Programs

CHILD WELL-BEING AND DEVELOPMENT

1. Family Tracing, Mediation & Reunification

We work with local and national authorities to reunify separated children with their families or find alternative, community-based care. The children who are referred to LFBS by Haitian authorities are most often rescued from emergency situations, including corrupt and abusive institutions that authorities are shutting down, domestic slavery, and dangerous street conditions. Once we have traced a child’s family, our reunification process involves assessing the family’s overall state of vulnerability, and developing a plan for family strengthening. This requires making sure that a child has access to education, nutrition and medical care, but most importantly addressing the root cause of why that child was separated from his or her family in the first place, which for the majority of families is poverty.

Not all children can be reunited with their families immediately, so for those cases LFBS operates two transitional safehouses, one for boys and one for girls. Our transitional safehouses operate 24-hour a day and serve as a temporary placement to provide protection and healing. While in transition, our team of Haitian LFBS staff focuses on the children’s physical, mental and emotional well-being with medicine, nutrition, education, and loving care, all while working toward the goal of reuniting them with their families or placing them in long-term alternative care such as a foster family.

All of the children admitted to our safehouses are referred to us by local protection authorities. Beyond the immediate benefits for vulnerable children, the LFBS Transitional Safehouses reinforce the capacity for Haitian social services to react to emergency situations. In addition to providing a temporary placement for children, we provide the logistical support and resources to local authorities for family tracing, mediation, and reunification.

FAMILY & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

2. Education & Vocational Training

Our Education & Vocational Training programming provides support to children in primary and secondary school, right through to the post secondary level. It includes basic education support for school registration, tuition, uniforms, books, and literacy tutoring. Additionally, we provide older youth with vocational and trades training. We help coordinate apprenticeships and provide support with fees for practical training costs and required materials. When necessary, we support the medical, housing and nutritional needs of the children and youth in this program stream in order to ensure they can pursue their academic success without interruption.

FAMILY & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

3. Income Generation Opportunities

Addressing the root causes of separation involves a variety of programming initiatives to support Haitian families with training and resources to preserve the family unit and pursue self-sufficiency. Addressing the root cause of poverty requires empowering the parents to have a means of income generation to care for their children. LFBS runs two initiatives that promote income generation; our business start-up programming and agriculture and livestock farming programming

Business start-up

Our business start-up programming addresses family separation through supporting parents in the creation of income generating opportunities in their communities. Program participants are equipped with a small loan and the materials for the small business of their choosing, trained in financial literacy and business management, and set up with peer networks to foster peer support and learning. Participants then have the opportunity to test their small business over the program cycle, and make necessary adjustments with the support and feedback of LFBS program staff and their peer networks. LFBS continuously follows up with program participants to ensure that activities are proving to be successful and that the income generated is helping contribute toward providing for the needs of children.

Agricultural and livestock farming

Our agriculture and livestock farming programming promotes increased food security, personal health and well-being, and nutritional support. We equip program participants with seeds and/or livestock, and provide the tools, training, resources and materials necessary to grow varied food crops and care for their herd. This support enables our beneficiaries to not only increase their family’s personal food security, but also to sell produce and products at the market for income generation. By supporting families psychosocially and economically, we create lasting changes in the family's capacity to support themselves. Giving families and communities the tools and support to thrive reduces dependence on orphanages and promotes a path to sustainability.

FAMILY & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

4. Housing Assistance

Providing permanent, safe housing empowers families to build a self-sufficient future. When a child or family is referred to us by local authorities, we assess their overall state of vulnerability and work collaboratively to create a plan that empowers them with the resources and opportunities to strengthen the family unit. In cases where that plan includes housing, we work together with the family to determine the repairs or construction necessary. We assist in sourcing local materials and labour in an effort to support the Haitian economy, create employment opportunities, and ensure that our program benefits ripple outward toward the entire community

ADVOCACY OF CHILD RIGHTS, COMMUNITY HEALTH

5. Community Reinforcement

We believe healthy children live in healthy communities. We work holistically with entire communities to raise awareness and facilitate community training in the prevention of violence and separation and promotion of community health and well-being. Working together with local partners and authorities, we coordinate medical and mental health support, emergency interventions, and operations. We provide legal support for victims of sexual assault and other human rights violations, support local authorities' vision for deinstitutionalization, and help provide legal documents for children who don’t have them so that they can obtain birth certificates and other government ID.

ADVOCACY OF CHILD RIGHTS

6. Advocacy and Awareness Raising

We work with Haitian government agencies and international organizations to educate, promote and activate change for children, women, men and families who are prone to abuse and exploitation. LFBS has become a recognized champion and change-agent for human rights in Haiti and around the world.

The North American population is not well-educated about residential care realities. Given that private donors, small foundations, and NGOs represent 83% of funding to Haitian orphanages, there exists an urgent need to educate and mobilize organizations around the necessity to redirect funds from orphanages to family environments and to Haitian child protection authorities. We work to raise awareness about this and other child protection issues through events, public education, and campaigns that help to educate about the dangers of supporting the orphanage system and encourage reflection and a shift in thinking about how to better facilitate international aid.

CHILD WELL-BEING & DEVELOPMENT, FAMILY & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNITY HEALTH

7. Emergency Relief and Recovery

In addition to our regular programming, we provide emergency relief when it is necessary. Our emergency programming after disasters includes:

▪ supporting local child protection authorities in their response to protect children

▪ preventing trafficking and separation

▪ psychosocial support for separated children

▪ mobilizing and distributing supplies to address the needs of the most deeply affected survivors

We prioritize emergency care to children, however we also work holistically with entire communities. We provide long term recovery support through housing repairs and reconstruction, business reinforcement, and mental health support. LFBS was involved extensively in the emergency coordination after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, and we continue our emergency relief and recovery efforts in response to the August 14th, 2021 earthquake.

48 vs. 2

child abandonment and trafficking reduced from 48 children per year to just two. That’s still two too many...