Child Protection Haiti Project #10264

Schools Not Slavery

by Beyond Borders

Project Report | Apr 16, 2015
Help Free & Educate a Child in Haiti

By Brian Stevens | Operations and Communications Director

Schools Not Slavery

Education is Every Child’s Right

Every child has the right to a quality education, with well-trained teachers who care for and respect them. Here’s how we’re working to make this a reality and what you can do.

Transforming Teaching

Students who are encouraged to be curious, think critically and work together to solve problems will be better prepared to be tomorrow’s leaders. We train teachers in every one of the 35 schools in our network to use participatory, non-violent methods in the classroom.

Building Parental Leadership

Parental leadership in schools fosters accountability, transparency and a commitment to high quality education for all children. We train parents to play a leadership role in their child’s school.

Creating Lasting Change

Schools that are better organized, more inclusive, participatory and accountable lead to stronger, healthier communities. By training teachers and parents to emphasize democracy, accountability and transparency in schools, we’re helping transform how communities think about education and leadership.

Nearly Three Times Better

We use an approach to education that is proven to be nearly three times better than traditional methods. A 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that student reading skills at the Matènwa Community Learning Center - our partners who pioneered this approach - were nearly three times better than the national average.

You Are More Powerful Than You Think

The success we’ve seen simply wouldn’t be possible without your generous support. Here’s how you can make an immediate impact in the life of a student:

Teacher Training - Your gift ensures that every classroom is led by a well-trained teacher, who is committed to turning out better educated and better prepared students.

Textbook Banks - Imagine going to school but not being able to afford a textbook. Your gift ensures a textbook for every student.

Tuition Matching - Sometimes parents need a little extra help paying their child’s tuition. Your gift ensures that parents can fully cover their child’s school fees.

School Gardens - Your gift ensures that a school in our network has a thriving school garden that feeds students and teaches them important agricultural skills.

Accelerated Education - Nearly 50% of children aren’t in school because their families can’t afford it. Your gift enrolls children who didn’t start school on time in our accelerated education program, helping them catch-up to their grade level.

Schools Not Slavery

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Dec 30, 2014
Nearly three times better!

By David Diggs | Director, Beyond Borders

It’s not often that you can do something nearly three times better than it’s being done … but that’s exactly what’s happening in Haiti right now.

You see, our Schools Not Slavery campaign doesn’t just stop kids from becoming enslaved, it gets them into schools that are learning to deploy a model of education that has been proven to be three times more effective than traditional Haitian schools.

This approach to education was pioneered in Haiti by our long-time Haitian partner school, the Matènwa Community Learning Center. A recent MIT study compared Matènwa students with students in a sample of 84 other Haitian schools and determined that the Matènwa students had reading scores nearly three times better than the national average.

This success is starting to get a lot of attention. Earlier this week Public Radio International featured the work of the Matènwa school on their daily news program The World, broadcast on public radio stations across the country. You can listen to the story by clicking here.

A portion of your gift to the Schools Not Slavery campaign helps train teachers and spread the Matènwa model to 25 schools in communities where children are most at risk of falling in to slavery.

And if you give before the end of 2014, your gift will not only be matched (up to $60,000), but 100% of the gift we receive will go to support our work with these schools. That’s because other private donors and foundations are covering our operating expenses and putting up the matching funds. They really believe in this work and want us to reach our goal.

But we can’t do it without you. As of today we’ve raised the funds to support 13 of these 25 schools. Will you help us make our goal?

So, please don’t wait. Give now to unleash all kinds of wonderful things in the lives of some of our world’s most disadvantaged children in 2015.

Thank you so much,

David Diggs,
Director, Beyond Borders

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May 30, 2013
School Not Slavery Update

By Brian Stevens | Operations Director

Help keep kids in school & out of slavery.

As many as 250,000 children in Haiti - most of them girls - live in a modern form of slavery called restavèk.

Beyond Borders is working to end child slavery in 2 ways:

Our No Child a Slave campaign trains adults to protect and defend the rights of all children; AND our School Not Slavery campaign ensures rural kids most at-risk of being sent in to slavery go to school instead.

No Child a Slave

Training adults to know and act to protect the rights of children is key to keeping kids safe and out of slavery. Since 2010, Beyond Borders has trained more than 3,000 adults in Haiti to be Child Rights Activists. These activists form Child Protection Committees in their neighborhoods that work to:

Stop Child Abuse & Exploitation
Challenge Attitudes that Tolerate Child Slavery
Act as a Safe Haven for Children who Run Away from Child Slavery
Connect Children who Escape Slavery with Police & Child Protective Services

43 Child Protection Committees exist in rural and urban neighborhoods across Haiti, and 53 more will launch this year.

School Not Slavery

We also know that one of the best ways to keep kids out of slavery is to keep them in school. That's why we're overjoyed to report that:

This school year we helped our partners in rural southeast Haiti launch 11 Accelerated Education classrooms that specialize in teaching kids who've missed school or have never been enrolled
More than 160 kids are enrolled this year, most of whom were either at risk for being sent away into household slavery or were rescued from slavery by parents who now rejoice to have their children back home
Last school year 146 previously unschooled children received an education thanks to School Not Slavery

We can do so much more to end child slavery with your help!

We can expand our No Child a Slave child rights training to new communities and we can keep more kids in school with our School Not Slavery campaign.

While we are deactivating this campaign page on the Global Giving website, our No Child a Slave and School Not Slavery campaigns continue. Please visit our website: www.beyondborders.net to learn more. Thank you for your support!

Links:

Visit our website to learn more!

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