Salesian Missions in Haiti.

(MissionNewswire) Students attending the Salesian-run Timkatec schools in Pétion-Ville, Haiti, had access to better nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and Rise Against Hunger, an international humanitarian organization growing a global movement to end hunger. The shipment provided rice-meals in the second half of 2022.

The first Timkatec school has existed since 1994 and was founded for former street children. Later, it was expanded to include local disadvantaged children who had not had the chance to attend school until ages 8-10. The vocational schools were added so youth could learn a trade for employment.

Additional rice-meals were distributed at the canteens in the three Timkatec schools and provided to students to take home during times of school closure. From July to September 2022, children were on school holidays, but the school boarders were there with social workers. They were able to access the meals during the school break.

The school should have reopened in October, but there was a political crisis in the country. Due to insecurity caused by gang violence and upheaval, all schools were closed. Salesians restarted the school year on Nov. 28 when it was safer.

Guylaine Bastien studied nursing and graduated from the Timkatec school. She is now a nurse at the school. Bastien said, “As a nurse, I am tasked with overseeing the health of the children at Timkatec. The children really like the Rise Against Hunger meals. I have noticed a significant change in the general health of the children. They have more strength and energy and fall sick less easily.”

One of the recipients was Adeler Cherry, age 17. He previously lived with his aunt but left home to live on the streets. He spent a day on the streets before coming to Timkatec, which he enjoys more than his aunt’s house.

Cherry said, “At Timkatec I eat three times a day while in my aunt’s house, we ate once a day. Before, I used to eat all kinds of food but never soy and rice, which I found delicious. It is very important for me to eat and stay healthy. Since consuming the meals, I am no longer sick. After eating, I like to go to class to learn to read and write. In the future I would like to travel, to have a house, to live well, and I know that I have to work hard for the realization of these dreams. I would like to become a tile technician so I can help my family and live my life better.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Rise Against Hunger

Salesian Missions – Haiti

World Food Programme – Haiti

The post HAITI: Students access better nutrition thanks to rice-meals first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Healthy nutrition for Students and vulnerable community members in Haiti.

(MissionNewswire) Students and vulnerable community members in Haiti received healthy nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and Rise Against Hunger, an international humanitarian organization growing a global movement to end hunger. The shipment was received by the Salesian-run Rinaldi Foundation and then was distributed to The Immaculate Parish and Cité Soleil schools in Port-au-Prince.

The Immaculate Parish in Drouillard, one of the oldest housing projects in Cité Soleil, is located in a very fragile neighborhood where the presence of state authorities is totally absent. It is an area ruled by armed gangs that impose their law on the population and fight among themselves, which limits the Salesians’ ability to travel. Often community members leave their homes to take refuge in public squares or at a friend’s house.

Father Victor Auguste, economer of the Rinaldi Foundation said, “The greatest challenge during this period was the insecurity around the country caused by the gang activity, especially in Port-au-Prince. Much of Haiti was shut down, making it difficult for people to move around safely. Parents were unable to bring their children to school or to participate in other activities, so this time we also distributed food to older women living in the community since they were in need and we were able to reach them.”

One of the recipients was Olguine Almonord, who struggles to feed herself and her children. Most of the time she has to rely on the charity of her family and friends for food. When they do not have anything to share, she and her family go without. To her, the meals from Rise Against Hunger created a sense of security knowing they would have at least one meal a day.

Almonord said, “Before receiving meals from Rise Against Hunger, we usually only ate if our neighbors or relatives shared their food, and very often we went the whole day without eating anything. Now my whole family eats each meal, even if it is not always enough. Rise Against Hunger meals have vitamins, which also helps my children’s growth.”

The rice-meals were also shared with schools. In Haiti, many children do not have access to a school lunch service, which has a direct impact on their education and academic success. The Salesian community makes every effort to provide students with varied, balanced and daily meals.

Carius Dumé, director at the Rinaldi Foundation, said, “School feeding also represents an important opportunity for some parents who are still in precarious situations. For many, ensuring a healthy, balanced and regular diet for their children is a daily struggle. In the country, two out of three students rarely eat at home in the morning before going to school.”

Dumé added, “Thanks to the hot meals distributed, students have better attendance rates at the primary school and vocational training center. The effects of the regular meals can be seen in their schoolwork. I know that the regular meals have helped strengthen their resilience against harmful shocks. With support from Rise Against Hunger, we have seen improvements in our schools.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Rinaldi Foundation

Rinaldi Foundation Facebook

Rise Against Hunger

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: At-risk and vulnerable individuals benefit from food shipment first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries organized a Christmas party for youth attending Salesian programs in Pétion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Salesians collaborated with other organizations and several past pupils of the Domenico Savio boarding school. The initiative offered 250 poor youth a meal and toys during the holidays.

A Salesian missionary said, “This was a good opportunity for poor youth to have time to relax with their peers and enjoy the festive holiday season. These youth who need so much love and support were reminded that there are caring adults looking out for their well-being.”

Salesians offer educational and social programs in Pétion-Ville including the Timkatec schools, which were founded in 1994 for former street children. Later, the schools were expanded to include local disadvantaged children who had not had the chance to attend school until ages 8-10. The vocational schools were added later so youth could learn a trade for employment.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Haiti – Christmas in Salesian work of Pétion-Ville brings food and gifts to poor children

Salesian Missions – Haiti

World Food Programme – Haiti

The post HAITI: Youth receive meal, toys during holidays first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Salesian Past Pupils of Malta organized a fundraiser to support Salesians in Haiti who continue their efforts after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and left thousands injured and homeless on Aug. 14, 2021. Under the leadership of Bryan Magro, president of the World Confederation of Past Pupils of Don Bosco, 10,000 euros was provided to purchase and distribute food and medical and health kits to the most affected families. The donation was made in collaboration among the Past Pupils of Malta and the Association of Past Pupils of the Dominic Savio College in Haiti.

“Youth in Haiti are suffering from the country’s natural disasters, economic conditions and ongoing civil strife,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Donations like this help to ensure that youth and their families have the nutrition and medical supplies they continue to need after another devastating earthquake.”

Salesian missionaries have initiated projects to help youth and their communities. New short-term training courses for young men and women were recently launched for those who want to find employment in the construction industry to help rebuild collapsed houses.

After the earthquake, thousands of people were left homeless and living in camps. Private organizations, religious congregations and volunteers provided humanitarian assistance to the victims in the absence of support from the state.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS)

ANS – Malta – A fundraiser in support of Haiti organized by the Past Pupils

HAITI: Youth train to rebuild homes after earthquake

Salesian Missions – Haiti

*Any goods, services, or funds provided by Salesian Missions to programs located in this country were administered in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.

The post HAITI: Recovery continues 1 year after earthquake first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Women and children in Salesian communities in Haiti have access to better hygiene thanks to a soap donation secured by Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The shipment of soap was from Eco-Soap Bank, a humanitarian nonprofit organization working to save, sanitize and supply recycled soap with hygiene education for the developing world.

The Rinaldi Foundation, the Salesian Planning and Development Office in Haiti, received the soap and distributed it. The first distribution was held on Mother’s Day to honor the mothers in the community. Salesians chose to prioritize mothers for the first distribution and included soap in the bags that were given out at church. The soap will be utilized for hand-washing, bathing, washing clothes and dishes, and other uses.

After the initial donation, soap was provided to children and older youth who are attending Salesian programs and schools including Fondation Vincent, Don Bosco Lakay OPEPB (the Little Schools of Fr. Bohnen), and the Salesian Diocesan Center of Arts and Trades (CDAM).

“Access to soap for cleaning and proper hygiene is important now more than ever,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “We appreciate the soap donation from Eco-Soap Bank that we have been able to provide to Salesian communities and centers. This donation helps to provide a sense of dignity to those we serve and cut down on illness.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Eco-Soap Bank

Rinaldi Foundation

Rinaldi Foundation Facebook

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: Women and children in Salesian communities receive soap donation from Eco-Soap Bank first appeared on MissionNewswire.

(MissionNewswire) Students attending the Salesian-run Timkatec schools in Pétion-Ville, Haiti, had access to better nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and Rise Against Hunger, an international relief organization that provides food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. The shipment provided rice-meals from December 2021 to January 2022.

The rice-meals were distributed at the school canteen and sent home with students in need. A Salesian reported, “Since the canteen was suspended for the months of November to December for lack of rice, we decided to make a first distribution of dry rice to take away on the occasion of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 7. The rice was distributed after mass in the courtyard of the Professional School: Timkatec 2.”

The Timkatec school has existed since 1994 and was founded for former street children. Later, it was expanded to include local disadvantaged children who had not had the chance to attend school until ages 8-10. The vocational schools were added later so youth could learn a trade for employment. Additional rice-meals were distributed at the canteens in the three Timkatec schools and provided to students to take home during times of school closure.

Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, said, “Salesian feeding programs not only help with a balanced diet, but they also allow students to focus on getting an education without worrying about where they will find their next meal. Hungry students have a harder time focusing on their education.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Rise Against Hunger

Salesian Missions – Haiti

World Food Programme – Haiti

The post HAITI: Students benefit from food program partnership first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Youth from the Lakay Don Bosco musical program, which is known as “With our musical instruments we fight violence,” recently put on an event to showcase their talents. There are more than 100 youth involved, who are from Lakay Don Bosco and the surrounding La Saline neighborhood on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The goal is to support youth through musical education to help them escape the violence in their neighborhoods.

“Salesian programs provide more than traditional education and include courses on music, art, and sports,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Youth need opportunities for safe places to play and connect with adults and their peers. The Lakay Don Bosco music program is helping youth stay off the streets and learn a skill they enjoy.”

Lakay Don Bosco was established in 1988 in Port-au-Prince by an Italian Salesian priest. Father Attilio Stra launched the project to answer the needs of children and older youth who had been rejected and marginalized and lived in situations of neglect, negligence, or serious social risk. For more than 30 years, that has remained the mission of Lakay Don Bosco.

Currently, the Lakay project includes five facilities in Port-au-Prince and one, divided into two sectors, in Cap-Haïtien. Each of these structures was created to respond to needs of children and older youth living on the streets. In total, nearly 5,700 minors benefit from this project, which is facilitated by 57 staff members.

The Lakay project centers are each specialized for the various stages of life and types of assistance needed by youth. At Foyer Lakay, children live as a family for a period of four years until the completion of an apprenticeship in a technical profession. Lakay Program for Street Children provides shelter and educational services for street children in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

ANS Photo (usage permissions and guidelines must be requested from ANS) 

ANS – Haiti – The youth of “Lakay” and “La Saline” fight violence with music

Rinaldi Foundation

Rinaldi Foundation Facebook

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: Youth take part in music education to stay off streets first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries have launched new short-term training courses for young men and women in Haiti who want to find employment in the construction industry to help rebuild collapsed houses after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and left thousands injured and homeless on Aug. 14, 2021.

After the earthquake, thousands of people were left homeless and living in camps. Private organizations, religious congregations and volunteers provided humanitarian assistance to the victims in the absence of support from the state.

Agents from the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Collectives identified houses to be demolished. Those that could be repaired received a yellow mark, and those that were intact according to inspectors were marked with green. The Armed Forces of Haiti and agents of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications demolished several buildings in the south, including schools, churches, and private homes. Reconstruction efforts have been slow and little has been rebuilt.

“This new training program is helping young people in Haiti learn the skills to help repair and rebuild homes in their community,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “This is a win-win for all involved. These educational efforts will put people to work and help those still suffering in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

HAITI: Victims of earthquake still in need

Rinaldi Foundation

Rinaldi Foundation Facebook

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: Youth train to rebuild homes after earthquake first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) More than 3,700 families across several Salesian programs and educational centers in Haiti had access to better nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and Rise Against Hunger, an international relief organization that provides food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. In the second half of 2021, two shipments were sent to Haiti to support nutritional efforts after the devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake on Aug. 14 killed more than 2,000 people and left thousands injured and homeless.

Families connected to Notre Dame du Rosaire Parish and Saint Ann Parish, along with students from Fondation Vincent and Don Bosco Lakay in Cap-Haïtien and in Port-au-Prince, were among the recipients. Don Bosco Lakay has specialized facilities depending on the type of assistance needed. At Foyer Lakay, children live as a family for a period of four years until the completion of their apprenticeship in a technical profession. The Lakay Program for Street Children provides shelter and educational services for street children in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince. There are also vocational training programs where youth are able to study and gain the skills needed for long-term employment.

Don Bosco Lakay in Cap-Haïtien is also in the planning process to open eight new departments including IT, electricity, sewing and tailoring, welding, motor mechanics, construction, and cosmetology. These courses will be targeted toward at-risk youth from the neighboring City-Champin.

One of the recipients of the food donation was a young man named Jonas Joseph, who goes by the nickname Ti Djo. He is 14 years old and was born in Shada, the largest slum in Cap-Haïtien. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father refuses to accept him as his son. He was raised by his grandmother, who lives far below the poverty line and cannot buy daily meals. As the situation grew worse, she sent Ti Djo into domestic service.

Ti Djo experienced the worst moments of his life. He lived with little sleep and was responsible for everything in the house. He also faced physical abuse from the family. It became too much for him and he left to live on the streets.

One day, an educator from Don Bosco Lakay befriended Ti Djo. Eventually, Ti Djo went into the Don Bosco Lakay program where he is taking welding classes.

Paulin Iguène, director of Don Bosco Lakay said, “Ti Djo used to be weak but now he is getting strong, and he especially likes Rise Against Hunger food. Ti Djo is smiling, jovial and engaged. He is also happy because we were able to get in contact with his grandmother who is still alive.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Rinaldi Foundation

Rinaldi Foundation Facebook

Rise Against Hunger

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: Food shipment supports more than 3,700 families after earthquake first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Students attending Fondation Vincent and Don Bosco Lakay in Cap-Haïtien and Don Bosco Lakay/Lakou in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, had better nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and Rise Against Hunger, an international relief organization that provides food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable. In 2020, each center received a shipment of donated rice-meals to ensure students had a healthy meal during the school day.

Fondation Vincent provides education in six specialized workshops and has a working farm. Students in the agricultural program study modern practices and technology, and they explore new techniques in agriculture, horticulture, and animal husbandry. The farm allows students to bring what they learn in the classroom into hands-on practice where they grow bananas, peppers and cabbage. There are also rabbits, goats, cows, chickens, pigs, ducks and geese.

Jamesly Jean-Louis, age 22, is studying in the agriculture program at Fondation Vincent. When he completes his three years of study, Jean-Louis would like to create an agricultural farm with a chicken coop to provide access to certain foods that are otherwise rare in the region. Rise Against Hunger meals help Jean-Louis focus on his studies.

He said, “By eating a hot dish, I have strength to work for a whole day. It also encourages all students to work better.” Before Rise Against Hunger meals, Jean-Louis found it difficult to find something to eat, especially in the morning before going to the workshops. With the meals, he no longer goes to his training feeling weak.

The rice-meal donation was also sent to Don Bosco Lakay/Lakou. Each of Don Bosco Lakay/Lakou’s five facilities specializes in a stage of life and type of assistance needed by the youth served. At Foyer Lakay, children live as a family for a period of four years until the completion of their apprenticeship in a technical profession. Lakay Program for Street Children provides shelter and educational services for street children in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince. There are also vocational training programs where youth are able to study and gain the skills needed for long-term employment.

Daniel, age 15, is in the Don Bosco Lakay program. He was born to a teenage mother who was living on the streets in Cité Soleil. Daniel survived his early years thanks to neighbors. When he was 8 eight years old, he left his family and lived on his own on the streets for the next five years. To survive, he became a lookout for an armed gang. However, one day Daniel did not see a police car passing by, and it led to a shootout between the gang and the police. Daniel was forced to flee and go into hiding.

Before receiving Rise Against Hunger meals, Daniel struggled to find food while living on the streets. He often ate leftovers from restaurants or food out of the garbage, and many times he resorted to stealing food. Days would go by where he didn’t have anything to eat at all.

Now that Daniel receives food support, he is much happier and very grateful for those who have helped him. He’s made a lot of friends and is well respected. When he gets older, he would like to be a cabinetmaker.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Rinaldi Foundation

Rinaldi Foundation Facebook

Rise Against Hunger

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: Salesian students receive better nutrition thanks to partnership with Rise Against Hunger first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Students attending the Salesian-run Timkatec schools in Pétion-Ville, Haiti, had access to better nutrition thanks to a partnership between Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, and Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit Christian organization committed to “feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit.”

A rice-meal shipment was sent to Timkatec in 2020. It was distributed among the boarding school and the canteens of three houses that serve more than 600 children and older youth attending school. In total, the food shipment fed nearly 700 people—643 students and 50 employees.

Timkatec has two schools that received the donation including one with 200 boys ages 10-19 and one for girls ages 8-16. Food is distributed in the canteen in the mornings before class or at noon. Timkatec also has two vocational schools with close to 450 older youth, both boys and girls. Food is provided in the canteen at noon during school days.

The Timkatec school has existed since 1994 and was founded for former street children. Later, it was expanded to include local disadvantaged children who had not had the chance to attend school until ages 8-10. The vocational schools were added later so youth could learn a trade for employment.

One of the people who received the donation was Jerry Coriolan, who lives at the school and works as a guardian for the younger children. Coriolan finished his studies at the Timkatec primary school and now works at the school to pay for his secondary school fees. He is currently in his third year of secondary school and has three more years to complete.

Coriolan was an orphan and suffers from anemia. He was regularly in the hospital for tests and had to take medication for his anemia. Since he has begun to eat the meals from Feed My Starving Children, he has gained strength and is currently in good health.

“It is important that youth have access to healthy nutrition so they are able to take part in school and other activities,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “Salesian feeding programs not only help with a balanced diet, but they also allow students to focus on getting an education without worrying about where they will find their next meal.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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Sources:

Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

Feed My Starving Children

Salesian Missions – Haiti

World Food Programme – Haiti

The post HAITI: Feed My Starving Children rice-meal shipment distributed to students first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries are continuing relief services in Haiti after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and left thousands injured and homeless on Aug. 14. Homes and businesses have collapsed and infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. Missionaries recently distributed hot meals to 500 families in Les Cayes.

There is much work still to be done. Thousands of now homeless people are living in camps. Government coordination of humanitarian aid is still pending. Private organizations, religious congregations and volunteers are providing humanitarian assistance to the victims in the absence of support from the state, even though there are not enough of these agencies doing this work.

Agents from the Ministry of the Interior and Territorial Collectives are identifying houses to be demolished and are designating them with a red mark. Those to be repaired are left with a yellow mark, and those that are intact according to inspectors are marked with green. The Armed Forces of Haiti and agents of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications have already demolished several buildings in the south, including schools, churches and private homes. No reconstruction efforts have started.

Salesian missionaries helped in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and have continued relief efforts. Father Cazy Guilteau, rector of the Salesian community, said that they have already assisted close to 2,500 victims. Daughters of Mary Help of Christians has assisted nearly 2,000 victims in three cycles of relief distributions.

Sister Aline Nicolas, director, noted that despite the fact that her school was completely destroyed, she is very concerned about the situation and is calling on benefactors to continue to assist the victims. She said, “We don’t want to keep them in continued dependence, but at the moment they are really in need.”

The Tzu Chi Foundation has been one of the most active international organizations in the southern part of the country in the last couple of weeks. In partnership with local institutions, it has distributed bags of rice and other food kits to thousands of victims.

Faced with the overwhelming situation, the Oct. 4 start of school has been delayed with headmasters of schools that have been destroyed concerned about how they will educate students going forward.

Salesian missionaries are no strangers to relief and recovery efforts in Haiti. They were instrumental in the emergency response and relief efforts in their communities after the 2010 earthquake. An integral part of the infrastructure in Haiti prior to the earthquake, they were among the first responders—providing shelter and medical aid; means to securely transport, store and distribute relief supplies and clean drinking water; and, perhaps most importantly, an understanding of how to get things done in Haiti.

Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has set up a fund to help relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. To give to the Haiti fund at Salesian Missions, visit SalesianMissions.org/lp/Haiti-earthquake.

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HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians have been responding with relief aid to those who were impacted by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Aug. 14. More than 2,000 people are believed to have been killed with thousands more injured and left homeless. Homes and businesses have collapsed and infrastructure needs to be rebuilt.

Salesians responded immediately during the aftermath and are now working with the local population to provide relief to the victims. Salesian missionaries and sisters are involved in the distribution of food and health kits for 3,000 families. They are also providing plastic roofs and construction materials to create temporary shelters for 400 families.

Another project has been launched to build a school canteen to provide meals for those in need. Currently, 1,500 meals are being distributed to students with the Salesian Diocesan Center for Arts and Crafts (CDAM) and nearby schools.

Salesians are also involved in providing psycho-social assistance to families affected by the earthquake who have lost a loved one or who have been injured. In addition, Salesians have launched a vocational and technical training project for 700 youth. The training will be short and tailored specifically to prepare youth for rapidly finding a job and contributing to the country’s reconstruction.

Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, who facilitate educational programs in the country, are also committed to providing aid. Their community in Les Cayes suffered devastating damage during the earthquake. Sister Marie Mercie Raphael, economer, said, “Outside, among the collapsed buildings, people ran while the injured were pulled out of the rubble. The 2010 earthquake was still fresh in our memories. But the Lord saved me.”

“We will have to rebuild,” added Sister Raphael. “People immediately came to us in search of drinking water and food. Here, they gathered to sleep in the open, considering the risk of collapse under the aftershocks.”

Sister Rose Monique Jolicoeur, outgoing superior of the community and school manager, explained that despite the risk of collapse sisters continued to help those affected by the earthquake. She said, “We don’t talk about standing still. There is always hope! God’s hand has preserved us, because if the earthquake had occurred at eight in the morning, in full school hours, it would have been even more disastrous.”

Salesian missionaries are no strangers to relief and recovery efforts in Haiti. They were instrumental in the emergency response and relief efforts in their communities after the 2010 earthquake. An integral part of the infrastructure in Haiti prior to the earthquake, they were among the first responders—providing shelter and medical aid; means to securely transport, store and distribute relief supplies and clean drinking water; and, perhaps most importantly, an understanding of how to get things done in Haiti.

Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has set up a fund to help relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. To give to the Haiti fund at Salesian Missions, visit SalesianMissions.org/lp/Haiti-earthquake.

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HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, has launched a new fundraising appeal to help Salesians in Haiti who are responding to local needs after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes in the western part of the country, about 80 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince. The earthquake, which struck on Aug. 14, was stronger than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the country in 2010.

