< Haiti, December 1995 (contents)

< The elections in Ti Rivyè 

 Haitian rice farmers <

A haven for Haiti's street kids

by Peter Costantini | Port-au-Prince | December 31, 1995
beginning
Butter from water
Outreach on the street
* Transitioning back into communities
A radio station
end
><><><><><><><><><><

[top] [up]
[bottom] [down]

[a youthful Santa]
a youthful Santa

Haiti's current president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide [speaker icon], founded it. The president-elect, René Préval [speaker icon], became friends with Aristide while working there. But it's not a university or a big corporation: it's a home for homeless children.

On Christmas day, the courtyard of Lafanmi Se Lavi [speaker icon] ("The Family Is Life" in Creole) is overrun with barefoot boys enjoying their presents to the blare of compas music. They've just finished a feast of fried chicken, rice and beans, and salad.

Every boy gets a small gift: a miniature car, a toy dinosaur, a play radio. Teachers show kids how to throw yo-yos. Younger boys put their presents back into the bags they came in and pull them out again.


[top] [up]
[bottom] [down]

Butter from water

[Jean-Role Jean-Louis and Jean-LaBonté Délicieux with a friend]
Jean-Role Jean-Louis and Jean-LaBonté Délicieux with a friend

"There's a Haitian proverb, 'I churn water to make butter,'" says counselor Jean-LaBonté Délicieux. "We try to make a real home with whatever we can beg or borrow."

In 1986, Aristide, then a parish priest, joined with others to work with Haiti's street kids. "Aristide's basic philosophy is strong and alive today," says administrator Joanne Keogh. "If children's needs and values and the wisdom of their life experience could be heard and responded to by adults, the world would be a very different place."

In the intervening years of repression, the number of homeless children in Haiti has doubled, the staff estimates. The 1991 military coup that overthrew Aristide's democratically elected government killed thousands of parents or forced them into hiding or exile. Over the past eight years, Haitian life expectancy dropped from 54 to 47 years.

Building a safe environment for these children under military dictatorships was a dangerous business. A 1988 fire forced the home to move to a new location. In 1991, five days before Aristide's inauguration as president, Lafanmi Se Lavi was firebombed, killing four boys and a staff member who tried to rescue them. Yet another fire struck in 1992. Most observers believe the arsons were the work of paramilitary death squads, who also killed many adult associates of Aristide.

Today, in a country of 7 million, Keogh puts the "reality figure" of street children in the hundreds of thousands. With the abolition of the army and return of constitutional government, Délicieux believes the phenomenon may have peaked. Yet Haiti's economy remains a smoking ruin, with 75 percent unemployment and decimated public services.


[top] [up]
[bottom] [down]

Outreach on the street

[a young man learning carpentry]
a young man learning carpentry

To choose boys for the home, outreach workers spend time on the street getting to know the kids, then invite them to visit the home. Finally, the staff selects for residence the youngest kids, those with no family, and those who have spent the longest on the street.

When they asked resident boys how to handle the new kids, one told them: "Be patient; don't throw them out the first time they mess up. Remember, it took us a while to learn the rules." The staff continues to work with the remaining boys on the street, and encourages resident boys to invite them in for meals.

For its 110 residents, Lafanmi Se Lavi provides meals, medical care, education, and vocational training, says Keogh. Eight years of in-house education begin in Creole, the language of most Haitians, and transition into French, the main language of higher education.

"The type of education we do is very concrete," says education director Lionel Étienne. "We read about something, say animals, in books that use pictures as well as words, then we take the boys out to see animals."

Lafanmi Se Lavi also offers vocational training in carpentry, cabinet-making, electronics, sewing, and cooking, useful survival skills in Haiti's largely informal economy. The home is about to reopen two enterprises that give work to kids still on the street and show society that the kids are productive members: a car wash on the road to the airport and a farm. The boys sell excess produce in poor neighborhoods at reduced prices.


[top] [up]
[bottom] [down]

Transitioning back into communities

The older boys, 16 to 20, go to high school outside. While they still receive support from Lafanmi Se Lavi, they have to find a place to live in their communities. Délicieux, who works with these "transitional" boys, helps those with parents move back in with them and others to find housing with relatives or friends. All 96 boys returned to the community so far have found a place to live, he says. "Three of the boys now consider me their father," says Délicieux. "It makes me very happy and it's a great blessing."

While the home has relied primarily on private support from abroad, executive director Elien Joachim now hopes to receive some backing from a broke but sympathetic government.

Right now, says Keogh, Lafanmi Se Lavi is trying to acquire a neighboring house, which would allow them to extend schooling and health care to homeless girls, many of whom work as domestics in wealthy homes, and to non-resident boys. Demand for similar programs is tremendous around Haiti, and Lafanmi Se Lavi plans to open another home in Jérémie in 1996.

[top] [up]
[bottom] [down]

A radio station

The home is also starting a radio station, which will provide broadcasting training and amplify street kids' voices. Several boys will receive training in radio programming next summer in Berkeley, California. The home's band has toured the eastern U.S. and participated in exchange programs with U.S. schools.

Aristide remains active, often inviting boys to the National Palace, and his fiancée, lawyer Mildred Trouillot [speaker icon], does sessions with the boys on Haiti's constitution and on children's rights. The home's work continues to attract idealistic young Haitians.

Jean-Role Jean-Louis, a young law student, was threatened by death squads with a hand grenade for his work there. "My mother told me that we were victims of an unjust system," he says, "so we had to change the system to benefit everyone."

><><><><><><><><><><

[top] [up]

Peter Costantini is Seattle correspondent for Inter Press Service, a news wire based in Amsterdam. He has previously covered elections in Mexico and Nicaragua.

Versions of this story were published by Inter Press Service and Real Change, a Seattle monthly.

< Haiti, December 1995 (contents)

< The elections in Ti Rivyè 

 Haitian rice farmers <

Best viewed with an HTML 3-compatible browser capable of
table backgrounds, background sounds and client-pull animation.
Last updated: June 9, 1996. © 1996 Peter Costantini (Peter_Costantini@msn.com)