Update on the humanitarian crisis

Haiti is facing a severe humanitarian crisis. In the capital, Port-au-Prince, over 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to armed violence and rising insecurity. As a result, many people, especially children, are displaced and living in overcrowded, unsafe conditions with limited access to basic services like healthcare, education, and clean water.

The violence in the capital has also affected other parts of the country, including the South—where LFBS is located. While the South of Haiti is not as affected by direct violence, the sudden surge in displacement has put tremendous strain on already limited resources—schools, healthcare facilities, and shelter options are stretched thin, and local communities are struggling to meet the growing demand for aid. Crippling inflation has also caused an extremely high cost of living, and most people don’t have the financial means to keep up. Children are especially vulnerable in these conditions, facing heightened risks of malnutrition and exploitation, which threatens their future opportunities and well-being.

Despite such challenging circumstances, we are grateful to share that the LFBS team and our partners in Southern Haiti have been able to continue working. The needs have certainly increased, making our work even more critical at this time. Thankfully, schools are continuing to operate in areas outside of Port-au-Prince, providing a minimum sense of stability, normalcy and hope to children who are able to attend. Our work to reconnect former street children with their families ensures these children are not recruited into gangs, and instead are contributing members of their communities. In addition to all of the heartbreaking and inhumane actions happening in the country, there are also many positive initiatives taking place in Haiti. Each positive action and impact creates hope for a better future, and maintains a sense of humanity. We thank you for being a part in allowing LFBS to do so.

Your support enables us to meet escalating needs and restore hope, both during this difficult period and for the long term.

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LFBS Recent Impact and Activities

As of November 2024, LFBS is actively working with 242 children (103 girls and 139 boys) across all of our programs.

Family tracing, mediation, and reunification

World Children’s Day

Leading up to World Children’s Day, the LFBS team has been busy preparing for and facilitating our Street Child Meeting and Parent Training.

During this event, both parents of former street children and children currently living in the streets were informed about LFBS objectives. Our staff explained the importance of family in a child’s upbringing, children’s rights as well as the role of the parents in violence prevention. IBESR and other partners assisted in documenting each child and providing psychosocial support through various activities. The street children who participated in this meeting were much younger than usual, demonstrating the heartbreaking results of extreme inflation as families struggle to provide for their children. To provide parents with more resources to generate income, LFBS also facilitated a training session for parents of former street children to demonstrate how to make laundry detergent from scratch which they can both use and sell.

Following this meeting, four children who were sleeping in the streets were placed in our transitional safehouse and our team is currently working on tracing their families. So far, one family has already been located and our team is in the process of reuniting this family. The mother and father of this child were overwhelmed with emotion when our team found them, and broke into tears as they were so happy to learn of their son’s whereabouts.

Collaboration with UNICEF for Orphanage Closures

LFBS is proud to announce that we have partnered with UNICEF and Haitian Social Services (IBESR) on a new project working towards the reunification of children from two orphanages in the Nippes region, inclusive of providing follow-up support to the children and their families. The official start date of the project was October 1st 2024, and official end date will be September 30th 2025.

On October 16th, our team and IBESR-Nippes (Haitian Social Services for the region in which the project is being facilitated) co-hosted an official opening ceremony for the project, informing other child protection partners in the region about this initiative. On the same day, our team had a work session with the IBESR-Nippes team to ensure that everyone has a thorough understanding of the project objectives, timeline, and each member's role within the project's success. Afterwards, our team began counseling the children currently located in the orphanages, gathering information about their families, and we have commenced family tracing and evaluation efforts.

Education & Vocational Training

School is back in session

In September & October, at the start of the new academic year, our team has been very focused on continuing to provide vulnerable children with access to education. Because of severe inflation, the cost of school tuition and supplies has increased significantly, which also means that access to education is more difficult for families. Additional challenges were presented this year as the closure of schools in Port-au-Prince due to gang violence displaced thousands of children, forcing them to flee to other parts of Haiti, causing a significant strain on educational services of schools in more rural areas.

Our support includes providing students in our programs with backpacks, school books, uniforms (hand-sewn), and making payments for tuition fees. Making tuition payments requires that our team travels to all communities in which we intervene, as we make payments directly to each school. Supplies purchased not only support children’s access to education but also invest in the local economy! We purchase backpacks, school books, and material for uniforms from local vendors, whilst seamstresses in each community are hired to sew the uniforms. Attending school also offers students and their families a sense of stability amidst the stress and political instability in the country.