The cities of Les Cayes and Jeremie, located in Haiti’s southern peninsula, have reported major devastation with people caught under rubble and buildings and hospitals collapsed. Phone lines were also reported down in Petit Trou de Nippes.

To date, there are more than 1,900 people who have died and 7,000 reported injured, with hundreds more who are missing. Hospitals are at their maximum having accepted more than 5,700 patients. Rescue operations have been hampered by torrential rain and mudslides caused by Tropical Storm Grace, which swept through the area on Aug. 17.

There are no reported injuries at Salesian centers in the region. All of the buildings are intact with small collapses of walls surrounding the centers. Only one organization, belonging to the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, suffered substantial damage in classrooms and an auditorium, but there are no reported deaths or injuries.

In a country where the population relies heavily on local churches for support, it’s the destruction and collapse of these buildings that has been the hardest to take for many. The aid provided through these churches is the only source for many in the absence of strong government institutions.

“Salesian missionaries, who were involved in rescue, relief and restoration operations during the last earthquake, have already mobilized to help those in need,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “Salesians live in the communities in which they work and are perfectly positioned to respond in times of crisis. They have visited families to assess the damage and the needs of those who have been impacted. Salesian centers have also opened their doors to those who have been displaced.”

Salesian missionaries are no strangers to relief and recovery efforts in Haiti. They were instrumental in the emergency response and relief efforts in their communities after the 2010 earthquake. An integral part of the infrastructure in Haiti prior to the earthquake, they were among the first responders—providing shelter and medical aid; means to securely transport, store and distribute relief supplies and clean drinking water; and, perhaps most importantly, an understanding of how to get things done in Haiti.

Since then, Salesian missionaries have been focused on rebuilding community structures like schools, as well as helping residents rebuild their homes and their livelihoods. In 2015, through funding provided by donors to Salesian Missions, reconstruction was finished on the Salesian Youth Center in Fort Liberté. First opened in 2002, the youth center offers a broad range of formal and informal educational programs for local youth. It houses an elementary school, technical school, vocational training center, teacher-training program and one of the country’s only nursing schools.

Salesian missionaries were also a vital source of support and humanitarian aid following Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 hurricane that pummeled Haiti on Oct. 4, 2016. Missionaries used the same local connections and channels to provide much needed immediate aid and ongoing relief and reconstruction efforts as they did after the earthquake. A warehouse that was built using funds from Salesian Missions, made possible by donations from donors who responded after the earthquake, was utilized during the hurricane response.

About 60 percent of Haiti’s 11 million people earn less than $2 a day. The country has high rates of violence from armed gangs and is recovering from political turmoil. Haiti has been in the throes of a political crisis since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7. The government is not financially equipped to take care of repairs from this most recent earthquake.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

To give to the Haiti fund at Salesian Missions, visit SalesianMissions.org/lp/Haiti-earthquake.

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The New York Times – Haiti Quake Destroyed Many Churches, Shredding a Mainstay of Support

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HAITI

(MissionNewswire) On Aug. 14, 2021, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes in the western part of the country, about 80 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince. The earthquake was stronger than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the country in 2010. To date, there are more than 1,400 people who have died and thousands of people who are missing and injured.

The cities of Les Cayes and Jeremie, located in Haiti’s southern peninsula, have reported major devastation with people caught under rubble and buildings collapsed. Phone lines were also reported down in Petit Trou de Nippes. Hospitals are at their maximum having accepted more than 5,700 patients.

There are no reported injuries at Salesian centers in the region. All of the buildings are intact with small collapses of walls surrounding the centers. Only one organization, belonging to the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, suffered substantial damage in classrooms and an auditorium, but there are no reported deaths or injuries.

Salesian missionaries, who were involved in rescue, relief and restoration operations during the last earthquake, have already mobilized to help those in need. They have visited families in the communities where they work to assess the damage and the needs of the families who have been impacted. Some displaced because of damage to their homes have been staying with Salesians at their local centers.

“A formal fundraiser has not been mobilized yet,” explained a Salesian missionary in Haiti. “However, there may be people who want to donate and know about what the Salesians are doing. We encourage those who can support our work to do so.”

About 60 percent of Haiti’s 11 million people earn less than $2 a day. The country has high rates of violence from armed gangs and is recovering from political turmoil. Haiti has been in the throes of a political crisis since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7. The government is not financially equipped to take care of repairs from this most recent earthquake.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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HAITI

(MissionNewswire)  Lakay Don Bosco was established in 1988 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, by an Italian Salesian priest. Father Attilio Stra launched the project to respond to the needs of marginalized children and older youth who live on the streets in serious risk. For more than 30 years, this has remained the mission of Lakay Don Bosco.

Currently, the Lakay project includes five facilities in Port-au-Prince and one, divided into two sectors, in Cap-Haïtien. Each of these structures was created to respond to needs of children and older youth who are living on the streets.

Each of the Lakay project centers  specializes in a stage of life and the types of assistance needed by  youth. At Foyer Lakay, children live as a family for a period of four years until the completion of an apprenticeship in a technical profession. Lakay Program for Street Children provides shelter and educational services for street children in Cap-Haïtien and Port-au-Prince.

There is a three-step process for entering into the Lakay Don Bosco program. La Rue, which in French means street, is the first step and involves Salesian staff meeting youth and building trust. This step often takes place on the streets. The second step is Lakou, which means courtyard in Creole. This is when the child first comes to the Salesian reception center and learns about entering the program, which includes regular school or a vocational training program.

The third stage is Maison, which means home in French. This is when youth enter into the program formally and live at the Foyer Lakay family home. During this time, Salesian staff work on socio-family reintegration. This is also the time youth attend vocational school, joining a course program for beauticians, electricians, cutters and sewers, refrigeration technicians and carpenters. Currently, there 54 youth, aged 14 and older, in the Foyer Lakay program. Other youth from the neighborhoods adjacent to the school also study in the vocational training program.

“Teachers play a fundamental role at Lakay Don Bosco, especially during the pandemic, when they had to stay at the school for long periods of time and were unable to see their families,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The attention and individual support offered by teachers, including personalized educational programs for the weakest students, have produced exceptional results.”

Today, the vast majority of students are motivated, attend school with enthusiasm and understand the importance of the path they have taken. These youth are aware that they have received a second chance to improve their life and do not want to waste it.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

Each of the main centers includes a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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The post HAITI: Children living on the streets get a second chance first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) It has been 11 years since the earthquake in Haiti impacted 1.5 million people and destroyed 90 percent of schools in the affected regions. People have suffered as they have tried to rebuild their lives and the country’s infrastructure. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated already challenging conditions, and now more than 6 million people are living in poverty and 60 percent of the population is unemployed.

Salesian missionaries continue to work alongside the population, serving families, children and youth in the schools they have rebuilt, but it is not enough. The pandemic has considerably worsened social hardships.

“Salesians were among the first to commit ourselves to reconstruction after the earthquake, both helping people rebuild their lives and then the infrastructure,” said Father Jean Paul Mesidor, provincial of the Salesian Vice Province of Haiti. “We have worked hard to rebuild many of our centers, but over the years this momentum has faded. Today, everything is paralyzed and we have to face other emergencies such as the pandemic.”

Communities in Haiti are marked by violence, insecurity and poverty, and the pandemic is causing serious socioeconomic consequences. Fr. Mesidor noted many children have dropped out of school due to the economic problems of their families and thousands of people have lost their jobs.

During the months of lockdown, Salesians carried out awareness programs on protective measures, distributed more than 8,000 masks, provided hygiene kits and food to more than 3,000 vulnerable families, and launched a seed distribution project which included providing agricultural tools to help 1,500 families.

In addition, the Salesian Mission Office of Madrid, Spain, continues to invest in education with scholarships to help students without resources. Fr. Mesidor added, “We still believe in education as the only way out for the poorest children and youth. They will be poorer and poorer if they do not have access to education.”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

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The post HAITI: Help as pandemic adds to struggles first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) The Rinaldi Foundation, the Salesian Planning and Development Office in Haiti, has started prevention and awareness activities to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. While Haiti currently has a very limited number of cases, there is real fear in the country due to the structural weaknesses Haiti has been subjected to for years. Primarily, Haiti has no national health system and relies on clinics facilitated by nongovernmental organizations and the church.

On March 19. Haiti’s president declared a state of health emergency throughout the country, which included the closure of schools and churches, a ban on rallies, limitations on travel, and encouraging hygiene and public health practices. But most of the population cannot afford these measures.

“There is no clean water anywhere to wash your hands as required, there is no electricity in the houses and there are not even hospitals. Many people live on the streets, so it is very difficult to remain closed somewhere,” reported a Redemptorist missionary to the agency Fides.

As soon as there was news of the virus’s arrival, the Rinaldi Foundation held an emergency meeting with all participants while keeping their social distance and taking extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of personnel. The Foundation also contacted all local communities to motivate them and raise awareness of how to deal with the situation, including the placement of water distribution points in Salesian centers, and other good practices.

At the same time, an awareness-raising campaign was launched through the Foundation’s Facebook page. The prevention messages are simple and easy to follow with explanatory images and Creole-language texts, the language that every Haitian speaks and understands very well.

Buckets of chlorinated water have also been placed in all Salesian communities so that the few visitors who arrive can wash their hands thoroughly. In some places, there is a container at the main entrance of the communities so those passing by may wash their hands. There are also messages that invite citizens to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

A representative from the Rinaldi Foundation said, “Around us we see people who were already living in suffering, with a large majority of people who need to go out every day to earn their daily bread. Now asking this majority to stay home to avoid spreading the virus will expose them to another challenge, that of finding food. Some are beginning to think that some people may die not from coronavirus, but from hunger. For this reason, we are evaluating if it will be possible to find the means to distribute not only sanitary kits (masks, gloves, soaps, disinfectants, chlorine, alcohol), but also food kits (rice, beans, spaghetti, oil, milk).”

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas ranking 163 out of 188 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index. The country also faces the highest levels of severe food insecurity in the world, according to the World Food Programme. More than half of the country’s population was chronically undernourished during 2012-2014, representing a total of 5.3 million Haitians. Nearly 100,000 Haitian children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, causing irreversible stunted growth for close to 30 percent of all children in the country.

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HAITI

(MissionNewswire) The Salesian Diocesan Center of Arts and Trades (CDAM) in Les Cayes, Haiti, has a new back-up electricity system for the school thanks to Salesian Missions donors. The vocational school lost its back-up electrical system during Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 hurricane that pummeled Haiti on Oct. 4, 2016. The devastating storm affected 2.1 million people including close to 894,000 children, caused close to 1,000 deaths and left nearly 141,000 people displaced.

CDAM trains more than 100 youth who are taking courses in masonry, auto mechanics, cabinet making, electricity and the household arts. The center’s infrastructure includes a multi-purpose room, a kitchen for home arts students, basketball and football fields, a computer lab, and rooms for courses and workshops. After the hurricane hit, the entire system used to strengthen CDAM’s electrical structure was destroyed. The system had been powered by an inverter and several batteries, which were already weak before the hurricane.

The back-up electrical system is essential to the operation of the school due to Haiti’s unreliable electricity supply and frequent blackouts. With the electrical system restored, the school will have the power needed to use the computer lab and classrooms when the city’s electricity is down.

“Most of the time, CDAM is forced to use its own energy resources because the energy ration provided by Haiti Electricity does not meet the center’s energy needs in the area,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “CDAM had to have an electrical system that would make up for the lack of electricity to allow the proper operation of the appliances used for lighting, ventilation, refrigeration but especially computer equipment. We are grateful for our donors who helped support this project.”

CDAM opened its doors to poor youth in Haiti in 1983. The center provides technical/vocational training for youth as well as educational and sports programs. Funding to operate the school comes from the support of donors from Fonds Misereor, school tuition fees and minor assistance from the Haitian government for teacher salaries. Since most of the students come from very poor backgrounds, Salesian missionaries charge only minimal tuition fees to those who can offer a small contribution, leaving the school facing economic limitations.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers, and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti, including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas ranking 163 out of 188 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index. The country also faces the highest levels of severe food insecurity in the world, according to the World Food Programme. More than half of the country’s population was chronically undernourished during 2012-2014, representing a total of 5.3 million Haitians. Nearly 100,000 Haitian children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, causing irreversible stunted growth for close to 30 percent of all children in the country.

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HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Ten years after the devastating Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake struck Haiti, the country continues to face challenges and serious issues with hunger and undernutrition. Three-quarters of the population lives on less than $2 a day and faces the highest levels of severe food insecurity in the world, according to the World Food Programme. More than half of the country’s population of 10.7 million people is undernourished. Nearly 100,000 Haitian children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, causing irreversible stunted growth for close to 30 percent of all children in the country.

To ensure youth in six Salesian centers have access to better nutrition, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, launched its Hunger for Education project, which was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from September 2016 to March 2019. The project aimed to increase the health and learning capacity of students by implementing school feeding programs in Salesian centers within the country.

Overall the project provided lunch five days a week for 12,746 students at six school centers from January 2017 to Oct. 31, 2017, 15,541 students from November 2017 to September 2018, and 18,161 students from November 2017 through the end of the project on March 31, 2019.

The project helped support the shipment of 40 40-foot shipping containers of meals—16 from Breedlove, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping eradicate world hunger; 17 from Rise Against Hunger, an international relief organization that provides food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable; and seven from Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit Christian organization committed to “feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit.”

The donation was shared among Salesian centers in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes, Gressier and Gonaïves. The feeding programs also covered two months of summer programming at Les Cayes, Gressier, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Gonaives, Thorland, Petionville, Drouillard and the Salesian post-novitiate.

The Hunger for Education project has also helped to ensure each of the six Salesian centers had kitchens equipped to cook the rice-meals while training 15 school cooks to prepare the nutritious meals for students. Prior to this project, the Cardinal Keeler Center in Gonaïves had no kitchen at all. With funding through the project, the center was able to develop a new kitchen from the ground up, including cooking supplies.

“The new kitchen and feeding program have been well received by students from all disciplines within the school,” said Father Yves Jorcelim Pierre, director of the Cardinal Keeler Center. “This new kitchen has also provided access for teachers, support staff, cooks and managers to eat there as well. The feeding program and donation of food aid have been a great blessing to our center. Children are now assured a hot meal each day. Prior, many were coming to school on an empty stomach and knowing they had no food to go home to in the evening. Children are much more focused on their studies now.”

Salesian vocational training students who received meals from the Hunger for Education project expressed high levels of gratitude for having food to fuel their practical exercises. In Fort-Liberté, agricultural students work in the school’s fields from 8:00-11:00 a.m. every day, and they count on having food available when they are finished with their morning projects.

In Cité Soleil and Les Cayes, Salesian students work hard in vocational training workshops to learn skills in carpentry, welding, auto-mechanics, electricity, sewing and beauty. They rely on the meals to keep them going through practical training workshops as well as classroom learning. Before the feeding program began, administrators noted instances of vocational training students fainting during their practical exercises due to a lack of food. Now students have energy not only to make it through the day but also to stay after school to participate in soccer or other programs.

Each of the six participating school directors noted that the feeding program improved student academic performance and enhanced the learning environment. Students who previously were sleepy in the afternoon after recreation time had more energy to continue in their studies after meals were implemented during the school day. School directors also noted that report cards have improved and that their students study much better when they have proper nutrition.

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A primary school student works in her classroom at one of the “Little Schools” in the Cité Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. Photo by Vancourt Wilky © MissionNewswire / Salesian Misssions

Since 1954, the Little Schools have provided an education and nutritious meals to children in poverty. Father Bohnen, a Dutch native, was assigned as head of the St. John Bosco elementary school in La Saline, where he encouraged local school teachers to form “little schools” for the children. His goal was to teach the children how to read, a first step in educating them. He also invited the children attending these “little schools” to come to the St. John Bosco cafeteria where they would receive a hot lunch. He further supported the schools by providing training and salary incentives for the teachers and a curriculum for all the schools.

Some of the Little Schools are located on the Salesian-run National Academy of Arts (ENAM) campus, where nearly every building collapsed during the devastating Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. At the time of the quake, classes were still in session and just minutes away from dismissal. Hundreds of students on the campus were killed—many of the older students were studying to become teachers.

After Salesian missionaries sprung to action during the emergency response and relief efforts, with their networks critical during the aftermath, students returned to school at 60 of the Little Schools in October 2012. At first, the classrooms were under trees or makeshift tents. Today, all 192 schools are back in operation and have resumed activities, educating more than 17,000 students. Many of the schools’ physical structures still need to be rebuilt.

From 2017 to 2019, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, received a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for its Hunger for Education USAID International Food Relief Partnership project in Haiti. The project increased the health and learning capacity of students by implementing school feeding programs in five Salesian centers in Haiti. The OPEPB Little Schools in Port-au-Prince was one of the recipients.

Primary school children gather in the courtyard of one of the “Little Schools” in Port-au-Prince. Photo by Vancourt Wilky © MissionNewswire/Salesian Misssions

Fr. Bohnen knew that children could not focus on their studies on an empty stomach. The OPEPB has one the largest free cafeterias in the world equipped with two huge kitchens, two large dining halls and a recently added bakery to help meet the need for bread. As part of the Hunger for Education project, 8,620 students received daily lunch from the two main cafeterias.

“Many of our Salesian students in Haiti come to class on an empty stomach because there is little food in the homes where they  live,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions “With Salesian feeding programs, children who once arrived at school hungry and had to struggle through classes without food are now provided with a meal during the day. As a result, students have shown improvements in health, happiness and capacity to learn.”

Despite the ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements that are helping to rebuild Haiti, the country remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. Three-quarters of the population lives on less than $2 a day and faces the highest levels of severe food insecurity in the world, according to the World Food Programme. More than half of the country’s population of 10.7 million people are undernourished. Nearly 100,000 Haitian children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, causing irreversible stunted growth for close to 30 percent of all children in the country.

For Salesian missionaries in Haiti, schools and youth programs fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing poor youth a foundation for lifelong learning through education and training in skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

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Photos by Vancourt Wilky © 2017 MissionNewswire/Salesian Misssions (permission required for reuse)

HAITI: Salesian Missions Receives Grant Funding from USAID for Hunger for Education Project

Salesian Missions – Haiti

World Food Programme – Haiti

The post HAITI: “Little Schools” provide education to more than 17,000 children in Port-au-Prince first appeared on MissionNewswire.

HAITI

(MissionNewswire) Five years after the devastating Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake struck Haiti and reduced the Salesian Youth Center in Fort Liberté, Haiti, to rubble, Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, rebuilt it. The reconstruction project, made possible by many generous donors, was part of a promise made by Salesian Missions to aid in the reconstruction of the country as well as provide relief to Haitians following the earthquake.

In the initial aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Salesian missionaries in Haiti were instrumental in emergency response and relief efforts. They were among the first responders, providing shelter, clean drinking water, medical aid and a means to securely transport, store and distribute relief supplies, as well as, perhaps most importantly, an understanding of how to get things done in Haiti. Having served in Haiti for nearly 75 years at the time of the earthquake, Salesian missionaries were not outsiders rushing in to help, they were trusted members of the communities they served.

First opened in 2002, the youth center in Fort Liberté offered a broad range of formal and informal educational programs for local youth. It housed an elementary school, technical school, vocational training center, teacher training program and one of the country’s only nursing schools.

“The reconstruction after the earthquake offered an opportunity to enhance the center’s programs and services beyond their original scope,” explains Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “In addition to simply rebuilding the schools, youth facilities, dorms and missionary housing were added to provide more accommodations. A new water purification plant also provides clean, fresh water at affordable prices to residents of surrounding communities.”

Additionally, the Salesian Provincial House built on the property during the reconstruction includes several large rooms that may be used for and rented out as conference space, providing much-needed income for Salesian programs. All of the newly constructed buildings meet the standards for being earthquake-proof which ensures that funding for the projects has been utilized in a responsible, sustainable way.

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country.

The 11 main centers each include a number of primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers and other programs for street children and youth in need. Salesian programs are located throughout Haiti including in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes and Gressier. Today, Salesian missionaries in Haiti provide the largest source of education outside of the Haitian government with schools providing education to 25,500 primary and secondary school students.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas ranking 169 out of 189 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index. Three-quarters of the population lives on less than $2 a day. The country also faces the highest levels of severe food insecurity in the world, according to the World Food Programme. More than half of the country’s population of 10.7 million people are undernourished. Nearly 100,000 Haitian children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition, causing irreversible stunted growth for close to 30 percent of all children in the country.

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Photo courtesy of Salesian Missions (contact for usage permissions)

HAITI: Salesian Missions Fulfills Five-Year Promise to Reconstruct Youth Center in Fort Liberté

World Food Programme – Haiti

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: Once reduced to rubble, rebuilt youth center in Fort Liberté offers community even more resources first appeared on MissionNewswire.

(MissionNewswire) Salesian missionaries were instrumental during the emergency response and the initial aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. Missionaries had been in Haiti for nearly 75 years at that point, providing education and other social development programs for poor youth and their families long before the earthquake struck.

Salesian missionaries were among the first responders—providing shelter and medical aid, means to securely transport, store and distribute relief supplies and clean drinking water, and possessing an important understanding of how to get things done in Haiti.

The work of Salesian missionaries never wavered and didn’t stop when the rubble was cleared away. Missionaries have remained as they always were—an integral part of communities across the country. Rebuilding Haiti has not been easy. Over the last 10 years, Haiti has since faced a cholera outbreak, the destruction of Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 hurricane that pummeled the country on Oct. 4, 2016, and most recently, political unrest that closed schools and disrupted normal life for months.

“Even in the face of devastating emergencies and challenges, Salesian missionaries have persisted in Haiti to bring hope to youth in need,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Salesian missionaries have continued to make progress rebuilding schools and programs with often limited budgets, challenges with supplies and delays in construction. The driving force to provide a better life for youth in need has remained the backbone of Salesian work and what motivates and compels the work even under the harshest of circumstances.”

BUILDING AND REOPENING SCHOOLS

Salesian missionaries began working in Haiti in 1935 in response to the Haitian government’s request for a professional school. Since then, Salesian missionaries have expanded their work to include 11 main educational centers and more than 200 schools across the country that serve some 20,000 primary school students and 5,500 secondary school students.

The earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools in the country. In early October 2012, when more than 3 million Haitian children returned to school, it was no small feat. In Salesian schools throughout Haiti, more than 1,200 teachers had to be hired after the earthquake to ensure education for students. Most of these new teachers were trained at Salesian institutions. Missionaries also had to rebuild their own schools and programs that were destroyed.

