Schools Not Slavery for Rural Haitian Children

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.

Links:

• Follow us on Instagram!
• Read our 4-Star Charity Navigator review.
• See videos about our work in Haiti on our YouTube page.

Thank you for your generous gift to the Schools Not Slavery initiative. We are grateful!

Your generous, kind, and thoughtful support is helping to build 16 Model Communities in rural Haiti, in which grassroots leaders are building social movements to ensure that:

• every child goes to a good, safe school, with well-trained teachers who encourage creativity, curiosity, and leadership;

• every adult is trained in and committed to protecting every child from slavery and abuse;

• every family can provide for themselves and live in economic security and stability; and,

• every woman and girl lives free from violence and exploitation, in a community that balances power between women and men.

Your support for these social movements in Model Communities on Lagonav Island is making a real difference in the lives of girls like 12-year-old Gardie*. She and her four sisters are in school thanks to your care and concern. “I love school because it taught me how to read and write,” Gardie said. “My favorite subjects are French and Creole.”

Children who don’t get the chance to go to school, either because their parents can’t afford tuition, books, and uniforms, or because the nearest school is too far away, are at far greater risk of being sent away to live with others and becoming trapped in slavery.

Your support for Schools Not Slavery is changing this for Gardie and so many more boys and girls like her, protecting her from slavery, ensuring she can go to a good school, helping her family develop the means to earn a living, and organizing her community to balance power between women and men.

Thank you again for all that you are making possible for vulnerable children like Gardie and their families.

* We've changed her name to protect her privacy.

Building the Movement to End Child Slavery

Your gift to the Schools Not Slavery initiative supports innovative work to challenge social norms and transform prevailing attitudes and behaviors that endanger children. Through extensive training programs, engaged dialogue, and community organizing, hundreds of adults in 16 communities on Lagonav Island are mobilized to become Child Rights Activists who build neighborhood Child Protection Brigades that raise awareness and advocate for the rights of children, intervene to protect children being enslaved and abused, and link children and families to child protection services.

Your generosity is also supporting the expansion of a nationwide network of more than 900 Adult Survivors of Child Slavery, who gather in their communities for peer support, healing and solidarity and to use their voices to advocate for change. These survivors also work to raise awareness among neighbors about the rights of children and intervene to protect children, specifically those being held in child domestic servitude and those in need of protection and family reunification services.

In the first three months of 2019, 26 children were freed, reunited with their families, and enrolled in school, thanks to your generous support and the courage and determination of the Child Protection Brigades and the Adult Survivors of Child Slavery Network.

Building the Movement to Guarantee Universal Access to Quality Primary Education

Walk in to any of the 25 schools in our Schools Not Slavery network on Lagonav Island and you'll see how your gift is supporting the expansion of a nonviolent, native language, participatory approach to classroom management designed to encourage creativity, curiosity, and leadership among students.

In the school year that just ended, more than 3,000 students on Lagonav Island were taught by teachers using this methodology -- a methodology proven to deliver student reading scores that are nearly three times higher than the national average in Haiti.

Thanks to your generous support, Minose and Edzer are two of more than 100 teachers being trained in this approach to classroom management. 

"I always thought that hitting was the only way to control your classroom, even though I was afraid to do it" said Minose, a second-grade teacher. "When I was a student, the teachers hit us, and I was afraid of certain teachers," she said. "But I've come to understand that there's no place for violence in the classroom, thanks to this training."

Edzer, also a second-grade teacher, said that the nonviolent approach to classroom management that he's using has changed the way his students feel about school. "Students aren't afraid to come to school anymore. They like to come to school. They share their thoughts and their dreams now," he said. "In this way, we're forming good citizens for our country's future."

Building the Movement to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls

There's some wonderful news to share: beginning July 1, 2019, Beyond Borders will join with seven other organizations in Haiti to launch the Haitian Coalition for the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls.

Thanks to your support for the development of our grassroots, community-based approach to preventing gender-based violence, Beyond Borders and seven other organizations successfully secured a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the NoVo Foundation for this new coalition. The goal is to scale up the work to change social norms around violence against women and girls (VAWG) while also strengthening the capacity of coalition-member organizations to be change-makers in their communities.

The coalition-member organizations will receive funding to implement two groundbreaking efforts to prevent VAWG that your generous support has made possible:

• SASA!, the three-year community-based initiative to prevent VAWG developed by Raising Voices in Uganda and adapted for Haiti by Beyond Borders; and,
• Power To Girls, the school and community-based toolkit created by Beyond Borders to end VAWG in schools and empower girls to help lead the process of balancing power between women and men and girls and boys.

Your generous support makes these kinds of innovative initiatives possible, and further expands the movement to prevent VAWG across Haiti. Thank you!

Building the Movement for Sustainable Livelihoods

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.

Families work with their life coach to identify and track specific, achievable economic goals like starting a small business, creating their own savings account, and investing in a community-based savings and loan.

Community S&L groups promote solidarity among neighbors and provide each family with a greater measure of economic security, serving as a resource in an emergency or helping families to increase their purchasing power to grow their new businesses.

The economic success and independence that families achieve is a huge boost to their self-confidence -- confidence that will sustain them when they face future challenges and uncertainties.

Through your support, you are giving families a path to a brighter economic future, filled with dignity, hope, and opportunity. Thank you again for your generosity, your care, and your concern.

Thank You Again!

Because of your generosity and solidarity, Beyond Borders sees in these 16 Model Communities, the seed for a new world, a world where people overcome great challenges by learning to question, dream and act together. A world where women and men find more power by balancing power equally. A world where families and communities thrive on foundations of trust and mutual respect. A world where diversity is seen as a sign of strength. A world where all children grow up surrounded by people who love, nurture, and educate them. A world where we all find deeper meaning and shared liberation. Thank you for bringing this world closer to becoming a reality in Haiti.

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:

• Read about our commitment to accountability and transparency.
• Follow us on Facebook for the latest news from Haiti.
• Watch our newest video on Power to Girls in School!