Income Generation Opportunities

Business Start-Up

LFBS extends our heartfelt thanks to the Rotary Club of Barrie, who has provided funding for 10 more participants to enter our business start-up programming in 2025! This will provide 10 families with the financial means, technical support and consistent follow-up from our team to empower them to begin and build an income generating activity! This program is incredibly important as it ensures that the support LFBS provides is sustainable and does not create a dependency but instead empowers parents to care for their own children.

10 families were integrated into our business start-up program in 2024, thanks to the generous support of the Whitby Rotary Club, and we are thrilled that this vital programming will be able to continue and benefit even more families in need, thanks to funding from another incredible Rotary partner.

The Rotary Club of Barrie is also providing funding toward our family tracing, mediation, and reunification program for the upcoming year, and we are so grateful for each and every member of the club who has shown such dedication, care, and compassion for the communities, families, and children we work with. This will ensure that children, such as the four former street children who have just been placed in our transitional safehouse, will be able to be reconnected with their families, reintegrated into their communities, and provided with the follow-up supports necessary to ensure long-term success.

Community Reinforcement

From July 2023 to July 2024, Haiti experienced an average inflation rate of 30%. The rate of inflation for food products was as high as 42.3% over the past year and the cost of access to medical care increased by an estimated 12.6%. As a result, fulfilling basic needs has become even more challenging for families who were already experiencing poverty. We are so grateful that our team is still able to operate and provide critical support–yet we are certainly seeing an increase in needs.

Medical support

LFBS has received many referrals from IBESR (Haitian Social Services) and other partners in numerous regions regarding children who are struggling to access urgently needed medical care. This is often due to a lack of financial means, but in most cases there are additional barriers such as lack of operational medical centers, scarcity of surgeons as so many have left the country, and insufficient transportation options to reach operational hospitals. Currently, many roads are being controlled by gangs and air evacuation options have become very limited. Nonetheless, LFBS and our partners always do all that is in our power to support these children in accessing care.

As of August 2024, LFBS is providing access to medical care and support for 207 children.

Community training in the prevention of violence and separation & promotion of community health and well-being

With the objective of reinforcing the capacity of the parents of children in LFBS programs (since parents are the primary entity responsible for children's education) the LFBS team plans continuous community dialogue sessions to discuss the themes of positive parenting and community engagement. These conversations allowed participating parents to embrace their responsibilities as parents and commit to becoming more engaged in their children's lives. Despite having weak economic means, through these conversations parents discovered many strategies and methods they can use to accompany and raise their children.

LFBS began these community trainings in the Spring of 2024, and concluded in late summer. During this time, the LFBS team facilitated 7 community trainings in 7 different communities, discussing positive parenting, community engagement, juvenile delinquency, and parental responsibility.

In total, through these 7 sessions, we reached 224 participants (154 women and 70 men).

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Holiday Gifts

Celebrate the holidays with LFBS by giving a symbolic gift to the children and families we work with in Haiti.

Little Footprints Big Steps’ Holiday Gifts campaign is back!

In Haiti, many people are already living in extremely vulnerable conditions. Factor in the high cost of living, rising violence, and economic insecurity, and the holidays do not always feel like a very cheerful time.

But you can help change that.

You can make a difference this holiday season through shopping our holiday gift collection and giving the gift of a safe home and hope to the children and families we work with.

How it works

Your gift is considered a tax deductible donation and you will receive a tax receipt via email.

If you would like to make a gift on behalf of a family member or friend, let us know when you complete the donation form. Your loved one will receive an email from LFBS wishing them a Happy Holiday season and thanking them for the gift you have made in their name.

Please allow up to one week for your loved one to receive their thank you note.

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Giving Tuesday

Donate through our holiday collection this Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday, the world’s largest generosity movement, is just around the corner!

On December 3rd, as part of this global day of giving, you can make a meaningful impact through our Holiday Gifts campaign. By choosing a symbolic gift from our collection, you’ll help provide safe homes, critical support, and hope to those facing tremendous hardship in Haiti.

Your donation is tax-deductible, and you can even make a gift in honor of a loved one—complete with a personalized thank you note. This holiday season, give the gift of hope and make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable families. Donate and help bring joy to those who need it most.

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Thank You!

Thank you for being a part of our incredible community of supporters and donors. Because of you, we are making real, impactful, and lasting changes in the lives of children, families, and communities. You are a partner in this work and we couldn’t do it without you. Thank you for your interest, support, and caring, and for being a catalyst for change.

Thank you for your shared commitment to our mission to protect vulnerable children in Haiti by reuniting families and empowering them with resources and opportunities to build a self-sufficient future.

Your November Activity Update

Update on the humanitarian crisis

LFBS Recent Impact and Activities