The majority of Salesian primary school students, close to 17,000, are educated at the 192 Little Schools of Fr. Bohnen, named after their founder. These little schools are located in the distressed Port-au-Prince slums of La Saline and Cité Soleil. In 2012, only 60 of the schools were back in operation with many classrooms held under trees or makeshift tents. Today, all of the schools are fully operational and back to educating their young students, but many of the physical structures still need to be rebuilt.

Salesian missionaries are also building new schools. A new Salesian elementary school was built in Les Cayes in 2018 to accommodate additional students. The school, built through the Rinaldi Foundation, the Salesian planning and development office in Haiti, welcomed its initial first-grade class in September 2018. Featuring nine classrooms, student and teacher bathrooms, two computer rooms and administrative offices, the school will serve 360 children from the area each year. A second phase of construction will add more classrooms to the building.

Most recently in July 2019, Salesian missionaries launched a new initiative to train teachers of technical and vocational institutes. Called the ENTEC Technical School, the new school in Port-au-Prince aims to improve the quality of education and employment prospects of young Haitians by ensuring that their teachers have the most up-to-date training available.

Father Victor Auguste, director general of the Rinaldi Foundation, said, “It inspires me that Salesian missionaries are making a difference in Haiti to provide a better quality of education for the future of our youth. In all of our schools, we are doing our best to work not only to improve the physical structures but also there is a great desire and passion to teach a diverse field of subjects so that our students can achieve personal success and give back to their communities and continue to rebuild our country.”

REESTABLISHING YOUTH CENTERS

The Lakay House for Street Children, an indispensable Salesian-run center that provided shelter, education and food to dozens of street children with nowhere else to turn, was completely destroyed by the earthquake, leaving children without shelter. Lakay has been back in operation for some time and home to nearly 150 former street children. In addition to classroom studies, a donated school bus has made it possible for youth to take part in field trips to educational and historical sites around Haiti.

In 2015, from funding provided by donors, Salesian Missions fulfilled a long-standing promise to reconstruct the Salesian Youth Center in Fort Liberté, which had been reduced to rubble. First opened in 2002, the youth center in Fort Liberté offers a broad range of formal and informal educational programs for local youth. It houses an elementary school, technical school, vocational training center, teacher-training program and one of the country’s only nursing schools.

Salesian missionaries have also established the Thorland Youth Center Port-au-Prince, which is serving an estimated 650 youth and young adults aged 14 and older. At Thorland, Salesian missionaries operate a “school of soccer” that is successfully providing youth a healthy outlet for exercise, team play and connecting with their peers. An estimated 120 students, both boys and girls aged 9 to 19, are registered in this program.

DEVELOPING INFRASTRUCTURE

When building new infrastructure, Salesian missionaries thought long-term. A warehouse that was built using funds from Salesian Missions, made possible by donations from donors who responded after the earthquake, was instrumental in the emergency response after Hurricane Matthew. The warehouse was used for not only for storage but also as the staging ground where missionaries and other volunteers assembled the initial 400 survival kits. A delivery truck also funded by Salesian Missions made the transport to Les Cayes possible. Due to poor road conditions in Haiti, this truck and others, now 10 years old, need to be upgraded. Salesian missionaries in Haiti are in search for funding.

FEEDING HUNGRY CHILDREN

Never forgetting that hungry children have a harder time learning in school, Salesian missionaries focused attention on feeding programs. Salesian students at six Salesian centers in Haiti received access to better nutrition thanks to a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Salesian Missions secured the grant for its Hunger for Education USAID International Food Relief Partnership project in Haiti. The project aimed to increase the health and learning capacity of students by implementing school feeding programs in Salesian centers within the country.

The project supported the shipment of 40 40-foot shipping containers of meals—16 from Breedlove, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping eradicate world hunger; 17 from Rise Against Hunger, an international relief organization that provides food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable; and seven from Feed My Starving Children, a nonprofit Christian organization committed to “feeding God’s children hungry in body and spirit.”

The rice-meals were provided to cover meals five days a week during the school term for eight months. The donation, which impacted 18,161 students, was shared among Salesian centers in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Fort-Liberté, Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes, Gressier and Gonaïves.

Fr. Auguste said, “It’s impossible to think of quality of education without a feeding program in Haiti because ‘Sak vid pa kanpe’, which means an empty bag cannot stand by itself.”

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Despite economic, social and political unrest in the country, Salesian missionaries are continuing their work building schools and infrastructure, adding new training programs for students and teachers, funding and facilitating feeding programs, and most importantly, providing hope to youth for a better future.

Despite the ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements that are helping to rebuild Haiti, the country remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. According to the World Bank, over half of the country’s population of 10 million lives on less than $1 per day and approximately 80 percent live on less than $2 per day. The majority of Haitians lack adequate access to education, healthcare and nutritious food.

For Salesian missionaries in Haiti, schools and youth programs fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing poor youth a foundation for lifelong learning through education and training in skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

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Photos:  Copyright © MissionNewswire / Salesian Missions – Permission required for use.

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FOUR YEARS LATER: Salesian Missions Has Not Forgotten Haiti

HAITI FIVE YEARS LATER: Salesians Continue Making Progress Long After Attention Has Faded

HAITI: New Salesian elementary school in Les Cayes provides education to 360 children each year

HAITI: Salesian Missions Fulfills Five-Year Promise to Reconstruct Youth Center in Fort Liberté

HAITI: Salesian missionaries launch the ENTEC Technical School to educate teachers of technical and vocational institutes

HAITI: USAID-funded Hunger for Education project feeds 18,161 students at six Salesian centers

Salesian Missions – Haiti

Interview with Father Victor Auguste, director general of the Rinaldi Foundation (Salesians of Don Bosco Haiti)

The post HAITI: Salesian Missions reflects on 10 years of rebuilding Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Every Monday, more than 80 low-income, mostly elderly people between 80 and 95 years of age, visit a Salesian church in Managua and are provided food and other assistance from the church community. Salesian missionaries in the community have noticed that since the rice-meal donation, the recipients’ strength and health as well as their mood has improved. Salesian Sisters who operate a boarding school for girls just outside the city also received part of the donation and provided the meals to their boarders who take classes in baking, sewing and embroidery in addition to academic courses toward a high school diploma. The added nourishment has had a significant impact on the girls’ ability to concentrate on their studies.

The primary recipients of the rice-meal donation were two Salesian schools in Managua, a kindergarten for young students 3-5 years old and a Salesian high school. Between the two schools, more than 200 students received better nutrition as a result of the donation. The rice-meals were provided to students during the school day as part of a free lunch program to ensure they receive proper nutrition and a balanced diet, helping them to focus on their studies and extracurricular activities. Salesian missionaries began the school feeding program to meet the needs of the many area families with limited resources to feed their children.

“Many of those participating in Salesian programs in Nicaragua are malnourished,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Meals children receive at Salesian schools may be their only meals. This food not only encourages them to attend school, it allows them to focus on getting the education they need without worrying about where their next meal will come from. Children cannot learn on an empty stomach.”

The ongoing partnership between Salesian Missions and Feed My Starving Children has resulted in 40-foot containers of fortified rice-meals being shipped to Salesian sites around the globe. Feed My Starving Children provides the food and Salesian Missions takes care of the cost and logistics of shipping each container from Feed My Starving Children warehouses to the destination country. Salesian Missions also works to help identify where the greatest needs are at any given time. The partnership began in early 2006 when the first 40-foot container was donated to and shipped by Salesian Missions for programs in Sri Lanka. Through the years, as Salesian Missions has determined beneficiaries in need of Feed My Starving Children food, almost 100 containers of more than 27 million meals have been donated, shipped and received by those in need in more than 25 countries.

“Salesian missionaries are an integral part of the existing infrastructure in many countries and Salesian Missions plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most,” adds. Fr Hyde. “Youth who access Salesian programs in Nicaragua are given an educational foundation, technical skill training and life and social skills to help them excel in the workforce. They are then able to break the cycle of poverty and become contributing members of their communities.”

Nicaragua is one of the least developed and poorest countries in Latin America, second only to Haiti, with more than 42 percent of its residents living in poverty, according to the World Bank. Poverty, although declining steadily in recent years, remains high. More than 80 percent of Nicaragua’s poor live in remote rural communities where access to basic services is a daily challenge.

After decades of political instability and vulnerability to natural hazards, the country has achieved a remarkable economic turnaround and is now focusing on innovative ways of reducing poverty. However, years of widespread poverty have taken their toll and many residents suffer from poor health conditions including HIV/AIDS. In addition, crime, violence against women, gang violence and high unemployment result in challenging economic and social conditions, particularly for young people and women.

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World Bank – Nicaragua

The post NICARAGUA: Youth and Elderly Have Access to Better Nutrition Thanks to Recent Rice-meal Donation first appeared on MissionNewswire.

ASAP accepts tool donations at its Peachtree City, Georgia location and then utilizes volunteers to help refurbish and package the tools, both new and used. From there, the tool kits are sent to Salesian vocational training programs in Haiti to help graduates prepare for future work.

Tools are expensive and students graduating from carpentry, electrical, plumbing, auto repair and other similar training programs need tools in order to retain stable employment. The tool kits provided by ASAP are vital for those students who can’t afford to buy the tools they need for work.

“The partnership with ASAP has helped Haitian graduates gain employment and break the cycle of poverty,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Many Salesian students do not have the financial resources to purchase the tools of their trade and find it challenging after graduation to be fully ready for the workforce. This donation will prepare students for that next step and make them more employable.”

Haiti’s educational system is continuing to rebuild after a January 2010 earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools and 60 percent of hospitals, killed thousands of people and left more than 350,000 injured. In 2012, more than 3 million children were able to return to school with more than 200,000 students educated in Salesian-run institutions.

Despite ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. According to the World Bank, over half of the country’s population of 10 million lives on less than $1 per day and approximately 80 percent live on less than $2 per day. The majority of Haitians lack adequate access to education, healthcare and nutritious food.

Salesian schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing poor youth a foundation for lifelong learning through education and training in skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

Salesian-run technical and vocational training centers are operated throughout Haiti. Those in Port-au-Prince and its surrounding villages offer courses in a variety of professional fields such as catering, woodworking, agriculture and hotel management. Additional centers in Fort Liberté and Cap-Haitien specialize in the fields of health, agriculture, information technology, electricity and hotel management. All of these centers, as well as other Salesian-run programs in the country, focus on providing youth with the educational opportunities and social support they need to succeed.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve education and workforce development for youth,” adds Fr. Hyde. “We accomplish this by improving the skill and capacity of professionals in existing programs and helping graduates overcome obstacles to entering the workforce.”

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A Self-Help Assistance Program

World Bank – Haiti

The post HAITI: More than 230 Salesian Graduates Receive Workforce Readiness Tool Kits first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Last year, more than 3 million Haitian children returned to school with 20,000 of them educated in Salesian-run institutions. The country’s educational system is continuing to rebuild after the earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools and 60 percent of hospitals, killed thousands of people and left more than 350,000 injured. For Salesian missionaries in the country, schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing a foundation of lifelong learning for poor youth and teaching them valuable skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

Despite ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements that are helping to rebuild the country after the earthquake, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. Over half of its population of 10 million lives on less than $1 per day and approximately 80 percent live on less than $2 per day, according to the World Bank.

“Even before the earthquake, Haiti was one of the poorest countries in the world and was desperately in need of schools and qualified teachers,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The earthquake diminished the few educational opportunities available for a generation of girls and boys already facing a future with little hope. Education is one of the most crucial factors in determining whether or not a child can escape a lifetime of poverty so it is imperative we do all we can to rebuild.”

Once Mr. Oderda saw and understood the educational challenges in Haiti resulting from the earthquake, he was moved to act. To date, he has provided the financial underwriting for the construction of four of the nine classrooms with more on the way. When the project is completed, the new school will be comprised of the nine classrooms as well as a laboratory, library, infirmary, bathroom facilities and a teachers’ lounge, all fully  furnished. The new school will be able to serve 360 students aged 6 to 15 who will have the opportunity to gain the basic education needed to enter the Salesian-run technical school at the same location.

“My aim is to help a devastated country by building a school where young people can learn the skills for a real job, one that will allow them to become independent and free from the chains of poverty,” explains Mr. Oderda in a recent video he created about the project.

Salesians missionaries in Haiti are focused on providing education and technical training to help break the cycle of poverty and bring hope to the Haitian people. Mr. Oderda chose to partner with Salesian Missions because of the organization’s nearly 80 years providing educational and workforce development programs and opportunities in Haiti. Salesian programs are made possible through the ongoing support of donors who help provide funding for this important work.

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Salesian Missions – A Meaningful Legacy for Haiti’s Children

World Bank – Haiti

The post HAITI: Loyal Salesian Missions Supporter Builds Classrooms for New School first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The donated furniture from Asset 360 is being shared by Salesian programs across Haiti. Salesian-run educational institutions in Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital city, bring homeless children in off the streets and provide them with food, clothing, shelter and education. These schools then work to reintegrate youth back into society through a variety of small economic initiatives.

In addition to schools, there are Salesian-run technical and vocational training centers throughout the country. Those in Port-au-Prince and its surrounding villages offer courses in a variety of professional fields such as catering, woodworking, agriculture and hotel management. Additional centers in the cities of Fort Liberté and Cap-Haitien specialize in the fields of health, agriculture, information technology, electricity and hotel management. All of these centers, as well as other Salesian-run programs in the country, focus on providing youth with the educational opportunities and social support they need to succeed.

“Salesians in Haiti are focused on providing education and technical training to help break the cycle of poverty and bring hope to the Haitian people,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Partnerships like those with Asset 360 help us to provide much needed supplies for our programs. Students find it easier to concentrate on their studies in a structured environment and the donated desks and chairs make that possible.”

Bedroom furniture such as beds and dressers were donated to Salesian students. The new furniture has given many a sense of dignity, especially those who have never had their own bed or dresser before.

“This is like a dream for me because where I was on the street before I never thought that one day I would have a bed for myself like rich people,” says a young student at the Salesian-run Lakay shelter and educational program in Port-au-Prince.

The shipment of furniture was the first of several donations provided by Asset 360 and coordinated by Salesian Missions. Salesian programs in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador will also receive shipments of donated furniture.

“This was a unique project at Bowling Green State University, in that multiple facilities were involved in the removal project on campus and multiple destinations were targeted for the shipments through Salesian Missions,” says Mark Berry, president of Asset 360. “Coordinating all of these moving parts was the challenge that we faced, and the campus community at BGSU could not have been more satisfied with the outcome.”

Despite ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements that are helping to rebuild Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the country, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. Over half of its population of 10 million lives on less than $1 per day, and approximately 80 percent live on less than $2 per day, according to the World Bank. Haiti continues to have significant needs in education, healthcare and nutrition.

Last year, more than 3 million Haitian children returned to school with 20,000 of them educated in Salesian-run institutions. The country’s educational system is continuing to rebuild after the earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools and 60 percent of hospitals, killed thousands of people and left more than 350,000 injured.

For Salesian missionaries in the country, schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing a foundation of lifelong education for poor youth and teaching them valuable skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

ABOUT ASSET 360

ASSET 360 is an environmental services company specializing in the responsible repurposing of no longer needed surplus materials from a wide variety of clients. Any private organization or public institution generating surplus furniture, fixtures, equipment and supplies is paired with Asset 360’s extensive network of humanitarian relief organizations whose mission it is to provide relief supplies to needy communities here in the U.S. and in the developing world.

Asset 360 staff have shipped more than 3,000 shipping containers to over 40 countries, accounting for more than 45 million pounds of materials diverted away from already over-burdened landfills. Asset 360 clients realize significant financial, social and environmental benefits through the use of this surplus reuse program.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS

Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, and is part of the Don Bosco Network—a worldwide federation of Salesian NGOs. The mission of the U.S.-based nonprofit Catholic organization is to raise funds for international programs that serve youth and families in some of the poorest places on the planet. The nearly 30,000 Salesian missionaries are made up of priests, brothers and sisters—all dedicated to caring for poor children around the globe in more than 130 countries. The Salesians are widely considered the world’s largest private provider of vocational and technical training. Additionally, more than 1 million children attend Salesian primary schools, many of which are UNICEF-supported. Millions of vulnerable youth have received services specifically funded by Salesian Missions. These services and programs are provided to children regardless of race or religion.

The post HAITI: More than 700 Students Have Access to School and Bedroom Furniture Thanks to Salesian Missions Partnership with Asset 360 first appeared on MissionNewswire.

In the initial aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Salesian missionaries in Haiti were instrumental in emergency response and relief efforts. They were among the first responders, providing shelter, clean drinking water, medical aid and a means to securely transport, store and distribute relief supplies as well as, perhaps most importantly, an understanding of how to get things done in Haiti. Having served Haiti for nearly 75 years, Salesian missionaries were not outsiders rushing in to help, they were trusted members of the communities they served.

First opened in 2002, the youth center in Fort Liberté offered a broad range of formal and informal educational programs for local youth. It housed an elementary school, technical school, vocational training center, teacher-training program and one of the country’s only nursing schools.

“The destruction and devastation after the earthquake was difficult to witness,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “A school campus once filled with students and full of life and activity was reduced to rubble and desolation.”

To support the ongoing reconstruction efforts, Fr. Hyde has traveled to Haiti dozens of times since the disaster. His most recent trip included a visit to Fort Liberté where he participated in a dedication ceremony for the newly rebuilt and re-opened youth center. The reconstruction after the earthquake offered an opportunity to enhance the center’s programs and services beyond their original scope. In addition to simply rebuilding the schools, youth facilities, dorms and missionary housing, a new water purification plant now provides clean, fresh water at affordable prices to residents of surrounding communities.

“Without the new purification plant, local water isn’t suitable for drinking,” says Fr. Hyde. “The new plant already has a steady stream of daily customers. Providing access to clean safe water is a priority for our missionaries so we are very happy with this new addition.”

There are also plans to construct a health clinic on or near the campus which will provide more than 160 nursing students with the practical training they need without having to travel great distances. Additionally, the rebuilding of a Salesian Provincial House on the property now includes several large rooms that may be used for and rented out as conference space, providing much-needed income for Salesian programs. All of the newly constructed buildings meet the standards for being earthquake-proof which ensures that funding for the projects has been utilized in a responsible, sustainable way.

During his most recent trip, Fr. Hyde also visited Salesian programs in Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, Gressier and Cap Haitien. At Cité Soleil, another new water purification plant will soon provide water to local, impoverished residents for free. In addition, in order to support demand, training opportunities in the field of clean water and sustainable systems design will be added to the curriculum offered by the Salesian technical school there.

In Gressier, the Salesian-run National School of Arts and Trades (ENAM) is up and running after having been completely destroyed and in elementary and technical training classrooms around the country, curricula focuses on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to rebuild Haiti.

“We could not have made such remarkable progress without the ongoing and exceptional generosity of our many donors and on behalf of our Salesian missionaries on the ground in Haiti, we are very grateful for their support,” adds Fr. Hyde.

Despite ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements that are helping to rebuild Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. According to the World Bank, over half of the country’s population of 10 million lives on less than $1 per day and approximately 80 percent live on less than $2 per day. The majority of Haitians lack adequate access to education, healthcare and nutritious food.

For Salesian missionaries in Haiti, schools and youth programs fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing poor youth a foundation for lifelong learning through education and training in skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

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Haiti – Fort Liberté: a new building for the training of the young

Haiti – The re-construction of the Salesian centres

World Bank – Haiti

The post HAITI: Salesian Missions Fulfills Five-Year Promise to Reconstruct Youth Center in Fort Liberté first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, have been working for years to bring attention to the plight of the Haitian people, and so many others in the world. Almost exactly a year prior to the tragedy, Salesian Missions sent a team to Haiti to document the programs and the immense need for assistance. The videos, photos and information were utilized to tell the stories of people in need in countries around the globe and the Salesians’ dedication to helping them. In Haiti, they were truly making a difference under the most challenging of circumstances.

Nothing could have prepared the Salesians—or the Haitian people—for the massive devastation and heartbreaking loss that occurred on Jan. 12, 2010.

The world was finally paying attention to Haiti.

Soon after the earthquake struck, the Salesians pledged to continue working long after the cameras and reporters were gone (the latter, unfortunately, left sooner than anyone could have envisioned). The Salesians remained working in Haiti, not just long after the press, but in many cases long after other humanitarian organizations. While other organizations are set up to come in and help with a disaster (and then inevitably leave), the Salesians have been and will continue to be an integral part of the infrastructure in Haiti and in so many other needy places around the globe.

Many of the challenges facing the people (especially the youth) of Haiti, existed long before the disaster struck. Many were homeless. Children were hungry. Conditions were crowded. Water was in short supply. The earthquake added to the misery of thousands, including children who, despite the desperate circumstances, found their way to schools each and every day, with a hunger for knowledge that outweighed the hunger in their stomachs.

These schools are some of the many Salesian-run institutions in Port-au-Prince and around the country. In some cases, students even call the schools home. In addition to elementary schools, secondary schools, vocational training institutes and colleges, the Salesians provide shelter for homeless youth and programs for street children. At every program serving youth in Haiti, students not only receive educational opportunities and the support of caring adults, they also receive a nutritious meal daily. One Salesian kitchen in Cité Soleil alone baked 20,000 rolls of bread a day to feed hungry children in the most impoverished area of the nation’s capital.

As the lights on Haiti dimmed, the Salesians shifted from disaster mode to recovery and rebuilding mode—quietly, without attention, as they always have done. It has been five years since the earthquake struck, and much still needs to be accomplished. But progress is steady, and the Salesians are proud to report some of the specifics of their accomplishments:

• Salesian Missions has a growing, ongoing partnership with Stop Hunger Now, which includes delivering nutritional meals to those in need in Haiti.
• Salesian educators from Brazil brought new sports programs to Haiti.
• A recent donation from SoapBox Soaps, coordinated by Salesian Missions, more than 10,000 bars of soap will make their way into the hands of children and families in need in Haiti. The spread of cholera in the country in the years following a massive earthquake has added to the devastation.
• Salesian missionaries secured financial support from Mercedes-Benz for their “Food for Haiti” project which is designed to meet the nutritional needs of children affected by the earthquake. Currently, the project is improving the nutrition of 135 children aged 3 to 9 who live in La Saline and Cité Soleil, the two largest slums in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince.

