See photos & stories direct from Haiti on our Facebook page.
• Check out our latest videos on YouTube.

Thank You for Your Generous Support

Thank you for your generous support for Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery Initiative. We are so grateful for all that you are making possible for vulnerable children and families in Haiti.

I’m writing to you from Lagonav Island, where for three weeks I’ve travelled around to schools and communities to see firsthand what’s happening thanks to the generosity of supporters like you.

I’ve met with school directors, teachers, child rights activists, adult survivors of child slavery, adult literacy teachers, women and men organizing to prevent violence against women and girls, and families that are working to lift themselves out of poverty.

Each is playing a unique role, but all share the same vision for Haiti: a nation free of child slavery and violence against women and girls; a nation in which every child goes to a good school; a nation no longer dependent on handouts, a nation where dignified work feeds the souls and bodies of every citizen.

Your generosity is what makes their work and their pursuit of this shared vision possible.

I wanted to share with you a few of the photos and stories of those I met, so that you could see for yourself what you are making possible here.

Thank you again for your generous support for Schools Not Slavery!

Nonviolent, Native Language, Participatory Teacher Training

Nine-year-old Stephanie, a student at St. Barthelemy in the village of Nan Mango, told me, “My favorite subject is social science and when I grow up I want to be a doctor. I love my school and my teacher.”

Thanks to Schools Not Slavery supporters like you, 2,392 students like Stephanie at 25 schools are taught using nonviolent, participatory methods rooted in rural life - like school gardens - that encourage creativity, democracy, leadership, and service.

Authoritarian classroom management enforced via corporal punishment, shaming and humiliation is often the norm in Haitian classrooms. Your Schools Not Slavery gift supports a nonviolent classroom management approach that aims to teach students leadership and democracy by empowering them to develop class rules and manage their own behavior.

Teachers hold students accountable to the standards that they themselves established. The approach gives students the opportunity to practice democracy rather than simply be responsive to authoritarian rule.

Stephanie’s teacher, Marie-Love, 22, said that since taking part in Beyond Borders’ sponsored teacher training, she and her fellow teachers at St. Bart’s have embraced a nonviolent, participatory approach to classroom management. “My classroom is organized around principles now - not the paddle. The students listen better and there are fewer disruptions. Children are more comfortable in the classroom now.” 

Your Schools Not Slavery gift is also supporting an approach to learning in which students are taught in Haitian Creole - the language they speak at home - instead of French, a language students rarely encounter in their daily lives. Once students are literate in their native language, schools introduce French as a second language.

Rigo, 48, is the director at St. Barthelemy School. He told us that the trainings that teachers like Marie-Love have received thanks to Schools Not Slavery have transformed the quality of education at his school. “Teachers are better prepared. Their lessons are better prepared, they teach better in the classroom. Teachers don’t hit students anymore.” 

His counterpart Maurice, 43, at Miks Emayis School agrees. “Our teachers weren’t well trained. Since we became part of the Beyond Borders school network, our students and teachers have much more capacity and we’ve improved our performance. As the school has improved, more parents are sending their children here. We have 111 children enrolled this year. In years past, before we joined the school network, we would struggle to enroll even 50 students.”

Mother Tongue Books Encourage Intellectual Curiosity & Critical Thinking

Romelin, 34, is a second grade teacher at the Miks Emayis School in Gransous. Your Schools Not Slavery gift helped to train 100 teachers like Romelin. 

Your support is also helping teachers like Romelin to introduce the Mother Tongue Book Program in their classrooms.

This participatory-based approach is meant to foster intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills among students. Rather than simply copying, memorizing and parroting back lessons in French, students write their own stories in Haitian Creole about their own lives and share them with each other.

“This is a beautiful initiative,” Romelin said. “They love writing their own books. Their spirits are more open. Even their handwriting is better.”

School Gardens Integrate Rural Life into Classrooms

At the Wesleyan School in Nan Mango, I visited with students as they worked in the school garden. Thanks to supporters like you, Wesleyan and all 25 schools in Beyond Borders’ Schools Not Slavery network are rethinking the traditional approach to education in Haiti that has largely shunned any classroom connection with rural life and agriculture.

By integrating agriculture into the classroom curriculum, we aim to teach skills and develop habits that students will need to thrive and build better lives for themselves where they live, without having to migrate to the city.

School gardens teach students agricultural science and mathematics, including techniques to improve yield and mitigate drought driven by climate change. Vegetables grown are used in daily school meal programs, with excess food sold in the market, helping students learn to manage money too.

Adult Survivors of Child Slavery Organizing to Protect Children

In the communities of Tikoma and Gransous, I met with the local chapters of Beyond Borders’ Adult Survivors of Child Slavery Network. These courageous survivors have received training in how to help families keep their children at home instead of sending them away, which puts children at great risk of becoming enslaved.

The survivors’ chapters work closely with the local Beyond Borders’ sponsored-Child Protection Brigades in their community too. They are dedicated to ensuring that no child ever suffers what they did.

Yvrose, 48, is a mother of two girls and three boys, and a member of the Tikoma chapter. “My parents sent me to live with my uncle when I was 10. They had many children that they wanted me to take care of. They beat me and yanked my ear when they were mad at me. I ran away at age 13. I’m doing this because I wanted to share my story so that no family in Tikoma sends their child away.”

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:

• Interactive Map of Beyond Borders' Schools Not Slavery Network
• Visit Our Blog: From Child Trafficker to Child Rights Activist
• We are committed to financial accountability & transparency

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.