• Ongoing professional development has helped rebuild Salesian educational centers throughout the country:

• Salesian “Little Schools” are making a big difference. More than 20,000 children receive education and food daily in the Little Schools of Father Bohnen —“Oeuvre des Petites Ecoles de Père Bohnen” — or OPEPB in French.
• Street children in Port-au-Prince are cared for in a rebuilt Lakay House for Street Children.
  An estimated 1,000 children study in the Salesian education center in Gressier.
• Nearly 800 children and young people go to the Timkatec school in Pétion-Ville, many of them former homeless street children.
• An estimated 340 young people are currently training in agricultural schools and vocational training centers in Cap-Haïtien.
• The vocational training center at ENAM re-opened its doors a little over a year after the earthquake. ENAM is the National Academy of Arts campus, where nearly every building collapsed during the quake. On Jan. 12, 2010, more than 200 students were buried in the rubble of the renowned school known for serving Haiti’s “best and brightest.” Also killed were teachers, staff and an 85-year-old Haitian-born Salesian brother.
• The Salesian-run trade school a Lakay (that teaches street youth carpentry, cabinetry, electrical and tailoring skills) — has a new building that is able to accommodate 200 students.
• In Fort- Liberté, the Don Bosco Technical School accommodates 2,000 youth, preparing them for jobs through traditional and professional training courses in the areas identified as most in need — including hydraulics, masonry, cabinet making, tailoring and administrative work. An estimated 160 young adults will soon become nurses through the Salesian nursing school (one of the only schools of its kind in the country). The new technical school — along with the restoration of the damaged areas of Don Bosco Polytechnic—is part of a collaboration with the Caracol Industrial Park. This industrial park is expected to be one of the largest in the Caribbean, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
• The Salesian University Network installed and connected computers at 13 Salesian educational centers across the country. Hundreds of university students had a chance to continue their education when they were unable to return to school following the Jan. 12, 2011, earthquake. Since then, the computer labs and cybercafés have been instrumental in the education and empowerment of thousands of vulnerable youth in Haiti.

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Photo by Florian Kopp – Copyright : © imageBROKER / Alamy

Sources:

ANS News Agency

Salesian Missions

ProgressinHaiti.org

Catholic News Service

MSNBC / The Grio

The post HAITI FIVE YEARS LATER: Salesians Continue Making Progress Long After Attention Has Faded first appeared on MissionNewswire.

In 2012, more than 3 million Haitian children returned to school with 200,000 of them educated in Salesian-run institutions. The country’s educational system is continuing to rebuild after the earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools and 60 percent of hospitals, killed thousands of people and left more than 350,000 injured.

For Salesians in the country, schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing poor youth a foundation for lifelong learning through education and training in skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

Recently, Salesian missionaries secured financial support from Mercedes-Benz for their “Food for Haiti” project which is designed to meet the nutritional needs of children affected by the earthquake. Currently, the project is improving the nutrition of 135 children aged 3 to 9 who live in La Saline and Cite Soleil, the two largest slums in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince.

The “Food for Haiti” recipients attend the Little Schools of Father Bohnen —“Oeuvre des Petites Ecoles de Père Bohnen” — or OPEPB in French. They are a network of 50 small Salesian-run schools that were founded in 1954 to educate Haiti’s most vulnerable children. Most of the student’s families were already poor and lost everything in the earthquake, including the ability to feed their children and send them to school. With parents out of work with little means to provide adequate nutrition, or even a daily meal in some cases, many children suffer from acute malnutrition. As a result, additional health complications such as stunted growth, poor immune systems, tuberculosis, skin diseases, bronchitis and other ailments are prevalent among children.

The project focuses on providing a daily breakfast and hot lunch for school students with the goal of helping them flourish in school. For most, school is the only place a daily meal is offered. The food serves as an incentive for families to send their children to school, since parents often do not understand the importance of education for their children’s future.

Proper nutrition increases the cognitive abilities of children and increase their chances of staying longer in the education system. It also allows children to socialize and develop relationships with their peers, a process important for their rehabilitation and normalization after the psychological trauma of an earthquake.

“Access to nutritious meals allows youth to be better prepared to take part in school activities and focus on their education,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Prepared students are more likely to stay engaged with their peers and school activities helping them to remain in school and gain an education.”

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Sources:

ANS – Haiti – Mercedes-Benz supports children affected by the earthquake

Salesian Missions – Haiti

World Bank – Haiti 

The post HAITI: Mercedes-Benz Contributes to Salesian Project Helping to Feed Poor School Children first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Haiti’s educational system is continuing to rebuild after a January 2010 earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools and 60 percent of hospitals, killed thousands of people and left more than 350,000 injured. In 2012, more than 3 million children were able to return to school with more than 200,000 students educated in Salesian-run institutions.

Despite ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. According to the World Bank, over half of the country’s population of 10 million lives on less than $1 per day and approximately 80 percent live on less than $2 per day. The majority of Haitians lack adequate access to education, healthcare and nutritious food.

Salesian schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing poor youth a foundation for lifelong learning through education and training in skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

The donated meals from Stop Hunger Now are helping to enhance the educational environment for poor youth at three Salesian centers in Haiti. Students in elementary, technical and vocational schools in Lakay, Lakou and Cap-Haïtien were among the recipients as well as many others from surrounding communities.

“Access to nutritious meals allows youth to be better prepared to take part in school activities and focus on their education,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Prepared students are more likely to learn valuable skills that will help them gain employment, break the cycle of poverty in their lives and enable them to give back to their communities.”

For some students, the meals they receive at Salesian-run centers are the only meals they have each day. The meals are provided to students during the school day as well as to their families at a monthly meeting. This food aid serves as an incentive for families to send their children to school and as a result of the donation, school enrollment has increased and students are thriving. Many have gained weight, suffer fewer illnesses and are more focused on their studies. Teachers are noting better student performance in class as well as less conflict among students.

With programs in more than 130 countries around the globe and extensive knowledge and experience with aid shipments, Salesian Missions has one of the largest networks currently working with Stop Hunger Now. Salesian Missions’ programs make up an integral part of the existing infrastructure in many countries and the organization plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most.

Salesian Missions’ partnership with Stop Hunger Now was developed in 2011 and since that time, 58 40-foot shipping containers including more than 16 million rice meals have been delivered to locations in 19 countries helping to nourish poor youth in Salesian schools and those in need of emergency aid during times of war, natural disasters and health crises.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its scope of services to youth in need,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs. “Stop Hunger Now is one of our favorite partners to work with because they are very flexible. They actively seek out opportunities to enhance shipments with additional donated items that the beneficiaries need, and they go the extra mile to help Salesian Missions meet any additional emergency requests for food that it receives.”

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PHOTO: Hannah Gregory / MissionNewswire

Sources

World Bank – Haiti

The post HAITI: Stop Hunger Now Meals Arrive at Salesian Centers, Helping More than 1,100 first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Close to 35 percent of El Salvador’s population lives in poverty, according to the World Bank. Youth in the country are confronted not only with poverty, but with instability, high levels of violence and inadequate access to educational opportunities. Despite ranking high for economic indicators, the need for practical education is more important than ever with 12 percent of youth ages 15-24 unemployed and 41 percent underemployed.

El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in Central America, along with Honduras and Guatemala. The murder rate in El Salvador rose more than 44 percent in the beginning months of 2014, when compared to the same time last year. Gang violence is a leading cause of violence in the country and it’s estimated that some 60,000 young people have gang affiliation. Gang involvement often offers a sense of belonging and a sense of family that counters the lack of education and employment opportunities offered in the country.

Don Bosco University is working to provide opportunities for advanced education and employment for disadvantaged youth in El Salvador. The university offers degrees in engineering, social sciences, humanities, economics, technology and aeronautics, among others. The donated furniture, shipped late last year in preparation for a new faculty building, was installed in October. The furniture will help provide students and faculty a better working and learning environment.

In addition to this donation, Salesian programs around the globe have received school and office furniture as well as workstations thanks to the partnership between Salesian Missions and IRN. In recent months, IRN has sent shipments of furniture and workstations to Salesian sites in Haiti, the Philippines, Liberia and the Dominican Republic. Additional shipments have been sent to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and Togo.

“IRN donations have furnished Salesian schools and development offices in Central America, South America, Africa and Asia,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer for Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “We plan to continue working with IRN because they are a reliable partner who is eager to assist in our mission and provide quality donations to our programs.”

Salesians are known for their education programs for youth around the globe. With countless elementary, secondary and university level educational centers as well as training and certification programs, Salesians are helping to provide a direct path out of poverty for many youth and their families. Programs rely on donations such as those provided by IRN to keep facilities functional for students and staff.

The Institution Recycling Network was started in 1999 to match surplus items that need to be recycled with organizations and people who need them. Every educational, commercial and healthcare organization in the U.S. has surplus furniture and equipment. Hundreds of millions of people living in poverty or recovering from natural disasters worldwide are in desperate need of the kinds of surplus goods these very organizations are discarding. IRN makes the match and facilitates the distribution of the surplus into the hands of the organizations and people who need it most.

“There is a clear match between Salesian Missions’ need for furniture and equipment for their worldwide projects, and the supplies of surplus to which IRN has access,” says Mark Lennon, principal of the Institution Recycling Network. “Salesian Missions has been an excellent partner.”

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Sources:

Don Bosco University El Salvador

World Bank – El Salvador

Institution Recycling Network

The post EL SALVADOR: University Students, Faculty Benefit from Furniture Donated by Institution Recycling Network first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Nicaragua is one of the least developed and poorest countries in Latin America, second only to Haiti, with more than 42 percent of its residents living in poverty, according to the World Bank. Poverty, although declining steadily in recent years, remains high. More than 80 percent of Nicaragua’s poor live in remote rural communities where access to basic services is a daily challenge.

After decades of political instability and vulnerability to natural hazards, the country has achieved a remarkable economic turnaround and is now focusing on innovative ways of reducing poverty. However, years of widespread poverty have taken their toll and many residents suffer from poor health conditions including HIV/AIDS. In addition, crime, violence against women, gang violence and high unemployment result in challenging economic and social conditions, particularly for young people and women.

The Mary Help of Christians Elementary School provides pre-kindergarten through grade 8 education for poor youth. Close to 500 elementary school students and their teachers benefited from a donation of three 40 foot containers of new furniture. The new furniture will be used in classrooms, administrative offices and at the school’s feeding program.

Education has proven to be an effective means of breaking the cycle of poverty while giving the most vulnerable youth a sense of personal dignity and self-worth. Elementary and secondary education lays the foundation for early learning. The donated desks and chairs help to provide a more dignified and organized educational environment for students to complete their studies. As a result, students are often more focused on their classroom work and more prepared for their lessons.

“The children now have comfortable tables and chairs to use and are very happy with the improvement to their classrooms,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The furniture has contributed greatly to their learning environment and classroom discipline and has brought a smile to the faces of many of the young students. This donation has been a great contribution to the school.”

Salesian Missions’ partnership with GRRO International has provided valuable furniture, including desks, bookshelves, workstations, chairs, whiteboards, filing cabinets, and more to equip Salesian classrooms, offices and administrative buildings. In addition to this most recent donation, the partnership has made furniture donations possible at Salesian programs in Paraguay and El Salvador.

“There was a clear match between the needs of Salesian-run programs and schools and the supplies of surplus furniture to which GRRO International has access. We appreciate their partnership and their help providing for Salesian schools in need,” adds Fr. Hyde.

GRRO International, based in Beverly, Massachusetts, partners with hundreds of U.S. and global recipient organizations, providing sustainable and responsible reuse programs to a wide variety of clients nationwide. The environmentally-sound, socially conscious and fiscally beneficial programs assist in the redistribution of millions of pounds of no longer needed assets.

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Sources

GRRO International

World Bank – Nicaragua 

The post NICARAGUA: Hundreds of Elementary Students Benefit from School Furniture Donation first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Partnerships like this are vital in the effort to reduce the spread of disease in Haiti and around the globe. Oct. 15 of each year marks Global Handwashing Day, which seeks to raise awareness about this important issue. According to the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, washing with soap is the most effective and inexpensive way to prevent diarrheal and acute respiratory infections, which take the lives of millions of children in developing countries.

Working together, SoapBox Soaps and Salesian Missions are making an impact. Connecting supplies with programs on the ground—and ensuring their delivery and distribution in addition to measuring impact—is a key strength of Salesian Missions. The U.S. development arm is connected to an international network of Salesian missionaries, making it a valuable partner to companies and nonprofits that provide in-kind aid.

“Salesians are on the ground in Haiti working with children in need, so we were able to provide a pathway to bring the soap from the donors directly to the beneficiaries,” says Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at Salesian Missions, the international development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Soapbox Soaps ensured the effectiveness of their donation by working with us to determine all the details of pricing and distribution beforehand.”

As a result of the donation, more than 140 boxes of soap—which will be used for personal hygiene—were provided to Salesian-run centers in Haiti. Salesians have been working in Haiti for many years and are positioned to enable organizations like SoapBox Soaps to reach people in need efficiently, even if the organization does not have an existing presence in the country.

Salesian Missions worked directly with the Salesian-run Rinaldi Foundation in Haiti to determine the brand, price and quantity of soap needed. Then, Salesian Missions made the request to Soapbox Soaps and coordinated the delivery to and distribution from Salesian centers in the country.

The World Health Organization estimates that close to two million people, mostly children under the age of five, die each year from hygiene and sanitation related illnesses. Most are from populations in developing countries who live in extreme poverty.

Since 2010, Haiti has experienced a deadly cholera outbreak and according to the United Nations, the country still hosts the largest number of suspected cholera cases worldwide with 698,893 cases and 8,540 deaths reported from October 2010 to the present. It is widely accepted that having access to clean water and soap is one of the best preventive measures.

“This donation is so vital to our programs in Haiti because it provides Salesian schools and homes for street children the ability to promote clean habits among the students and prevent the spread of disease in the institutions and local communities,” adds O’Connor. “By promoting the practices of washing and cleanliness, the Salesians not only teach students to care for their health and bodies, but also to respect themselves and have personal dignity.”

The donated soap is providing life-saving hygiene to several different Salesian-run sites in Haiti including the Lakay Center for Street Children, a school that brings youth in off the streets and offers them food, clothing, shelter and an education. Salesian institutions like Lakay then work to reintegrate youth back into society through a variety of education and workforce development initiatives.

“We started SoapBox to support amazing organizations like Salesian Missions,” says David Simnick, CEO of SoapBox Soaps,”Our whole mission is to empower customers with the ability to make the world a better place through everyday quality purchases.”

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS WORK IN HAITI

The post HAITI: Salesian Missions and SoapBox Soaps Partnership Puts Soap into the Hands of Youth and Families at Risk for Cholera first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The ILO launched the World Day Against Child Labor in 2002. Each year on June 12, the day brings together governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, civil society and millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child laborers and what can be done to help them.

The movement is succeeding in its ambitious goals. In the late 1990s, the estimated number of children in various forms of child labor was nearly 250 million. Today, that figure has dropped to 168 million. The decline has particularly benefitted girls; total child labor among girls has fallen by 40 percent since 2000, compared to a drop of 25 percent for boys.

Child labor is defined as work that is hazardous to a child’s health, education, or physical or mental development. Too often, it traps children in a cycle of poverty. Too many children in the world still work instead of going to school. For example, an estimated 98 million children worldwide work in agriculture. Children harvest tobacco, cocoa, rubber and other global commodities. Children also work in dangerous industries like shipbreaking in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and in services such as construction and restaurant work. However, the U.S. Government has made a substantial contribution to ending this vicious cycle for tens of millions of children.

What have we learned about what works?

Social mobilization and awareness-raising: Like so many of the world’s ‘wicked’ problems, addressing child labor requires a concerted effort by multiple stakeholders acting together. Work to promote awareness of child labor among citizens and consumers in developed countries, and among families and communities in developing countries where children are at risk, has proven to be an important part of the solution. U.S. Government agencies, in particular the U.S. Department of Labor, have produced important reports documenting the issues thoroughly. Recognizing that raising public awareness also requires compelling photo and video documentation, in the mid-2000s USAID supported the creation of a photo and video repository, in particular to document conditions faced by girls. This material was ultimately turned into a film, Stolen Childhoods. The film documented not only the problem but examples of what interventions could help working children – such as a new USAID-supported schoolhouse in communities of coffee pickers in Kenya, creating opportunities for children who had been working on coffee farms to attend school for the first time.

Another very important part of the solution is mobilizing communities and empowering them to work at a grassroots level on practical solutions to address root causes of child labor. For example, through our Global Labor Program, USAID has helped workers in the rubber sector in Liberia to organize, mobilize and negotiate with their employer to end exploitative wage practices that compelled rubber tappers to bring their children to work. In the early 2000s, the problem of child labor on the world’s largest rubber plantation in Liberia came to light. Adult tappers were compelled to bring their entire families to work with them just to meet their daily quotas. Following the exposure of this problem, a transnational campaign emerged, linking civil-society organizations and trade unions in Liberia with consumer, labor and human rights groups in the United States. Through USAID’s Global Labor Program, the Solidarity Center was able to work directly with rubber workers in Liberia and assist them to organize, join unions and negotiate better wages and working conditions for themselves and their families. Today, thanks to the combination of effective awareness-raising, campaigning in the United States and the work of trade unions in Liberia to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, there is a school on the rubber plantation where all children attend school while their parents, the adult workers, are paid a living wage.

Businesses are also an important part of the solution to the child labor problem. Awareness-raising campaigns have succeeded in flagging this as a business issue for many companies worldwide in many industries, and those companies and industries are working on innovative new approaches to ensuring their supply chains do not exploit workers. Goodweave is one of the best-known examples of a program effectively addressing child labor in a sector where it was endemic, the carpet-weaving sector in India. Goodweave is a certification system that works with retailers, rug importers and exporters, and looms to ensure that child labor is not used in carpet production. The program is active in the ‘carpet belt’ of India and Nepal, and recently extended into Afghanistan. The program provides educational transition programs and works with schools to ensure that children that are found working receive the assistance and support they need to go to school. By building awareness about the widespread use of child labor in the rug industry and creating an effective market-based solution, GoodWeave is ending child labor one rug at a time. Since 1995, 11 million child labor free carpets bearing the GoodWeave label have been sold worldwide, and the number of ‘carpet kids’ has dropped from 1 million to 250,000. GoodWeave’s work in Afghanistan is supported by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Finally, governments also have a very critical role to play in addressing child labor, through their role in establishing laws and policies to protect children, and equally important, their role in ensuring that all children have access to basic education. USAID’s Education Strategy is working to increase access to education for all children worldwide, and in particular for children in crisis and conflict environments. To achieve these goals, USAID is committed to working closely with host country governments and civil society to contribute to shared goals. For example, we are supporting a multi-million dollar initiative in Haiti, Room to Learn, that is working to provide universal, compulsory access to education in Haiti. USAID works closely with the Government of Haiti to build up the education system and provide safe, equitable education to children. USAID and the Government of Haiti are planning to work together to offer schooling to working children. Last March, USAID Assistant Administrator Eric Postel visited Haiti to set priorities for the design of the program. Postel visited an evening school for working children with former Minister of Education Vanneur Pierre. A study commissioned by the USAID/Haiti’s education office estimated more than 24,000 children work as domestic servants. Most of them are teenage girls whose education level is low. The Room to Learn project will work with the Haitian Ministry to offer improved services for these girls.

This year’s theme for World Day is Social Protection: Keeping Children Out of Work. This theme builds on last year’s World Report on Child Labor [PDF]. As we learn more and more about the root causes of child labor, we also are moving further back toward addressing those causes and preventing child labor from taking place at all. We now know that poverty and shocks play a significant role in driving children into work, and also in driving adults into forced and trafficked labor. Development assistance will have a very significant role to play in addressing these issues. With more support for social protection programs that have been proven to play an effective role in helping poor families cope with various types of shocks, we can keep even more children in school and continue to ensure children receive other basic protections.

Support for the World Day grows every year and today we look forward to even wider support from governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, NGOs and civil society, international and regional organizations and active citizens worldwide. You can add your voice to the millions worldwide that will celebrate our continued progress toward ending child labor.

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Posted by Bama Athreya on Thursday, June 12th 2014

Photo © U. Roberto Romano

See this Article at its original location >

The post USAID: Ending Child Labor first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Despite ongoing reconstruction and infrastructure improvements that are helping to rebuild Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the country, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. According to the World Bank, over half of the country’s population of 10 million lives on less than $1 per day and approximately 80 percent live on less than $2 per day. The majority of Haitians lack adequate access to education, healthcare and nutritious food.

In 2012, more than 3 million Haitian children returned to school with 20,000 of them educated in Salesian-run institutions. The country’s educational system is continuing to rebuild after the earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools and 60 percent of hospitals, killed thousands of people and left more than 350,000 injured.

For Salesians in the country, schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing poor youth a foundation for lifelong learning through education and training in skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

The donated meals from Stop Hunger Now are helping to enhance the educational environment for poor youth at three Salesian centers in Haiti. Students in elementary, technical and vocational schools in Lakay, Lakou and Cap-Haïtien were among the recipients as well as many others from surrounding communities.

“The shipment of packaged meals helps us to improve the nutrition of orphans and other vulnerable children,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs. “Operating feeding programs for youth in Salesian schools whose families cannot afford to feed them is very important and integral to the success of our students and their ability to gain an education.”

The meals are provided to students during the school day as well as to their families at a monthly meeting. This food aid serves as an incentive for families to send their children to school and as a result of the donation, students are thriving. Many have gained weight, suffer fewer illnesses and are more focused on their studies. Teachers are seeing better student performance in class as well as less conflict among students.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its scope of services to youth in need,” adds O’Connor. “Stop Hunger Now is one of our favorite partners to work with because they are very flexible. They actively seek out opportunities to enhance shipments with additional donated items that the beneficiaries need, and they go the extra mile to help Salesian Missions meet any additional emergency requests for food that it receives.”

With programs in more than 130 countries around the globe and extensive knowledge and experience with aid shipments, Salesian Missions has one of the largest networks currently working with Stop Hunger Now. Salesian Missions’ programs make up an integral part of the existing infrastructure in many countries and the organization plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most.

“Access to nutritious meals allows youth to be better prepared to take part in school activities and focus on their education,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Prepared students are more likely to learn valuable skills that will help them gain employment, break the cycle of poverty in their lives and enable them to give back to their communities.”

Sources

Salesian Missions – Haiti

World Bank – Haiti 

The post HAITI: Fortified Rice Meals Help Improve Nutrition for Youth in Salesian Schools first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Those living in rural areas make up close to 75 percent of the country’s poor and the World Bank classifies Liberia as a low-income, food-deficit country, reporting that half of the population is food-insecure or highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Orphans, street children and adolescent ex-combatants often find themselves on their own facing adult responsibilities with little support and no education.

Salesians have been working in Liberia since starting a vocational institute there in 1979. Since then, Salesians in the country have been developing programs with a focus on providing youth with the education and skills necessary to transform their lives and their country.

Recently, Salesian-run Don Bosco Technical High School and Mary Help of Christians Catholic High School, both located in the capital city of Monrovia, received desks, chairs and other furniture thanks to an ongoing partnership between Salesian Missions and the Institution Recycling Network (IRN). More than 1000 students at both schools benefited from the new furniture in their classrooms, libraries, laboratories and school offices.

“The children have comfortable tables and chairs to use and students, especially those in the elementary grades, are very happy with the improvement,” says Father Sony Joseph Pottenplackal, rector and principal of Don Bosco Technical High School. “The furniture has contributed greatly to their discipline and learning environment, and has brought a smile to the faces of many of the young students. This has been a great contribution to the school.”

Desks and chairs help to provide a more dignified and organized educational environment for students to complete their studies. As a result, students are often more focused on their classroom work and more prepared for their lessons.

Salesian Missions’ partnership with IRN has provided valuable furniture to equip Salesian classrooms, offices and administrative buildings around the world, including desks, bookshelves, workstations, chairs, whiteboards, filing cabinets, auditorium seating and more.

“There was a clear match between Salesian Missions’ need for furniture and equipment for their worldwide projects, and the supplies of surplus to which IRN has access,” says Mark Lennon, principal of the Institution Recycling Network. “Salesian Missions has been an excellent partner.”

The Institution Recycling Network was started in 1999 to match surplus items that need to be recycled with organizations and people who need them. Every education, commercial, and healthcare organization in the U.S. has surplus furniture and equipment they need to get rid of. Hundreds of millions of people living in poverty or recovering from natural disasters worldwide are in desperate need of the kinds of surplus goods these very organizations are discarding. IRN makes the match and facilitates the distribution of the surplus into the hands of the organizations and people who need it most.

IRN partners with nonprofits who are known to be reputable and effective providers of relief and development assistance, and who are able to use the types of surplus that IRN can provide. The organization has a “wish list” from each of its nonprofit partners of the types and quantities of surplus they can use.

In addition to the donation in Liberia, IRN has sent shipments of furniture and workstations to Salesian sites in Haiti, Guatemala, the Philippines, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Togo as well as other sites around the globe.

“IRN donations have furnished Salesian schools and development offices in Central America, South America, Africa, and Asia,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer for Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “We plan to continue working with IRN because they are a reliable partner who is eager to assist in our mission and provide quality donations to our programs.”

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Sources

Salesian Missions – Liberia

World Bank – Liberia

The post LIBERIA: More Than 1,000 Students Benefit from New School Furniture first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Many of the challenges facing the people (especially the youth) of Haiti, existed long before the disaster struck. Many were homeless. Children were hungry. Conditions were crowded. Water was in short supply. The earthquake added to the misery of thousands, including children who, despite the desperate circumstances, found their way to schools each and every day, with a hunger for knowledge that outweighed the hunger in their stomachs.

These schools are some of the many Salesian-run institutions in Port-au-Prince and around the country. In some cases, students even call the schools home. In addition to elementary schools, secondary schools, vocational training institutes and colleges, the Salesians provide shelter for homeless youth and programs for street children. At every program serving youth in Haiti, students not only receive educational opportunities and the support of caring adults, they also receive a nutritious meal daily. One Salesian kitchen in Cité Soleil alone baked 20,000 rolls of bread a day to feed hungry children in the most impoverished area of the nation’s capital.

Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, have been working for years to bring attention to the plight of the Haitian people, and so many others in the world. Almost exactly a year prior to the tragedy, Salesian Missions sent a team to Haiti to document the programs and the immense need for assistance. The videos, photos and information were utilized to tell the stories of people in need in countries around the globe and the Salesians’ dedication to helping them. In Haiti, they were truly making a difference under the most challenging of circumstances.

Nothing could have prepared the Salesians—or the Haitian people—for the massive devastation and heartbreaking loss that occurred on Jan. 12, 2010.

The world was finally paying attention to Haiti.

Soon after the earthquake struck, the Salesians pledged to continue working long after the cameras and reporters were gone (the latter, unfortunately, left sooner than anyone could have envisioned). The Salesians remained working in Haiti, not just long after the press, but in many cases long after other humanitarian organizations. While other organizations are set up to come in and help with a disaster (and then inevitably leave), the Salesians have been and will continue to be an integral part of the infrastructure in Haiti and in so many other needy places around the globe.

As the lights on Haiti dimmed, the Salesians shifted from disaster mode to recovery and rebuilding mode—quietly, without attention, as they always have done. It has been four years since the earthquake struck, and much still needs to be accomplished. But progress is steady, and the Salesians are proud to report on the specifics of their accomplishments.

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PROGRESS REPORT BY SALESIAN MISSIONS SINCE THE EARTHQUAKE:

SALESIAN NATIONAL SCHOOL OF THE ARTS AND TRADE

Before the earthquake, this model of educational excellence provided hundreds of Haitian youth with the opportunity to broaden their cultural awareness and gain valuable trade skills. This all changed in an instant on Jan. 12, 2010. The earthquake leveled the campus and caused an enormous loss of life. More than 250 unsuspecting students, numerous teachers and three Salesian missionaries were killed. All of the machines, tools and equipment were either destroyed or stolen.

Today, the school is back in operation, utilizing temporary classrooms built by students as part of their training. Vocational students also built desks and tailored uniforms to replace those destroyed. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has pledged up to $250,000 to equip graduates with machines, tools and equipment to help rebuild their country.

LAKAY HOUSE FOR STREET CHILDREN

This indispensable Salesian-run center provided shelter, education and food to dozens of street children with nowhere else to turn. The facility was completely destroyed by the earthquake, leaving the children without shelter.

Today, Lakay is back in operation and home to nearly 150 former street children. In addition to classroom studies, a donated school bus has made it possible for youngsters to take part in field trips to educational and historical sites around Haiti.

LE PETITES ÉCOLES (THE LITTLE SCHOOLS) OF FATHER BOHNEN

Le Petites Écoles (The Little Schools) of Father Bohnen was made up of small classrooms throughout Port-au-Prince, allowing the Salesians to provide food and an education to more than 20,000 children each day. When the earthquake struck, the devastation at the campus that housed the administrative headquarters was tremendous. Every building collapsed, leaving the children without classrooms. However, the children still came to the school compound after the earthquake, knowing it would continue to be a place they could turn for help. Soon after, classrooms were formed wherever possible, sometimes under the shade of a tree or tarp with just a few chairs and a salvaged chalkboard.

Today, The Little Schools have been resurrected in temporary buildings and have served more than 21,000 students in the past year. Children not only receive an education, but a nutritional meal and a safe haven.

HERE ARE MORE SIGNS OF PROGRESS AT A GLANCE, AS REPORTED BY SALESIAN MISSIONS:

• Temporary classrooms were provided soon after the earthquake, allowing children to return to school and have some sense of normalcy. Permanent classrooms continue to be built. The Salesians are fully committed to rebuilding their educational infrastructure.
• “Le Petites Écoles du Pere Bohnen” – the Little Schools of Father Bohnen – are back in operation and last year provided more than 21,000 children with nutritious meals and a valuable education.
• In Salesian schools throughout Haiti, more than 1,200 teachers have been hired since the earthquake – most of them trained at Salesian institutions.
• A Salesian partnership with local doctors and nurses ensured that victims of a Cholera outbreak were identified and received proper treatment. In addition, their widespread education program promoted healthy living habits that prevented the disease from spreading.
• The Timkatec 2 School was expanded with a new wing added. It boasted a record 71 graduates, with an enrollment that has grown from 430 students before the earthquake to more than 600 this year.
• The Salesians also opened the Timkatec 3 Girls School to provide an education for 186 day students and an overnight shelter for 40 children.
• St. Paul Chapel in Port-au-Prince was resurrected thanks to the thoughtfulness and generosity of Blessed Sacrament Church in Pennsylvania. Upon learning that their church would be closed due to consolidation, the Blessed Sacrament parishioners packed and shipped all the church furnishings to the Salesian chapel in Haiti.
• Impressed by Salesian accomplishments, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund partnered with the Salesians to provide vocational training in construction trades and marketable skills to 420 men and women. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has also pledged up to $225,000 for the purchase of heavy machinery, tools and equipment. This will enable vocational students at the Salesians National School of Arts and Trades to have sustainable self-employment and to help rebuild their country.
• The Salesians completed construction of a warehouse that meets new safety requirements and building standards, serving as a model for new construction in Haiti. The warehouse provides important infrastructure allowing for the safe and efficient distribution of food and supplies.
• Pétion-Ville’s Dominique Savio Elementary School is providing an education to 870 children from ages 6 to 12. In addition, 540 boys and girls attend Dominique Savio College.
• In Cayes, 200 boys and girls are receiving valuable training in carpentry, masonry, mechanics, cooking, sewing and home decoration at the Salesian-run Diocesan Center for Arts and Crafts.
• The Cap-Haitian Agricultural Technical School has 140 students learning effective farming techniques, while an additional 200 youth are attending the Vocational Training School.
• In Fort-Liberté, more than 170 children—more than half girls—are receiving a basic education and approximately 160 young women are pursuing a degree at the School of Nursing.
• Through the new Salesian University Network, hundreds of university students who have been unable to return to school following the Jan. 12, 2011 earthquake will have a chance to continue their education. Thirteen computer labs or cybercafés are being established to help students stay up-to-date in their studies.
• At the Salesian Immaculate Conception Church in Cité Soleil, youth are taking part in  music and dance classes. They are learning to play the guitar, piano and drums—and enjoying the therapeutic benefits of music, helping them to better cope with the disaster they survived.

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PHOTO: Martin Diggs / Salesian Missions (MissionNewswire.org)

The post FOUR YEARS LATER: Salesian Missions Has Not Forgotten Haiti first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Last year, more than 3 million Haitian children returned to school with 20,000 of them educated in Salesian-run institutions. The country’s educational system is continuing to rebuild after the earthquake destroyed 90 percent of schools and 60 percent of hospitals, killed thousands of people and left more than 350,000 injured.

For Salesians in the country, schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing a foundation of lifelong education for poor youth, teaching them valuable skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

Recently, three Salesians from Haiti, Father Seymour Musset, Father Victor Auguste and Father Pierre Yves Jorcelim, spent a week in Spain at two Salesian centers in Deusto and Pamplona, receiving training in professional development in order to manage professional educational centers in Haiti upon their return. This trip, along with other initiatives, is a step toward furthering professional development for teachers and administrators in Salesian-run schools in Haiti.

“Rebuilding Haiti has been as much about constructing new infrastructure as it has been about building professional capacity to help heal the people and provide new opportunities for education and workforce development,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Professional and technical training is essential for personal, social, economic and political development in all nations. Haiti’s success lies in its ability to educate poor youth and connect them with sustainable livelihoods.”

Salesians in Haiti are in the process of launching a strategic plan for the sustainability and growth of their schools, thanks to funding for the initiative by Caritas in Spain. Salesian-run educational institutions such as those in Lakou, Lacay and Timkatek care for street children, bringing them in off the street and offering them food, clothing, shelter and an education. These schools then work to reintegrate youth back into society through a variety of small economic initiatives.

In addition to schools, there are Salesian-run technical and vocational training centers throughout Haiti. Those in Port-au-Prince and its surrounding villages offer courses in a variety of professional fields such as catering, woodworking, agriculture and hotel management. Additional centers in Fort Liberté and Cap-Haitien specialize in the fields of health, agriculture, information technology, electricity and hotel management. All of these centers, as well as other Salesian-run programs in the country, focus on providing youth with the educational opportunities and social support they need to succeed.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve education and workforce development for youth,” adds Fr. Hyde. “We accomplish this through improving the skill and capacity of professionals in existing programs and helping graduates overcome obstacles to enter the workforce.”

Salesians in Haiti remain focused on providing education and technical training to help break the cycle of poverty and bring hope to the Haitian people. They plan to continue their focus on professional teacher training and providing educational scholarships for the most disadvantaged, giving all youth access to educational opportunities.

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Sources:

ANS – Spain – The Professional Training for Salesians in Haiti

World Bank – Haiti

The post HAITI: Ongoing Professional Development Helps Rebuild Salesian-run Educational Centers first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Recently, four teachers from Brazil returned from an educational trip to Haiti as part of a Teachers Without Borders project. During four weeks in July, the teachers conducted daily sporting activities with close to 450 youth from Salesian schools and programs in the cities of Les Cayes and Fort-Liberté.

The teachers are part of RSE, the Network of Salesian Schools in Brazil, which is the largest Catholic teaching network on the South American continent and includes close to 5,000 teachers and 85,000 students at all levels. The project in Haiti focused on imparting sporting and academic skills for both Salesian students and local youth receiving social services from the Salesians.

Working with youth between 5 and 18 years of age, the initiative used sports to aid in the students’ overall development. Youth were taught soccer and volleyball, activities enjoyed throughout Brazil. In addition, students took part in recreational activities such as treasure hunts, educational games and various workshops.

Sports programs such as this teach valuable skills to youth both on and off the field. They offer unlimited opportunities for growth by simultaneously developing leadership, teamwork and social skills.

“Despite their simplicity and the lack of resources, the determination, commitment and sacrifice of the children will be the memory I take with me,” says Guilherme Brondi, one of the four teachers from Brazil who taught in Haiti.

The teachers brought with them all of the clothing and sports equipment necessary for the program. These materials were acquired with the help of several schools within the Salesian network in São Paolo, which held competitions and fundraising campaigns in an effort to make the project a success.

The playing conditions were not ideal. The field itself was the wrong shape and the ground was uneven making playing challenging. Some of the balls had been patched and often teams had to play wearing the same color shirts. Despite these disadvantages, the commitment of the players was unwavering.

“My eyes were filled with tears. The students’ determination playing in these conditions was by far the image that struck me most,” says Corjesus Costa, another of the four Brazilian teachers returning from Haiti. “To my eyes it was not just a game of soccer. For all their simplicity, it was the commitment of all those people to have the very best they could. This was why I had chosen to go to Haiti. I know the value of the instruments I possess – sport and education.”

Schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing a foundation of lifelong education for poor youth, teaching them valuable skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

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Sources

ANS – Brazil – RSE teachers share their experiences of their mission in Haiti

UNICEF – Haiti

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post BRAZIL: Four Teachers Return from Month-Long Sports Program in Haiti first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Close to 823 million people do not have enough to eat and nearly half of them are children, according to Stop Hunger Now, an international relief organization that provides food and life‐saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable. Of those who go hungry daily, 98 percent reside in developing countries where there is not only a shortage of food, but major challenges for aid to reach its destination. Working with Salesian Missions to ensure delivery and distribution, more than 10 countries have already received shipments of food this year, and will receive several more in the coming months.

Stop Hunger Now provides more than just food aid. It also provides significant in-kind aid (such as food, medicines and other supplies) that support education and vocational training programs which are proven to have long-term sustainability—like those run by Salesian Missions. These programs promote education, encourage children to attend school, improve the health and nutrition of students, address gender inequalities, combat child labor, spur economic growth and create a platform to address global issues.

“Salesian programs are a good match for our mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid while creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources,” says Chessney Barrick, director of communications and cause marketing at Stop Hunger Now.

The Stop Hunger Now meal packaging program was created to give dedicated individuals the opportunity to participate in a hands-on international hunger relief program and to become educated, engaged advocates for the world’s poor and hungry. It is volunteer-based and coordinates the streamlined packaging of highly nutritious dehydrated meals comprised of rice, soy, vegetables, flavoring, and 21 essential vitamins and minerals.

Founded in 1998, Stop Hunger Now has delivered aid and disaster relief supplies in the form of food, medicines, medical supplies, medical equipment, clothing, school supplies and more to thousands of disaster victims and other hungry and vulnerable people in 65 countries.

More than 300,000 volunteers have participated in the organization’s fun, exciting and rewarding activites. Stop Hunger Now meal packaging provides volunteers the opportunity to have an exponential and sustainable international impact right from their own communities.

The organization operates meal packaging locations in 17 cities throughout the U.S. and international locations in South Africa and Malaysia. Late in 2013, it plans to initiate the meal packaging program in new locations including Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Bologna, Italy.

This year Stop Hunger Now shipments have already reached the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco in the Philippines. Here, more than 28 Salesian programs shared 660 boxes of fortified rice-soy meals. More than 3,100 poor children and families benefitted from this food assistance.

“The shipment of packaged meals helps us to improve the nutrition of orphans and other vulnerable children and operate feeding programs for children in Salesian schools whose families cannot afford to feed them,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs.

Other Stop Hunger Now shipments have been received in Haiti, South Africa, Zambia and Sierra Leone where the meals will be shared among various Salesian programs located in those countries.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its scope of services to youth in need,” adds O’Connor. “Stop Hunger Now is one of our favorite partners to work with because they are very flexible. They actively seek out opportunities to enhance shipments with additional donated items that the beneficiaries need, and they go the extra mile to help Salesian Missions meet any additional emergency requests for food that we receive.”

Partnerships, like those with Salesian Missions, drive Stop Hunger Now’s major distribution channels. According to Barrick, the organization looks for those who are able to work with Stop Hunger Now effectively and efficiently while adding value to each other’s work. Partners are chosen based on the quality of their programs, the need in their country, their ability to ensure the food is used as intended and the expected impact of the partner’s programs.

With programs in more than 130 countries around the globe, Salesian Missions has one of the largest networks that Stop Hunger Now works with and they have extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to aid shipments. The Salesians are an integral part of the existing infrastructure in many countries and Salesian Missions plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most.

“Partnering with Salesian Missions has been a great experience and their vast network around the globe provides an opportunity to extend our partnership beyond just one country,” says Barrick. “Their experience in logistics, communications and program facilitation has proven to be a huge asset in effectively donating Stop Hunger Now meals to their organization.”

Barrick also praises Salesian Missions’ staff who she says are very thorough, responsive and excellent at communicating the progress of projects and the state of the beneficiaries. She notes that receiving letters, photos and videos from those who actually receive the food has tremendous impact on the donors they rely on to package the food.

“Feeding hungry children is often the first step in providing an education,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Hungry and malnourished youth cannot focus on learning. Our programs work to educate and meet the basic needs of poor youth.”

At every Salesian program serving youth around the globe, children receive educational opportunities and the support of caring adults. Humanitarian partnerships like the one with Stop Hunger Now make a real difference.

“In order to build the movement to end hunger in our lifetime,” says Barrick. “We will have to work together as partners to share the stories from the field that create champions for our causes.”

ABOUT STOP HUNGER NOW

This year, Stop Hunger Now is celebrating its 15^th anniversary in its ongoing work to create a movement to end hunger. More than 100,000,000 meals have been packaged and distributed with other life-saving aid to 65 countries, impacting millions of lives. The organization is driven by a vision of a world without hunger and a mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.

In its efforts to respond to emergency needs around the world Stop Hunger Now receives and distributes significant donations of in-kind aid. These donations are large quantities of food, medicines, medical supplies and other such items as may be of use in fighting hunger and providing relief in a crisis. For more information visit www.stophungernow.org.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS

Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, and is part of the Don Bosco Network—a worldwide federation of Salesian NGOs. The mission of the U.S.-based nonprofit Catholic organization is to raise funds for international programs that serve youth and families in poor communities around the globe. The Salesian missionaries are made up of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as laypeople—all dedicated to caring for poor children throughout the world in more than 130 countries and helping young people become self-sufficient by learning a trade that will help them gain employment. To date, more than 3 million youth have received services funded by Salesian Missions. These services and programs are provided to children regardless of race or religion. For more information, go to SalesianMissions.org.

The post Stop Hunger Now, Salesian Missions Partnership Feeds Poor Youth around the Globe first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Shipments are already on the ground in Haiti, Guatemala, Madagascar, Philippines, Sierra Leone and Zambia. Salesian-run orphanages and youth centers are able to utilize the aid for the homeless children and at-risk youth they serve. From primary and secondary schools to vocational and technical training centers, students are able to get more out of the educational opportunities the Salesians provide, knowing they will not go hungry.

Stop Hunger Now operates meal packaging locations in 17 cities throughout the U.S. and in international locations in South Africa and Malaysia. Later this year, the organization plans to initiate the meal packaging program in new locations including Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Bologna, Italy.

Stop Hunger Now helps break the cycle of poverty for meal recipients through education, skills development and health care, while providing much-needed nutrition. The majority of meals go to support school feeding, vocational training, early childhood development programs, orphanages and medical clinics.

Stop Hunger Now’s goals are to provide food and life-saving aid to support sustainable education and development programs and to create a movement of educated volunteer advocates that are actively involved in poverty and hunger related issues.

“Salesian Missions is a good match for our mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid while creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources,” says Chessney Barrick, director of marketing and communications at Stop Hunger Now.

Salesian programs operate in more than 130 countries around the globe. Salesian Missions helps support programs that promote education, encourage children to attend school, improve the health and nutrition of students, address gender inequalities, combat child labor, spur economic growth and create a platform to address global issues.

Because of the partnership and its resulting shipments, Salesians in the Philippines were able to help feed 3,155 poor youth and their families with the 660 boxes of fortified rice-soy meals they received. The shipment also included shampoo and eyeglasses, helping close to 700 people in need. Twenty-eight Salesian organizations throughout the Philippines were supported through the shipment which was coordinated by Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

The fortified rice-soy meals not only feed hungry children, they give them the energy to participate fully in educational programs and activities.

“Feeding hungry children is often the first step in providing an education,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions. “When children have their most basic needs met, they are then able to concentrate on their studies and further their education.”

For Keisha Mae, a wood and furniture technology trainee in the Philippines, the fortified meals make a significant difference to the quality of her educational experience.

“I often go to school with an empty stomach as there is no food available in the house. During snack time some of my classmates share whatever they have,” explains Keisha Mae, “But since this Rice-Soy Casserole was donated, the training center served it to the trainees during snack time. Its vegetable ingredients make it look so nutritious and satisfy our starving stomachs.”

For parents of those enrolled in programs run by the Salesians of Don Bosco in Freetown, Sierra Leone, this critical food aid gives them peace of mind knowing that despite living in poverty, they are able to give a nutritious meal to their children. Many parents allow their children to attend school simply because they know they will be fed there. Offering just one plate of food, Salesian staff managed to persuade one mother living in poverty to allow her young son to attend activities at the informal school in the youth center and enter the first level of pre-school. Nineteen pallets of rice meals were delivered to programs in Sierra Leone, benefitting close to 1,200 youth.

In another shipment, the City of Hope in Zambia was able to provide for 4,320 people ranging from infants to the elderly. The Salesian center there includes an orphanage and vocational training programs as well as a primary and secondary school. The meals provided by Stop Hunger Now allow the organization to divert money previously used on food to other critical program needs. Money saved was also used to increase the size of the programs provided and number of students admitted.

The Salesian Sisters who run the City of Hope reported that the children receiving the meals are much healthier and have less headaches and hunger pains. In addition, they are better able to focus on their school work and their grades are improving.

“Stop Hunger Now is one of our favorite partners to work with because they are very flexible. They actively seek out opportunities to enhance shipments with additional donated items that the beneficiaries need, and they go the extra mile to help Salesian Missions meet any additional emergency requests for food that we receive,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs.

With programs in more than 130 countries around the globe, Salesian Missions has one of the largest networks that Stop Hunger Now works with. They also have extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to aid shipments. The Salesians are an integral part of the existing infrastructure in many countries and Salesian Missions plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its scope of services to youth in need,” adds O’Connor. “The shipment of packaged meals helps us to improve the nutrition of orphans and other vulnerable children. Operating feeding programs for youth in Salesian schools whose families cannot afford to feed them is very important and integral to the success of our students and their ability to gain an education.”

ABOUT STOP HUNGER NOW

This year, Stop Hunger Now is celebrating its 15^th anniversary in its ongoing work to create a movement to end hunger. More than 100,000,000 meals have been packaged and distributed with other life-saving aid to 65 countries, impacting millions of lives. The organization is driven by a vision of a world without hunger and a mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and by creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.

In its efforts to respond to emergency needs around the world Stop Hunger Now receives and distributes significant donations of in-kind aid. These donations are large quantities of food, medicines, medical supplies and other such items as may be of use in fighting hunger and providing relief in a crisis. For more information visit www.stophungernow.org.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS

Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, and is part of the Don Bosco Network—a worldwide federation of Salesian NGOs. The mission of the U.S.-based nonprofit Catholic organization is to raise funds for international programs that serve youth and families in poor communities around the globe. The Salesian missionaries are made up of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as laypeople—all dedicated to caring for poor children throughout the world in more than 130 countries and helping young people become self-sufficient by learning a trade that will help them gain employment. To date, more than 3 million youth have received services funded by Salesian Missions. These services and programs are provided to children regardless of race or religion. For more information, go to SalesianMissions.org.

The post Salesian Missions, Stop Hunger Now Partner to Deliver Critical Food Aid in More Than 10 Countries first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Last year, more than 3 million Haitian children returned to school with 20,000 of them educated in Salesian-run institutions. Despite these advances, poverty is still a major barrier in Haiti with more than 50 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 per day, according to UNICEF.

In July, continuing their efforts in the country, the Salesians sent four physical education teachers from Brazil to Haiti. The teachers are part of RSE, the Network of Salesian Schools in Brazil, which is the largest Catholic teaching network on the American continent and includes close to 5,000 teachers and 85,000 students at all levels. The new project being brought to Haiti is focused on imparting sporting and academic skills for both Salesian students and local youth receiving social services from the Salesians.

“This project is more than just an act of social solidarity,” says Sister Adair Sberga FMA, coordinator of the project. “It is the gift of life. There is an enthusiasm, a desire and a motivating force which is contagious. It affects not only the teachers involved but all those who are contributing to the project.”

Focusing on youth between five and 18 years of age, the initiative uses sports to aid in the students’ overall development. Students can take part in recreational activities such as treasure hunts, play educational games, learn sports and take part in workshops. In addition, youth will be taught soccer and volleyball, activities enjoyed throughout Brazil.

Sports programs teach valuable skills to youth both on and off the field. They offer unlimited opportunities for growth by simultaneously developing leadership, teamwork and social skills.

The teachers will bring with them all of the clothing and sports equipment necessary for the program. These materials were acquired with the help of several schools within the Salesian network in São Paolo, which held competitions and fundraising campaigns in an effort to make the project a success.

“Our intention is to introduce the young people to sport though activities that have a recreational dimension but also an affective, cognitive and spiritual aspect,” adds Sr. Sberga.

This Salesian program is just one among many in Haiti. Earlier this year, Lakay, a Salesian-run trade school that teaches street youth carpentry, cabinetry and electrical and tailoring skills, reopened with a new building featuring 16 classrooms in addition to workshops, washrooms, offices, storage areas, covered walkways and a shaded outdoor space.

Schools in Haiti fulfill an important socio-economic mission by providing a foundation of lifelong education for poor youth, teaching them valuable skills and trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

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PHOTO: Martin Diggs / Salesian Missions

Sources:

ANS – Brazil – Teachers without frontiers: a project in solidarity with Haiti

UNICEF – Haiti

Salesian Missions – Haiti

The post HAITI: Salesian Educators from Brazil Bring New Sports Program to Youth in Haiti first appeared on MissionNewswire.

“IRN donations have furnished Salesian schools and development offices in Central America, South America, Africa, and Asia,” explains Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer for Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “We plan to continue working with IRN because they are a reliable partner who is eager to assist in our mission and provide quality donations to our programs.”

The Salesians are known for their education programs for youth around the globe. With countless elementary, secondary and university level educational centers as well as youth training and certification programs, the Salesians help to provide a direct path out of poverty for many youth and their families. Programs rely on donations such as those provided by IRN to keep facilities functional for students and staff.

The Institution Recycling Network was started in 1999 to match surplus items that need to be recycled with organizations and people who need them. Every education, commercial, and healthcare organization in the U.S. has surplus furniture and equipment they need to get rid of. Hundreds of millions of people living in poverty or recovering from natural disasters worldwide are in desperate need of the kinds of surplus goods these very organizations are discarding. IRN makes the match and facilitates the distribution of the surplus into the hands of the organizations and people who need it most.

“There was a clear match between Salesian Missions’ need for furniture and equipment for their worldwide projects, and the supplies of surplus to which IRN has access,” says Mark Lennon, principal of the Institution Recycling Network. “Salesian Missions has been an excellent partner.”

IRN partners with nonprofits who are known to be reputable and effective providers of relief and development assistance, and who are able to use the types of surplus that IRN can provide. The organization has a “wish list” from each of its nonprofit partners of the types and quantities of surplus they can use.

When a project comes to IRN, it makes a match against these wish lists and offers the surplus to the most appropriate nonprofits. At this point it is first-come-first-served; the first nonprofit(s) to express interest in the surplus project is the one to receive it. In many cases a single nonprofit will claim the entire project but in some cases, the surplus will be split among two or more nonprofits.

“There is almost infinite demand in the U.S. and worldwide for good quality surplus so IRN’s surplus program will continue to grow,” says Lennon. “The school or company that supplies the surplus pays IRN for the service of matching their surplus with our nonprofit network. In almost all cases they pay IRN much less than they would pay to bring in dumpsters and throw the surplus away.”

There is a three pronged benefit to the work that IRN does. The generating organizations profit by disposing of their surplus for less than the cost of throwing it away, while the recipient organizations profit from a very low cost source of quality furniture and equipment. Impoverished and disaster-stricken people benefit from furniture and equipment they otherwise would have no access to. And finally, the planet benefits from reuse of important resources.

“We know of no other organization in the country other than IRN that is able to match large quantities of surplus with qualified recipients, and then manage the entire project to remove and load the surplus for shipment,” adds Lennon.

About Institution Recycling Network (IRN)

IRN is headquartered in Concord, NH and is a cooperative recycling organization that works with more than 350 colleges and universities, hospitals, K-12 schools and private companies to improve the performance and economics of recycling. IRN negotiates transportation, processing and marketing of recycled commodities and provides a single point of contact to recycle dozens of different materials. IRN handles over 75 commodities – everything from cardboard and fluorescent lamps to concrete and Astroturf. IRN is known particularly for its effective recycling of unusual and complex commodities such as electronic equipment, construction and demolition wastes and surplus property. For more information about IRN, visit www.IRNSurplus.com.

About Salesian Missions

Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY. The mission of the U.S.-based nonprofit Catholic organization is to raise funds for its international programs that serve youth and families in poor communities around the globe. The Salesian missionaries are made up of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as laypeople – all dedicated to caring for poor youth throughout the world in more than 130 countries, helping them become self-sufficient by learning a trade that will help them gain employment. To date, more than 3 million young people have received services funded by Salesian Missions. To learn more visit www.salesianmissions.org.

The post GLOBAL: Salesian Missions Partners with Institution Recycling Network, Benefitting Programs Around the Globe first appeared on MissionNewswire.

She wipes Sendy’s knees after every fall and takes breaks from gardening to cuddle her and look into her bright eyes, relishing every opportunity to dote over her.

Sendy was severely malnourished as an infant. She had not crawled or walked at nearly 2 years old. The girl was so stunted that her mother feared she would lose her. “Her little body was so skinny, you could thread her through a needle,” says Ms. Firdemont.

Malnutrition a serious problem

In Haiti, 22 percent of children aged 6 to 59 months experience chronic malnutrition.

The rate of underweight is significantly higher in Haiti’s poorest areas – such as Palmis, the rural village outside of the southern city of Jeremie where Ms. Firdemont and Sendy live.

In rural, isolated areas, families have often not been taught about nutrition, and base their eating on cultural practice.  “I’ve seen people sell or trade their eggs for cheese doodles because they think imported foods must be healthier,” says Casimir Alfred, Program Coordinator from UNICEF’s partner on the ground Haitian Health Foundation.

In addition, the majority of families struggle not only to afford to buy foods that can supplement their diets, but also to access them. They might walk hours to local farmer’s markets, only to find a monotonous selection of foods.

“There are no tomatoes, cabbage, spinach…[T]heir bodies don’t get the necessary nutrients like vitamin A, iron and iodine, which had led to a high rate of malnutrition in these communities, compared to the country on the whole,” says Mr. Alfred.

Mighty Baby tackles malnutrition

One of the ways UNICEF is tackling this health challenge is through nutritional interventions, such as community meetings that provide information on what foods families can plant in their gardens and eat to help balance their diets.  An important part of this initiative, carried out in partnership with Haitian Health Foundation, is the distribution of a multiple micronutrient powder known locally as Bebe Vanyan (Mighty Baby). Using this powder can increase children’s chances of survival, especially during the first two years of life.

Chief of Child Survival and Development for UNICEF in Haiti Mohamed Ayoya explains, “One packet of the vitamin powder provides a daily allowance of the necessary vitamins and nutrients young children need during the critical months of their development.” The cost of a one-month supply of the supplement is under $1 US.

UNICEF, Haitian Health Foundation and the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population are working together so that the initiative can become a national program to ensure that all Haitian children under 5 get the nutritional elements they need.

The initiative has been widely successful, but Belo Fado, one of the 51 health agents working in this area, says that challenges do exist. “It’s difficult to cover everyone,” he says. “We try to prioritize and give it to children with worst cases of malnutrition first.”

More than 600,000 packs of Bebe Vanyan have been distributed to over 6,900 children since the programme’s inception in May 2012.  Families have had remarkable results overcoming and preventing the symptoms of malnutrition in their children – so much so that, as Mr. Fado makes his rounds through the community, a refrain echoes from mothers standing in the doorways of the small mud houses: “Good day, Mr. Health Agent! When will you come with more Mighty Baby powder?”

“She’s solid”

When Ms. Firdemont started using the powder, sprinkling it in Sendy’s food and drink, she saw an immediate improvement in both her appetite and development. “I put it in her food,” she says. “Bingo! Ate it right up. In her juice, same thing.”

After five months on the supplement, Sendy finally began to walk.

Some, like Ms. Firdemont, treat Mr. Fado like family, inviting him into her home to see how her daughter has grown and developed since his last visit.

“I’m so grateful for the mothers’ group meetings, because it’s where I received the vitamin powder,” she says. “Thanks to what I learned there, I make sure my daughter eats a balanced diet and gets all the nutrients she needs.

“She’s all right now,” she adds. “She’s solid.”

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Article by Michelle Marrion

Photo: © UNICEF Video

The post UNICEF: Severely Malnourished Children in Haiti Thrive, with Simple, Affordable Remedies first appeared on MissionNewswire.

In an interview with UN Radio shortly before the end of his term on 31 January, Mariano Fernández, who served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti, said that he had recently highlighted the short-term threat posed by delayed legislative and local elections because political polarization was exacerbated by the issue.

“We have had a delay that we have declared almost unacceptable because the elections should have taken place 14 months ago,” stressed Mr. Fernández, warning of the threat to stability posed by the situation.

In the long-term view, employment, however, was the major issue. “They have a work force of 4.2 million people and in formal jobs they have only 200,000,” he said, adding: “So you have around 4 million people living in a subsistence economy, in a survival economy or living from remittances from the Haitians in exile, the Diaspora.”

“This is something that we should help the Government and the private sector and the Haitian people to face and to move forward on because this is a permanent source of instability,” he stressed.

Asked about the major accomplishments of the UN mission, known as MINUSTAH, during his tenure, he said that its greatest contribution was in greatly improving security and strengthening the police and other rule of law institutions.

“Security has improved a lot,” he said, pointing out that Haiti now ranked fourth in the index of the lowest number of homicides per capita in Central America and the Caribbean. “The challenges in security are now mainly the gangs in the some shanty towns around Port-au-Prince and the family violence, the abuse against women.

“But political violence doesn’t exist, kidnapping has been reduced and the cases of homicide are concentrated around Port- au-Prince,” he said, adding: “The rest of the country is very peaceful.”

He said that cholera has also been radically reduced, with fears of a spike in transmission following hurricanes Isaac and Sandy fortunately not coming to fruition.

He noted that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently launched a campaign with the Ministers of Health of Haiti and the Dominican Republic to rid their common island of the disease during the coming year, appointing renowned United States physician Paul Farmer, to lead it. “I think we will have a serious success,” he said.

The Security Council established MINUSTAH in June 2004 to restore a secure and stable environment, to promote the political process, to strengthen Haiti’s Government institutions and rule-of-law-structures, as well as to promote and to protect human rights.

It has also helped support Haiti’s authorities with recovery efforts in the wake of the massive earthquake which struck in January 2010, as well as supporting preparations for presidential elections held in 2011.

Mr. Fernández, a native of Chile, took the reigns of MINUSTAH in April 2011 from Edmond Mulet of Guatemala, who took on the position after the earthquake. A successor for Mr. Fernández has not yet been announced.

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UN Photo/Logan Abassi: Outgoing head of MINUSTAH, the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Mariano Fernández.

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The rebuilding efforts are made possible by CISC with its partnerships between the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), the Association de la construction du Quebec, British Columbia Construction Association, Builders without Borders and the Rinaldi Foundation, which has committed to supplying and fabricating 70 tons of structural steel valued at more than $500,000. In addition, Atlas Tube, a division of JMC Steel Group, has donated 16 tons of steel hollow structural sections.

“Donating steel to help rebuild Lakay is not only critical to the future students of Haiti, but to the future of the construction industry,” says David Seeger, president of JMC Steel Group in a recent press release on the rebuilding efforts. “Ensuring the ongoing education of Haiti’s skilled youth in construction trades will allow these graduates to help rebuild their country and help ensure that the future of the trades and construction industry is bright.”

Lakay is a Salesian-run trade school that teaches street youth carpentry, cabinetry, electrical and tailoring skills. The new building will feature 16 classrooms, workshops, washrooms, offices, storage areas, covered walkways and a shaded outdoor space. The cost to rebuild Lakay is projected to be $1.2 million with a targeted completion date in the beginning of 2013.

Student enrollment has increased significantly since last year and the new building will be able to accommodate 200 students. The school fulfills an important socio-economic mission by teaching underprivileged and street youth skilled trades to help them escape poverty and establish a sustainable livelihood.

“Programs at Lakay provide an important role in communities in Haiti,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions – the U.S. arm of Salesians of Don Bosco. “Youth are able to learn a trade, find a path out of poverty and give back directly to the communities they are from.”

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS IN HAITI:

Salesian Missions, headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, is the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The Salesian Missions Office for International Programs was assigned the task of coordinating international Salesian relief efforts in Haiti immediately after the January 2010 earthquake. The Salesians have served Haiti for 75 years, operating schools, feeding programs, orphanages, and youth programs and building educational infrastructure. For more information, including a 2-Year Progress Report, go to www.SalesianMissions.org.

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Sources:

Haiti Libre – Haiti- Canada – L’École Lakay Will Reopen in Early 2013

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Positive findings

The 2012 survey, known by its French acronym EMMUS, was commissioned by the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population and carried out by the Haitian Childhood Institute (IHE), which collected  data on infant mortality, disease and use of services in the country. UNICEF was a major financial contributor and resource provider, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

According to Director of IHE Dr. Michel Cayemittes, “[The survey] enables us to determine the level of health and demographical indicators, allowing us to see the evolution of these indicators over time.”

Preliminary results of the survey bode well for the situation of children in Haiti, particularly in the areas of education and nutrition. Some of the most positive findings are in the area of education, which shows a 22 per cent growth in school attendance among children 6–11 years old over the period. Seventy-seven per cent of these children attended primary school in 2012, as compared to just under 50 per cent in 2005–2006.  An increase in school attendance among girls in Haiti has also been noted.

Situation after the earthquake

The survey allows an overview of the population affected by the 2010 earthquake, especially of the more than 300,000 people still displaced and living in camps, who remain among the most vulnerable population in the country.

According to Anne-Rose Saint-Preux, Nutrition Manager for UNICEF’s partner on the ground FONDEFH, the situation after the 2010 earthquake and the economic situation of parents were important factors in a considerable increase in the number of malnourished children.

Twenty-eight-year-old Vanessa saw malnourishment first hand. Having lost almost everything in the earthquake, she moved to camp Aviation, only to find her son Samuel malnourished. She brought the baby to a camp healthcare center run by FONDEFH, which provides pre- and postnatal care services, vaccinations and malnutrition screening.

Samuel was diagnosed as being acutely malnourished and placed on a treatment program that included a regimen of vitamin-enriched foods such as Plumpy’nut. He was monitored weekly for changes and developments. He responded to the treatment quickly and is now healthy and at a normal weight for his age.

The nutrition consultation and treatment program are supported by UNICEF, which provides materials, medicine and support to do the work on the ground.

The preliminary results of the 2012 survey, in comparison with the results from the 2005–2006 survey, show that efforts like these are working: Acute malnutrition in children under 5 years old has decreased by half – from 10 per cent to 5 per cent – and chronic malnutrition has also decreased – from 29 per cent to 22 per cent.

UNICEF Country Representative in Haiti Edouard Beigbeder says, “We were able, with the support of the international community, to bring services to the pre-earthquake level, but as well, to bring new results for the children of Haiti. The issue in the coming two years will be how to sustain these results.”

More to be done

While the survey points out where improvements have been made, it also highlights persistent bottlenecks, such as to quality of education, access to basic sanitation and reducing HIV infection.

Challenges still remain in Haiti, but for Vanessa, access to the resources and care at the UNICEF-supported FONDEFH clinic helped Samuel push through his period of malnutrition.

Ms. Saint-Preux says, “Unfortunately, I can’t say malnutrition has been completely eradicated here – hopefully one day I can. But, when I look back on where we started in 2010, compared to where we are now…thanks to the combination of prevention and treatment we are providing at the center with the support of organizations like UNICEF, I can say we’ve made great strides in decreasing malnutrition.”

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Article By Michelle Marion

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Photo: Jessica O’Connor / Salesian Missions

The post UNICEF: Three Years After Haiti Earthquake, Survey Sheds Light on Current Status of Children and Women first appeared on MissionNewswire.

According to the initial results of the Haiti Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), which covered 13,350 households, 77 per cent of children aged 6-11 years attended primary school in 2012, compared to just below 50 per cent in 2005-2006 when the last survey was conducted.

Acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months has been reduced by half from 10 per cent to five per cent, and chronic malnutrition has been cut from 29 per cent to 22 per cent between 2005-2006 and 2012.

“Results of the survey show that the efforts of partners in Haiti in these three years contributed to progress in many sectors and mitigated the impact on children of the 2010 earthquake, the outbreak of cholera and other disasters.” said the representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Haiti, Edouard Beigbeder.

“These findings call for a continued commitment to support the country in sustaining this success while addressing existing challenges and where progress has lagged,” he continued.

The Caribbean nation has been re-building since the earthquake struck in early January 2010, killing some 220,000 people and making 1.5 million others homeless, in addition to causing widespread destruction – particularly in the capital, Port-au-Prince – and a major humanitarian crisis.

The DHS 2012 was conducted by the Institut Haitien de l’Enfance, under the overall direction of the country’s Ministry of Population and Public Health, and was supported by UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), amongst others.

The survey also notes that the under-five mortality rate, at 88 child deaths per 1,000 live births, has shown a declining trend in the last 15 years, according to new estimates, down from 112 in 1997-2001 and 96 in 2002-2006.

Access to improved sources of water remained unchanged at 65 per cent, while 82 per cent of residents of internally displaced camps had access to improved sources of water. Access to improved sanitation almost doubled from 14 per cent in 2005-2006 to 26 per cent in 2012.

The 2012 Haiti DHS estimates socio-economic, demographic and health indicators for the entire Haitian population, including women of child-bearing age, children under five years of age, men aged between 15 and 59 years old. The last survey took place between October 2005 and June 2006.

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UN Photo/Logan Abassi

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Of those returning to school, more than 20,000 are educated in Salesian-run institutions, including more than 10,000 who receive one meal a day at the Little Schools of Father Bohnen—“Oeuvre des Petites Ecoles de Père Bohnen” — or OPEPB in French — which provides education ranging from preschool to vocational training.

In addition, more than 1,200 teachers have been hired in Salesian schools throughout Haiti, most of them trained at Salesian institutions like the OPEPB.

But Haiti is still in the process of recovery.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Salesian Missions Office for International Programs, located in New Rochelle, NY, was assigned the task of coordinating international Salesian relief efforts. Early efforts focused on providing basic human needs such as food, water, medical supplies, survival kits and tents for shelter. Thousands of refugees were housed within Salesian facilities that were not destroyed, and thousands more were provided food.

Since the earthquake, many of the Salesian schools and other programs are back up and running. Many of the OPEPB’s students have been studying vocational trades as well as training to be teachers to help prepare future generations of leaders.

Data offered by the World Bank shows various estimates that bear witness to the recovery. It cites 11 million cubic meters of debris that have been removed making it possible to once again move about on the streets. One million people have left the camps for displaced persons and 600,000 people will soon have access to electricity.

“The missionaries have always been on the side of those who had more need of help; the most vulnerable children, the women and the sick,” said Fr. Sylvain Ducange, Superior of the Salesians in Haiti. “Our dream is a better Haiti for young people able to take care of themselves, to ensure young people are in safety.”

There is still much work to be done in Haiti. Half of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, 500,000 people are homeless and 90 percent of children have water-related diseases. The country is still struggling with a cholera epidemic as well as an economic crisis.

The Salesians remain focused on recovery efforts in Haiti, rebuilding the country and educating its youth.

To help, go to the Donate Now page on SalesianMissions.org and select “Haiti Recovery Fund.”

For more information about Salesian Missions and its work in Haiti, download a special 2-year report on progress in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake.

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Sources:

ANS – Haiti – Children return to school

Salesian Missions – World Teacher’s Day: Salesian Missions Remembers Bright Youth Killed in Haiti Earthquake While in Class Studying to Become Teachers

The post HAITI: Salesian Students Among More Than 3 Million Children Who Have Return to School first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Mitchialine’s is a success story. From an impoverished family, she was abandoned by her father and left at a residential care center by her mother – but ultimately reunited with relatives with the help of Institut de Bien Être et de la Recherche Sociale (IBESR), Haiti’s child protection agency.

PROTECTING SEPARATED CHILDREN

Mitchialine is one of thousands of children in Haiti who have been separated from their families. Even before the devastating earthquake of 2010, it was estimated that some 1.2 million Haitian children were extremely vulnerable to multiple forms of violence and abuse, including physical and emotional abuse, domestic violence, armed and sexual violence.

To help protect children from exploitation and abuse, UNICEF provides financial and technical support to strengthen IBESR, which is tasked with the protection of all children. “The protection agency documents children who have been placed in institutions and finds alternatives to institutional placement for children,” explains Christina Torsein, child protection chief at UNICEF Haiti.

From 2010 to 2011, about 9,000 separated children were registered; 3,000 have been reunited with their families.

UNICEF has also supported IBESR to create a directory listing all residential care centers in the country, as well as their condition.

In January, IBESR, together with the child protection police Brigade de Protection des Mineurs, closed three centers in which children had been abused and neglected and placed the children in temporary care facilities, where they received medical and psychosocial care.

Mitchialine spent three years at a center that was closed last year because of reports of abuse and neglect.

NO EASY TASK

Reuniting separated children with their families is no easy task in a country with few resources for social services. According to Ms. Torsein, “Access to services in Haiti is highly unequal, and, the poorer a child is, the less likely he or she is to have access to basic rights.”

Mitchialine was identified by a relative visiting the center. Social workers at IBESR then worked to locate her closest living relative –her aunt Vanille Onezaire. After a process of family verification facilitated by IBESR, Mitchialine was reunited with Ms. Onezaire. Ms. Onezaire had thought the little girl had been lost.

“She may seem shy now, but when she first came, she didn’t say a word! Not a word!” recalls Ms. Onezaire, touching Mitchialine’s cheek tenderly. She gestures towards Mitchialine’s arms, which are covered with dark scars. “She got those at the orphanage,” she says. “Scars everywhere.”

She describes Mitchialine’s appearance when she first left the residential care center. “She was so thin, you can’t imagine…She had a swollen stomach from being malnourished. And her hair was falling out.”

“When she first arrived, Mitchialine didn’t play at all,” continues Ms. Onezaire. Mitchialine’s face lights up as she introduces her favorite toy, a green stuffed bear she calls Nounou.

Mitchialine puts Nounou away to help with the housework. Her favorite chore is helping with cooking. She smiles shyly when complimented, then quickly ducks her head and immerses herself in the simple, domestic task in front of her, content with her place in the family.

THE CHALLENGE OF REUNIFICATION

Carine Phadael is the IBESR social worker who helped reunite Mitchialine with her aunt. Ms. Phadael has been paying regular visits to Ms. Onezaire’s home since the girl’s placement to make sure that Mitchialine is doing well.

The first step – finding a home for Mitchialine – has been taken. But the next step is harder – how does Ms. Onezaire, who is already struggling to feed her own family, feed an extra mouth?

Ms. Phadael explains that IBESR provides a one-time stipend to families who have been reunited with their children. But the stipend is not enough to cover basic needs over time in a country in which 55 per cent of the population live below the international poverty line of US$1.25 per day.

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World Food Day brings attention to the plight of the world’s hungry and undernourished and provides an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the complex solutions. This year’s theme is investing in agriculture for food security.

According to the UN report The State of Food Insecurity in the World, agricultural growth is particularly effective in reducing hunger and malnutrition. Most of the extreme poor depend on agriculture and related activities for a significant part of their livelihoods. Agricultural growth involving smallholders, especially women, will be most effective in reducing extreme poverty and hunger when it increases returns to labor and generates employment for the poor.

This World Food Day, Salesian Missions highlights Salesian agricultural programs, which include more than 90 agricultural schools around the globe.

BOLIVIA:

In Bolivia, training in agriculture practices inspires transformation of communities. At the Muriyana Agricultural School, more than 600 high school students and 100 advanced students are receiving training while learning to integrate their work into the local community. An estimated 20,000 people in the communities benefit directly from this program as a result of the school’s extension and community outreach programs.

ARGENTINA

In Argentina, the Salesian-run Pascual Gentilini Agricultural School celebrated its 85 year history teaching agricultural skills to poor youth. Today, the Agricultural School’s curriculum also includes lessons in community service, vegetable gardening, cooking, maintenance, music, annual crops, cultivation of tea, fruit farming, zootechnics, bee-keeping, cattle-raising, leadership training and social work. Agricultural technical training encompasses one to six years of study and the youth at the school are enthusiastic students, eager to learn modern methods of farming together with business management.

CAMBODIA

Two new agricultural schools were announced in 2009.

ECUADOR:

In Ecuador, through a microfinance credit program from Salesian Missions, indigenous and rural populations have access to funds for agricultural and microbusiness activities. Currently, 12,000 people are taking advantage of this opportunity in 85 different communities.

HAITI:

In Haiti, the Salesian Agricultural School in Cap-Haitien provides sought-after agricultural skills to more than 140 students who will contribute to the rebuilding of Haiti. Salesians are also working to develop programs that aid community development and contribute to the advancing of opportunities for the poor and underserved. Recently, Salesians proposed a project which included enhancing food security by improving agricultural production and productivity in agriculture schools in Fort Liberté, as well as Cap Haitien and Gressier.

RWANDA:

In Rwanda, food insecurity is a major issue, according to the World Food Program. At least 22 percent of households (2.2 million people) are food-insecure, and another 24 percent are highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Today, Salesian Missions includes agriculture in its vocational training programs – to ensure that youth of Rwanda learn better agricultural practices as well as keep the school self-sustaining in the face of the country’s food shortages.

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“The Salesians are on the ground in Haiti working with children in need, so we were able to provide a pathway to bring the soap from the donors directly to the beneficiaries,” says Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs. “Working together, we decided that Haiti would be a good recipient country for this first shipment because of the cholera cholera epidemic and the hygiene education provided by Salesian schools there.”

As a result of this partnership, more than 750 boxes of soap were sent to Salesian-run centers in Haiti, which will be used for personal hygiene and laundry. Like in so many places around the globe, the Salesians are a vital part of the infrastructure in Haiti, which allows for organizations like Global Soap Project to reach people in need efficiently even if they do not have a presence in a given country.

“We’re very excited about our partnership with Salesian Missions,” says Sam Stevens, executive director of Global Soap Project. “Our goal is to get soap and hygiene education to vulnerable children and disaster victims who don’t have access to it, and this partnership is a perfect example of making that happen.”

Salesian Missions, headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, coordinated the overseas shipment and in-country distribution. Global Soap Project was able to cover the cost of the shipment, which was extremely generous and helpful, according to O’Connor.

“Working with Global Soap Project was a win-win benefiting those in need,” says O’Connor. “Salesian Missions looks forward to partnering more in the future.”

The World Health Organization estimates that close to two million people, mostly children under the age of five, die each year from hygiene and sanitation related illnesses. Most are from populations in developing countries who live in extreme poverty. Having access to clean water and soap is one of the best preventive measures.

“We know that soap can reduce childhood morbidity from diarrhea and pneumonia by up to 47 percent,” adds Stephens. “We’re grateful for the work of the team at Salesian Missions, we’re proud to partner with them on this project and look forward to partnering with them even more in the months and years to come.”

The donated soap is providing life-saving hygiene to 11 different Salesian-run sites in Haiti. Elementary schools in Pétion Ville, Cap Haiten and Fonds Parisien and students in elementary, technical, agricultural, administration and nursing schools in Fort Liberté were recipients as well as many other Salesian-run sites.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS WORK IN HAITI

Salesian Missions is the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, which has been serving Haiti for the last 75 years. Salesian Missions was instrumental in emergency response and relief efforts in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010. They were among the first responders—providing shelter and medical aid; means to securely transport, store and distribute relief supplies and clean drinking water; and, perhaps most importantly, an understanding of how to get things done in Haiti. Their rebuilding as well as education and training work continues in Haiti.

The Salesians run elementary schools, secondary schools, vocational training institutes and colleges across Haiti. In addition, the Salesians provide shelter for homeless youth and programs for street children. Haiti is one of more than 130 countries around the globe where Salesians operate such programs. For more information, go to ProgressInHaiti.org.

ABOUT GLOBAL SOAP PROJECT

Global Soap Project works to prevent hygiene related-deaths and improve global health by recycling used hotel soap and turning it into new bars that are distributed to vulnerable populations around the world. The Global Soap Project partners with existing organizations to ensure the soap is distributed to those in need, and to ensure that proper hygiene education is provided in addition to the soap.

Global Soap Project has a unique partnership with hoteliers. According to the organization, with 4.6 million hotel/motel rooms in the United States, an estimated 2.6 million soap bars are discarded every day. By participating in the project, hoteliers are diverting tons of waste from landfills and bolstering environmental sustainability programs. Hotel managers, housekeepers and guests become more environmentally conscious and more sensitive to the needs of vulnerable populations through this initiative.

Soap is collected from hotels and shipped to the Global Soap Project’s warehouse in Georgia. From there, it is sorted into containers by soap type. The soap is ground up, remixed, and then filtered through an extremely fine-mesh screen to remove dirt and other particulates. It is then processed into finished bars, cut into 4oz bars, cured, inspected and packaged. Third-party laboratory tests screen for traces of pathogens on a sample from each batch of soap produced before it ships.  As of mid-2012, soap has been distributed to partners in 23 countries, with roughly one-third of total production to-date going to Haiti.

Working with distribution and NGO partners like Salesian Missions, the soap is distributed and education on the best health and sanitation practices is provided to recipients. In addition to their rebuilding and educational initiatives, Salesian Missions continues to build partnerships and find ways to provide hope and health for families in Haiti.

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Related MissionNewswire article: Education Key to Preventing Spread of Cholera Epidemic

PHOTO: UN Photo/UNICEF/Marco Dormino

For more information:

www.SalesianMissions.org | www.ProgressInHaiti.org

www.GlobalSoap.org

Sources:

World Health Organization – Water supply, sanitation and hygiene development

The post HAITI: Global Soap Project, Salesian Missions Partner to Deliver Soap to Fight Cholera Epidemic first appeared on MissionNewswire.

According to the article, during the last 40 years, Buck and his wife Lucy have traveled to Haiti countless times where they witnessed slow progress with governmental regime changes, continued violence and technical delays. Ozburn reports that in 2008, the Closes had dinner with Partners in Health co-founder, Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer, like Buck and Lucy, the article says, had a deep connection to Haiti and gained fame by building rural health clinics there. According to the article, these clinics became a healthcare assistance model for developing countries. The article also attributes the meeting between the Closes and Dr. Farmer to the development of 1000jobsHaiti.

In the article Buck explains, “The three of us came up with the idea for 1000jobsHaiti because we saw that job creation was the most important thing we could do in Haiti. Dr. Farmer’s organization has made huge strides in health care and education in the Central Plateau of Haiti and 1000jobsHaiti’s goal is to make similar progress, over time, in the field of economic opportunity.”

Ozburn reports that 1000jobsHaiti fights poverty by providing sustainable jobs to Haitians at fair wages. The organization, he explained, doesn’t function like a traditional nonprofit. It builds partnerships with local, motivated Haitians that are anxious to improve their lives through their own efforts and creativity.

According to the article, one of the first accomplishments of the organization was employing small women’s groups in the production of artisanal goods like embroidered or knitted table linens, bed linens and tote bags. Ozburn reports that 1000jobsHaiti trained the groups and then supported them by selling and merchandising their products in the United States.

The project was in the middle of building sales and merchandising when the earthquake struck in Jan 20120. In the article, Buck explained, “We spent six months using all of our resources to bring emergency aid to our employees.”

Working within the new conditions in Haiti after the quake, 1000jobsHaiti formed a company to manufacture material for the new wave of construction happening in Haiti. The organization, as noted in the article, employed 25 men at fair working wages and currently produces concrete and earthen blocks used in the rebuilding effort.

“Our projects change lives in a pretty direct way,” Buck said in the article. “They give someone without income a way to earn a living and do it by creating, over time, sustainable business models that can carry on without an outside charity being involved.”

According to the article, 1000jobsHaiti’s relies on Haitian management to oversee the day-to-day functions of the construction business and women’s employment groups. Here in the United States, the organization has a marketing operation that mostly serves the women’s groups in sales and product design. In the article, Buck explains that finding the right Haitian leaders is essential to the project and they remain careful about expansion, making sure employees can depend on their jobs even when demand might drop.

Looking forward, Ozburn reports that 1000jobsHaiti plans to continue to grow the construction business. The Closes, the article says, are focusing their efforts in the United States to raise enough money to purchase $60,000 of equipment which would double their capacity and increase sales margins at the same time. Currently, the organization is selling more blocks than it can manufacture. With the new equipment, employment could double in Domond, the small rural town where the concrete blocks are made.

In closing, the article states that although there have been ups and downs to their progress, the Closes remain undeterred in their efforts on behalf of the Haitian people.

“This is not work for people who want overnight success,” Buck states in the article. “However, I’m confident our chosen strategy will be embraced.”

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PHOTO Courtesy 1000jobsHaiti

Original Article – DoGooder Spotlight: Transforming Haiti, One Job at a Time

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The training program is being supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and supports the ongoing efforts Don Bosco University has already made since their work began in Haiti in February 2010. The University has collaborated with Handicap International and Healing Hands for Haiti providing emergency care and rehabilitation services for those injured in the earthquake since that time. Thirteen people including teachers and qualified students from the faculty of rehabilitation studies at the University have been part of the international aid mission.

“The aim is to help the people. We know what state the country is in after the earthquake. We know this will also help us in our lives and in our profession,” says Alexis Mendoza, one of the volunteers. Volunteers are involved in assessing the condition of the patients, planning and fitting the artificial limbs and providing orthopedic help.

During a trip in 2010, Professor Rolando Martinez Panameño, dean of the School of Rehabilitation Science, estimated that out of approximately 10,000 people in need of help, 4,000 have had an amputation. Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. fundraising arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, added that University Don Bosco was able to provide assistance to children and adults who have had amputations following the 2010 earthquake by providing nearly 200 artificial limbs and more than 100 sessions of orthopedic assistance in Port-au-Prince.

“We are constantly working to expand our services in Haiti to ensure that people with disabilities are able to contribute to the rebuilding of their country. We know that even before the earthquake, children and adults with disabilities faced enormous challenges as resources in Haiti were stretched far beyond capacity,” says Fr. Mark Hyde who is thankful  for USAID support for Salesian programs around the globe.

The 32 new students will learn off-site at the University in El Salvador and will be supervised and mentored by a qualified professional as they conduct their work in Haiti. The training program covers all the various areas of prosthetics and orthotics and graduating students will obtain certification in the Standard Category II (orthopedic technologists) of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics. Don Bosco University is the only accredited center for this training in all of Latin America.

The University was recognized by the first-ever World Report on Disabilities for its leadership in prosthetic and orthotics education in Latin America and for providing opportunities for adults and children with disabilities. The 2011 report was produced jointly by the World Health Organization and the World Bank.

The Salesian school began the first formal training program in the prosthetics and orthotics fields in Latin America in 1996 and since then, about 230 students from 20 countries have graduated with skills that are in demand in their home countries.

“The training program shows how education and training not only benefit the individual student, but also entire communities, as the students return to work in local hospitals and clinics, and even train others in some cases,” says Father Hyde.

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Photo: Courtesy of ANS (Salesian Info Agency)

Sources:

ANS article (7/6/2012) – University Don Bosco training new technicians to help injured Haitians

Related MissionNewswire article (12/22/2011) – Salesian University Recognized for Leadership in Providing Children with Prosthetics

The post EL SALVADOR: Salesian University Continues Training in Orthopedics in Support of Efforts in Haiti first appeared on MissionNewswire.

“Salesian programs are a good match for our mission to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-saving aid while creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources,” said Chessney Barrick, director of marketing and communications at Stop Hunger Now.

Stop Hunger Now’s mission is supported by more than 150,000 volunteers that work together, side-by-side, to provide life-saving sustenance to those in need. The Stop Hunger Now meal packaging program provides dehydrated, high protein, and highly nutritious meals that are used in crisis situations as well as in feeding programs for schools and orphanages in developing countries around the world.

Since its inception in 1998, Stop Hunger Now’s meal packaging program has provided more than 63 million meals to those suffering from hunger. While currently operating in 12 U.S. locations, two more are planned to open in 2012. In addition to packaging meals in the U.S., Stop Hunger Now has a meal packaging program in South Africa and hosted their first international million meal event on World Food Day, Oct 16, 2011, in Malaysia. The organization has set a goal to package 25 million meals in 2012, and looks to expand further by providing 150 million meals annually over the next five years.

In addition to food aid, Stop Hunger Now provides significant in-kind aid (such as food, medicines and other supplies) that support education and vocational training programs which are proven to have long-term sustainability—like those run by Salesian Missions. These programs promote education, encourage children to attend school, improve the health and nutrition of students, address gender inequalities, combat child labor, spur economic growth and create a platform to address global issues.

Meal shipments have already reached Salesian sites in Haiti, where meals are being utilized by the Lakay program for street children. The Salesians feed more than 600 youth every day in Cité Soleil alone, the poorest slum in Port-au-Prince. Other Stop Hunger Now shipments are en route to Honduras, South Sudan and East Timor where the meals will be shared among various Salesian programs located in those counties.

“The partnership with Stop Hunger Now allows Salesian Missions to expand its scope and breadth of services to youth in need,” said Jessica O’Connor, property and logistics officer at the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs. “The shipment of packaged meals helps us to improve the nutrition of orphans and other vulnerable children, and operate feeding programs for children in Salesian schools whose families cannot afford to feed them.”

Stop Hunger Now receives requests for meals from in-country partners all over the world who are interested in utilizing meals in feeding programs. Partnerships drive Stop Hunger Now’s major distribution channels. According to Barrick, they look for partners like Salesian Missions that are able to work with Stop Hunger Now effectively and efficiently while adding value to each other’s work. Partners are chosen based on the quality of their programs, the need in their country, their ability to ensure the food is used as intended and the expected impact of the partner’s programs.

“Partnering with Salesian Missions has been a great experience. The staff is quick, thorough, responsive and great at communicating the progress of projects and the state of the beneficiaries,” Barrick says, adding that receiving letters, photos and videos from those who actually receive the food has tremendous impact on the donors they rely on to package the food.

Salesian Missions has one of the largest networks that Stop Hunger Now works with and has extensive knowledge and experience when it comes to aid shipments. The partnership, while new, has already proven to be effective.

“Salesians Missions’ vast network throughout the globe provides an opportunity to extend our partnership beyond just one country,” says Barrick. “Their experience in logistics, communications and program facilitation has proven to be a huge asset in effectively donating Stop Hunger Now meals to their organization.”

Salesian Missions has a presence in more than 130 countries around the globe and specializes in providing more than just meals and a handout.

“Feeding hungry children is often the first step in providing an education,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

At every Salesian-run program serving youth around the globe, children receive educational opportunities and the support of caring adults. The Salesians are an integral part of the infrastructure in many countries and Salesian Missions plays an important role in making sure aid from the United States reaches its destination country and gets into the hands of those who need it most. Humanitarian partnerships like the one with Stop Hunger Now make a real difference.

“In order to build the movement to end hunger in our lifetime,” says Barrick. “We will have to work together as partners to share the stories from the field that create champions for our causes.”

ABOUT STOP HUNGER NOW

Established in 1998, Stop Hunger Now is an international relief organization headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is driven by the vision of a world without hunger. Its mission is to provide food and life‐saving aid to the world’s most vulnerable and create a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources. Stop Hunger Now currently conducts its successful meal packaging program in 12 cities throughout the United States and three locations in South Africa. More than 150,000 volunteers have packaged 65 million meals to support school feeding programs and provide disaster relief. In 2012, Stop Hunger Now will expand its services to two new locations in the United States, Northern California and Boston, and also into Malaysia. For more information, go to StopHungerNow.org.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS

Salesian Missions is headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, and is part of the Don Bosco Network—a worldwide federation of Salesian NGOs. The mission of the U.S.-based nonprofit Catholic organization is to raise funds for international programs that serve youth and families in poor communities around the globe. The Salesian missionaries are made up of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as laypeople—all dedicated to caring for poor children throughout the world in more than 130 countries and helping young people become self-sufficient by learning a trade that will help them gain employment. To date, more than 3 million youth have received services funded by Salesian Missions. These services and programs are provided to children regardless of race or religion. For more information, go to SalesianMissions.org.

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The post GLOBAL: Stop Hunger Now Partners with Salesian Missions to Feed World’s Poorest Youth first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The new school—along with the restoration of the damaged areas of Don Bosco Polytechnic—is part of a collaboration with the Caracol Industrial Park. This industrial park is expected to be one of the largest in the Caribbean, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) which is financing the industrial park project along with private investors and other organizations.

The school will develop training modules ranging from three months to two years that will give youth the skills needed to meet job requirements for the new industries located in the industrial park. Sae-A Co. Ltd., a Korean apparel manufacturer, is investing $78 million to develop operations in the park and has committed to hiring at least 20,000 Haitians to work there. This is the largest single investment in modern Haitian history, according to the IDB.

“This is a simple ceremony, but it is very important for its symbolism and the meaning it carries, given that the government of Haiti is involved, with the determination of the President of the Republic, in the concentration of investments and the creation of Industrial Estates, which of course needs a trained labor force,” said Minister Paul at the opening of the school.

“The Caracol Industrial Park shows the positive impact foreign investment can have in building Haiti back better,” said former U.S. President Bill Clinton at the official ceremony to set the foundational stone for the construction of the industrial park in November, 2011. “It will bring tens of thousands of jobs to Haitians, and I am proud to be here for the groundbreaking of this important project.”

Investments also include $55 million for the initial construction phase from the IDB. The U.S. government has committed more than $124 million in funding to build at least 25 megawatts of electrical power generation, improve regional health facilities, construct up to 5,000 housing units near the towns of Ouanaminthe, Fort Liberté, Terriere Rouge, Trou Du Nord, Caracol, and Quartier Morin in Northern Haiti in partnership with the IDB and Food for the Poor, and modernize regional port facilities, according to the IDB website.

“This is a unique opportunity to provide youth with skills that they can immediately put into action to rebuild their individual lives, as well as their country. Our goal is to support Haiti’s youth as they become the country’s leaders in the public and private sectors,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Don Bosco Technical School will prepare youth for jobs through traditional and professional training courses in the areas identified as most in need, including hydraulics, masonry, cabinet making, tailoring and administrative work.

“We are constantly developing new training programs to meet the needs of the specific areas of Haiti where we work,” explains Fr. Hyde, adding that Salesian Missions is currently undertaking an in-depth study of the employment situation in Haiti to better understand the needs of the marketplace and determine what opportunities are available to students.

Father Sonel Romain, director of the Salesian Center in Fort Liberté, notes that since 1935, Salesians have worked to educate Haiti’s most vulnerable youth and have been working in Fort-Liberté for 10 years offering both formal and informal education programs.

Like the Don Bosco Technical School, the center in Fort Liberté offers a wide range of educational programs and includes an elementary school, a technical school, a vocational training center, teacher-training courses and a school of nursing. In March, a new section of the school of nursing opened in conjunction with the presentation of certificates to nursing students. New buildings include four classrooms, a library, a work room, a staff room and others for administration.

Salesians also work to develop programs that aid community development and contribute to the advancing of opportunities for the poor and underserved. Recently, Salesians proposed a project which included enhancing food security by improving agricultural production and productivity in agriculture schools in Fort Liberté, as well as Cap Haitien and Gressier.

ABOUT SALESIAN MISSIONS IN HAITI:

Salesian Missions, headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, is the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The Salesian Missions Office for International Programs was assigned the task of coordinating international Salesian relief efforts in Haiti immediately after the January 2010 earthquake. The Salesians have served Haiti for 75 years, operating schools, feeding programs, orphanages, and youth programs and building educational infrastructure. For more information, go to www.SalesianMissions.org.

For more information about Salesian Missions’ work and progress in Haiti, visit ProgressInHaiti.org.

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SOURCES:

ANS (Salesian Info Agency)

ProgressInHaiti.org

The post HAITI: Opening of Salesian Technical School to Provide Skills, Jobs to 2,000 Students first appeared on MissionNewswire.

“We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Brazil and take advantage of our countries’ relative expertise in agriculture,” said Mark Feierstein, Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean at USAID. “By combining efforts, our countries can help others improve nutrition for rural communities and increase incomes for poor farmers.”

In Haiti, the partnership will primarily focus on sharing new technologies and implementing exchange programs and training opportunities. The three governments will: 1) test new varieties of maize, rice, beans, cowpeas and other crops; 2) implement new farming systems that use less water, fertilizer, and seeds; 3) improve mango production; 4) adopt technologies to store and process grains and vegetables; 5) enable farmers to use their land to sustainably produce both food and wood; 6) conduct exchange and training programs for farmers and researchers; and 7) promote nutrition, specifically for mothers and children.

“This partnership leverages the expertise of Brazilians and Americans to make a difference in food security in the region and directly help Haitians,” noted Paul Weisenfeld, Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau of Food Security at USAID.

The partnership builds upon the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative to help nearly 567,000 vulnerable Haitian women, children, and family members escape hunger and poverty and to provide 176,000 children with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality.

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See related article about the Salesian program: Opportunity Grows at Agriculture School in Haiti

See ProgressInHaiti.org for more stories of progress in Haiti.

The post HAITI (USAID): U.S., Brazil Partner to Improve Food Security in the Americas first appeared on MissionNewswire.

While in Haiti, Pineda met with local Salesian missionaries, USAID representatives and officials from the Haitian government’s National Center for Food Security. He also toured the Plumpy’Nut (Medika Mamba) manufacturing plant of the nonprofit Meds and Food for Kids (a potential project partner dedicated to the treatment and prevention of childhood malnutrition in Haiti). The Salesians’ proposed project focuses on: enhancing food security by improving agricultural production and productivity in agriculture schools in Cap Hatien, Fort Liberte and Gressier; cholera prevention through education and water and sanitation techniques; and addressing malnutrition in the poorest slum areas of Port-au-Prince such as Cité Soleil through a direct feeding program.

Salesian Missions, headquartered in New Rochelle, NY, is the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The Salesians Missions Office for International Programs was assigned the task of coordinating international Salesian relief efforts immediately after the January 2010 earthquake. The Salesians have served Haiti for nearly 75 years, operating schools, feeding programs, orphanages, youth programs and building educational infrastructure. For more information, go to SalesianMissions.org.

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The post HAITI: Salesian Missions Researches Possible Agriculture Education, School Feeding Project first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Many of the challenges facing the people (especially the youth) of Haiti , existed long before the disaster struck. Many were homeless. Children were hungry. Conditions were crowded. Water was in short supply. The earthquake added to the misery of thousands, including children who, despite the desperate circumstances, found their way to schools each and every day, with a hunger for knowledge that outweighed the hunger in their stomachs.

These schools are some of the many Salesian-run institutions in Port-au-Prince and around the country. In some cases, students even call the schools home. In addition to elementary schools, secondary schools, vocational training institutes and colleges, the Salesians provide shelter for homeless youth and programs for street children. At every program serving youth in Haiti, students not only receive educational opportunities and the support of caring adults, they also receive a nutritious meal daily. One Salesian kitchen in Cité Soleil alone baked 20,000 rolls of bread a day to feed hungry children in the most impoverished area of the nation’s capital.

Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, have been working for years to bring attention to the plight of the Haitian people, and so many others in the world. Almost exactly a year prior to the tragedy, Salesian Missions sent a team to Haiti to document the programs and the immense need for assistance. The videos, photos and information were utilized to tell the stories of people in need in countries around the globe and the Salesians’ dedication to helping them. In Haiti, they were truly making a difference under the most challenging of circumstances.

Nothing could have prepared the Salesians—or the Haitian people—for the massive devastation and heartbreaking loss that occurred on Jan. 12, 2010.

The world was finally paying attention to Haiti.

Soon after the earthquake struck, the Salesians pledged to continue working long after the cameras and reporters were gone (the latter, unfortunately, left sooner than anyone could have envisioned). The Salesians remained working in Haiti, not just long after the press, but in many cases long after other humanitarian organizations. While other organizations are set up to come in and help with a disaster (and then inevitably leave), the Salesians have been and will continue to be an integral part of the infrastructure in Haiti and in so many other needy places around the globe.

As the lights on Haiti dimmed, the Salesians shifted from disaster mode to recovery and rebuilding mode—quietly, without attention, as they always have done. It has been two years since the earthquake struck, and much still needs to be accomplished. But progress is steady, and the Salesians are proud to report on the specifics of their accomplishments.

A full report will soon be available to download at SalesianMissions.org and ProgressInHaiti.org.

Salesian Missions, located in New Rochelle, NY, is the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. The organization is raising awareness and funds to help with Haiti’s rebuilding effort. To help, go to SalesianMissions.org, click on “Donate Now” and select “Haiti Recovery Fund.”

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PROGRESS REPORT DETAILS (AT A GLANCE) BELOW:

SALESIAN NATIONAL SCHOOL OF THE ARTS AND TRADE

Before the earthquake, this model of educational excellence provided hundreds of Haitian youth with the opportunity to broaden their cultural awareness and gain valuable trade skills. This all changed in an instant on Jan. 12, 2010. The earthquake leveled the campus and caused an enormous loss of life. More than 250 unsuspecting students, numerous teachers and three Salesian missionaries were killed. All of the machines, tools and equipment were either destroyed or stolen.

Today, the school is back in operation, utilizing temporary classrooms built by students as part of their training. Vocational students also built desks and tailored uniforms to replace those destroyed. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has pledged up to $250,000 to equip graduates with machines, tools and equipment to help rebuild their country.

LAKAY HOUSE FOR STREET CHILDREN

This indispensable Salesian-run center provided shelter, education and food to dozens of street children with nowhere else to turn. The facility was completely destroyed by the earthquake, leaving the children without shelter.

Today, Lakay is back in operation and home to nearly 150 former street children. In addition to classroom studies, a donated school bus has made it possible for youngsters to take part in field trips to educational and historical sites around Haiti.

LE PETITES ÉCOLES (THE LITTLE SCHOOLS) OF FATHER BOHNEN

Le Petites Écoles (The Little Schools) of Father Bohnen was made up of small classrooms throughout Port-au-Prince, allowing the Salesians to provide food and an education to more than 20,000 children each day. When the earthquake struck, the devastation at the campus that housed the administrative headquarters was tremendous. Every building collapsed, leaving the children without classrooms. However, the children still came to the school compound after the earthquake, knowing it would continue to be a place they could turn for help. Soon after, classrooms were formed wherever possible, sometimes under the shade of a tree or tarp with just a few chairs and a salvaged chalkboard.

Today, The Little Schools have been resurrected in temporary buildings and have served more than 21,000 students in the past year. Children not only receive an education, but a nutritional meal and a safe haven.

HERE ARE MORE SIGNS OF PROGRESS AT A GLANCE, AS REPORTED BY SALESIAN MISSIONS:

• Temporary classrooms were provided soon after the earthquake, allowing children to return to school and have some sense of normalcy. Permanent classrooms continue to be built. The Salesians are fully committed to rebuilding their educational infrastructure.
• “Le Petites Écoles du Pere Bohnen” – the Little Schools of Father Bohnen – are back in operation and last year provided more than 21,000 children with nutritious meals and a valuable education.
• In Salesian schools throughout Haiti, more than 1,200 teachers have been hired since the earthquake – most of them trained at Salesian institutions.
• A Salesian partnership with local doctors and nurses ensured that victims of a Cholera outbreak were identified and received proper treatment. In addition, their widespread education program promoted healthy living habits that prevented the disease from spreading.
• The Timkatec 2 School was expanded with a new wing added. It boasted a record 71 graduates, with an enrollment that has grown from 430 students before the earthquake to more than 600 this year.
• The Salesians also opened the Timkatec 3 Girls School to provide an education for 186 day students and an overnight shelter for 40 children.
• St. Paul Chapel in Port-au-Prince was resurrected thanks to the thoughtfulness and generosity of Blessed Sacrament Church in Pennsylvania. Upon learning that their church would be closed due to consolidation, the Blessed Sacrament parishioners packed and shipped all the church furnishings to the Salesian chapel in Haiti.
• Impressed by Salesian accomplishments, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund partnered with the Salesians to provide vocational training in construction trades and marketable skills to 420 men and women. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has also pledged up to $225,000 for the purchase of heavy machinery, tools and equipment. This will enable vocational students at the Salesians National School of Arts and Trades to have sustainable self-employment and to help rebuild their country.
• The Salesians completed construction of a warehouse that meets new safety requirements and building standards, serving as a model for new construction in Haiti. The warehouse provides important infrastructure allowing for the safe and efficient distribution of food and supplies.
• Pétion-Ville’s Dominique Savio Elementary School is providing an education to 870 children from ages 6 to 12. In addition, 540 boys and girls attend Dominique Savio College.
• In Cayes, 200 boys and girls are receiving valuable training in carpentry, masonry, mechanics, cooking, sewing and home decoration at the Salesian-run Diocesan Center for Arts and Crafts.
• The Cap-Haitian Agricultural Technical School has 140 students learning effective farming techniques, while an additional 200 youth are attending the Vocational Training School.
• In Fort-Liberté, more than 170 children—more than half girls—are receiving a basic education and approximately 160 young women are pursuing a degree at the School of Nursing.
• Through the new Salesian University Network, hundreds of university students who have been unable to return to school following the Jan. 12, 2011 earthquake will have a chance to continue their education. Thirteen computer labs or cybercafés are being established to help students stay up-to-date in their studies.
• At the Salesian Immaculate Conception Church in Cité Soleil, youth are taking part in  music and dance classes. They are learning to play the guitar, piano and drums—and enjoying the therapeutic benefits of music, helping them to better cope with the disaster they survived.

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To learn more about Salesian programs and progress in Haiti, go to ProgressInHaiti.org, a special section of MissionNewswire.org.

The post HAITI: Salesian Missions Reports on Progress in Haiti Two Years Later first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The Salesian school began the first formal training program in the prosthetics and orthotics fields in Latin America in 1996 and since then, about 230 students from 20 countries have graduated with skills that are in demand in their home countries.

“The training program shows how education and training not only benefit the individual student, but also entire communities, as the students return to work in local hospitals and clinics, and even train others in some cases,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. fundraising arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Fr. Mark adds that most recently the University Don Bosco was able to provide assistance in Haiti, helping children and adults who have had amputations following the 2010 earthquake. Immediately following the earthquake, seven professional technicians aided, providing nearly 200 artificial limbs and more than 100 sessions of orthopedic assistance in Port-au-Prince.

“The aim is to help the people. We know what state the country is in after the earthquake. We know this will also help us in our lives and in our profession,” says Alexis Mendoza, one of the volunteers. Volunteers will be involved in assessing the condition of the patients, planning and fitting the artificial limbs and providing orthopedic help.

During a trip in 2010, Prof. Rolando Martinez Panameño, dean of the School of Re-habilitation Science, estimated that out of approximately 10,000 people in need of help, 4,000 have had an amputation.

In addition to volunteer trips, the University partners with the Ministry of Health, Physicians for Peace and other nongovernmental organizations in Haiti to establish a national training and certification program for the Haitian prosthetic and orthotic community. Students take part in a distance learning course in their native language of Creole, while also training with US professionals.

“We are constantly working to expand our services in Haiti to ensure that people with disabilities are able to contribute to the rebuilding of their country. We know that even before the earthquake, children and adults with disabilities faced enormous challenges as resources in Haiti were stretched far beyond capacity,” says Fr. Mark, citing the World Report on Disabilities statistics that show children with disabilities are less likely to start school than non-disabled children and have lower rates of staying in school. In addition, in OECD countries (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), the employment rate of people with disabilities (44 percent) is slightly over half that for people without disabilities (75 percent).

With additional support from the World Health Organization, distance learning programs available in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French are now also offered in Angola and Bosnia and Herzegovina, says Fr. Mark.

Almost one-fifth of the estimated global total of one billion persons living with disabilities — or between 110-190 million — encounter significant difficulties including discrimination and lack of adequate health care and rehabilitation services, according to the World Report on Disabilities which was developed with contributions from more than 380 experts and is expected to be a key resource for countries implementing the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The report also cites difficulties associated with a lack of access to transportation and information and communication technologies.

People with disabilities have generally poorer health, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. Children surrounded by poverty, especially those with disabilities, face uncertain futures and overwhelming obstacles.

“Children with disabilities have the same rights as all children, and they deserve the same chance to make the most of their lives and to make their voices heard,” says Anthony Lake, UNICEF executive director. “We need to break down the barriers that prevent full participation of children with disabilities — from programs that ignore their needs, to prejudice that discounts their ability to contribute.”

The remarks were part of Lake’s recent call on Dec. 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, for a greater investment in helping children and young people with disabilities to realize their rights. Lake also renewed the call for universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

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PHOTO: UN Photo/Sophia Paris

Related MissionNewswire article: GLOBAL: UNICEF Calls for Children with Disabilities to be Included in All Development

Sources:

World Report on Disabilities

UNICEF calls for children with disabilities to be included in all development

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: New world report shows more than 1 billion people with disabilities face substantial barriers in their daily lives

International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics

Handicap International

Salesian Lay Missioners

The post EL SALVADOR: Salesian University Recognized for Leadership in Providing Children with Prosthetics first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The issues include lack of qualified engineers, poverty and corruption—as well as few national building standards in the country. To ensure their new buildings meet established safety standards, Salesians worked with architect Micheline Baptiste to meet fundamental safety requirements outlined in the Model Building Code for Earthquakes established by the Association of Caribbean States.

“We need to unite for the reconstruction of Haiti,” said Father Jacques Charles, director of the Rinaldi Foundation, at the dedication of the warehouse—a permanent Salesian structure completed after the earthquake. He adds that new construction techniques are being taught in the Salesian vocational schools, which each year educate youth in construction, carpentry and electrical maintenance.

“We are making every effort to ensure safety is a priority in Haiti—now as we rebuild and well into the future,” says Father Mark Hyde, director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, NY.

The addition of the warehouse will help Salesian Missions improve its capabilities for serving vulnerable youth. It will allow coordination of the distribution of all supplies being sent to support its programs throughout Haiti. To date, 59 containers of relief supplies—including food, water, clothing, medical and personal hygiene supplies, computers, religious goods, water purification plants, water purification tablets, schools in a box, 10 industrial generators, and forklifts—were shipped, as well as two school buses and nearly 2,000 tents.

To ensure the most effective use of supplies, Salesian Missions evaluates the situation at each of its sites to match needs with available resources. The warehouse will also ensure that Salesian Mission can prepare to effectively overcome any disruptions in supplies, such as many expect with the announcement of the upcoming election results, adds Fr. Hyde. Salesians are fully committed to rebuilding their educational infrastructure in Haiti, which sustained tremendous damage.

Since 1935, Salesians have worked to educate Haiti’s most vulnerable youth and trained the best and brightest to become future business people, teachers, construction workers and leaders. Salesian Missions is raising funds to help rebuild its schools and programs in Haiti and donations are needed.

Source: “In Haiti’s Rebuilding, Calls for Stronger Structures.” (NPR, Jan 14, 2011)

For more stories about progress in Haiti, visit ProgressInHaiti.org.

The post HAITI: New Buildings Adopt Safety Measures first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Agriculture is a critical economic and social activity in Haiti. According to the World Bank, agriculture employs half of the national workforce (including 75 percent of low-income Haitians).

However, the earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, devastated rural areas—as well as urban areas—destroying crops, farm buildings, equipment and infrastructure, says an Oxfam briefing paper on agriculture’s role in Haiti’s reconstruction. The report notes that 600,000 people migrated to the countryside, increasing pressure on an already stretched food supply and depleted resource base. This internal displacement worsened food availability, which affected six out of 10 people even before the disaster.

The Salesian Missions Agricultural School in Cap-Haitien provides sought-after agricultural skills to more than 140 students who will contribute to the rebuilding of Haiti, says Edson Timana, Haiti relief and reconstruction program manager for Salesian Missions.

“Haiti is a country with limited natural resources, and with most of its economy relying on agricultural production and employment, it’s important for the country to promote training in the agricultural sector,” says Timana, who recently visited the agricultural school. “Students were developing their already impressive agricultural skills that would later serve them when they went back to their family’s farm or if they decided to buy their own plot of land and start their own farms.”

On a national scale, greater support to agriculture is crucial to meet Haiti’s developmental goals and help it prepare for future emergencies, according to a statement released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) about agriculture and food security in Haiti one year after the devastating earthquake.

“Poor, vulnerable, agriculture-dependent communities suffer some of the most severe consequences of natural disasters,” says Etienne Peterschmitt, FAO’s senior emergency and rehabilitation coordinator for Haiti. “Agriculture has a critical role to play not only in eliminating hunger and malnutrition, but also in boosting rural incomes, reversing environmental degradation and increasing resilience to future threats.”

In Cap-Haitien, plans for the refurbishment of the Salesian Missions agricultural facilities are in progress, according to Timana. There, he adds, students learn applied and adapted farming methodology to improve crop quantity and quality. The three-year program focuses on students from families with limited economic resources. Currently, the agriculture school serves 145 students – 34 (23 percent) are women and 111 (77 percent) are male. There are also more than 1,000 students receiving primary and secondary education.

Salesian Missions currently operates more than 90 agricultural schools around the world. Timana offers two examples of such programs.

“Agriculture schools in Ecuador train their students on farming methods with the goal of increasing crop yields,” he says, adding that the Paute-Uzhupud and Cayambe Salesian Schools in Ecuador and the Muyurina Agricultural School in the city of Montero in Santa Cruz, Bolivia serve 562; 1,128; and 800 students, respectively.

All of the agricultural programs are unique because they share a commonality—they all focus on the specific needs of each individual community.

The post HAITI: Opportunity Grows at Agricultural School in Haiti first appeared on MissionNewswire.

Through the new Salesian University Network, hundreds of university students who have been unable to return to school following the Jan. 12, 2011, earthquake will have a chance to continue their education.

Thirteen computer labs or cybercafés are being established to help students stay up-to-date in their studies. Students will also have the opportunity improve their skills in computer science, English and Spanish, which are valuable skills for any professional career in Haiti. Just as importantly, the Salesian University Network provides an important means for students to connect with other students and form friendships.

“Taking part in the Salesian University Network is an important step for these youth. Many of them are facing uncertain futures and connecting with each other will help them regain their self confidence. It isn’t just a computer network, it is a network of relationships and communication established between students, their peers and the Salesian community,” says Fr. Mark Hyde, director, Salesian Missions.

Students come from different backgrounds and have varied skills and levels of training.  For some students, the Salesian University Network will offer an introduction to computer science and an opportunity to master the basic software. Students will also be able to conduct further research on their specific interest areas.

“It is important for Haiti to promote the growth of its human capital,” says Edson Timana, Haiti relief and reconstruction help desk officer, Salesian Missions. “The Salesian projects are making a difference by strategically providing aid where it is most needed—with a focus on education.  The ultimate goal is to make the investment in education so that these students can finish their studies and contribute to a better future for Haiti.”

According to a Jan. 31, 2010 article in University World News, “general estimates suggest only 1 percent of Haitians between the ages of 18 to 24 enter tertiary education. That rate is the lowest in the hemisphere.”

Installation of the computers is being coordinated by Edysson Yves-Antoine Thanis, a former Salesian student.

The computers will be installed at Salesian communities in 13 provincial towns, as well as the capital:

Fort-Liberté
Ouanaminthe
Cap-Haïtien
Gonaïves
Hinche
Jacmel
Cayes
Fleuriot
Pétion-Ville
Cite Militaire
Cité Soleil
Thorland
Gressier

The computers have been shipped to the locations and are in the process of being installed. Timana noted that in addition to computers, converters are being supplied to combat the vast electric fluctuations and constant blackouts in Haiti. The converters will ensure constant power through electricity, generators and a battery system.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep students connected,” says Timana.

The students will be connected not only to their schools and the teachers and fellow students, but to all of the opportunities that education provides.

The post HAITI: Salesian University Network Creates Connection to Haiti’s Future first appeared on MissionNewswire.