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FWAL was recently informed about the situation of two baby boys living in very difficult circumstances in Cité Soleil, which has been labeled as the worst slum in the western hemisphere. The background stories of these boys touched us and we decided to look into their situation more deeply.

Jouvens was born on August 28, 2012. He is the youngest of nine children with the oldest being 16-years-old. They all live together in one small room. Except for one sister, age seven, they are all boys. The mother of Jouvens died three months after he was born. The father hardly has work, though he tries to find it, and it is extremely difficult for him to find enough food to give to all the children. Often he has no other choice but to leave the youngest children, who are three and two years old and Jouvens the baby, home alone while he looks for work or food. The oldest son also tries to help support the family. Four siblings are able to go to school for free where they receive a meal during the school days.

When the social office of FWAL did their investigation, it was very clear that especially the youngest children are malnourished, and Jouvens situation worried them. The father had tried to find help for his family and asked FWAL if we could take Jouvens into our program.

Since the family situation is so difficult, FWAL is also looking to accept the two youngest boys. This way the father has more possibilities to support his other children but able to keep a close contact with his three children who will live at FWAL.

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Jeffter was born on March 5, 2013. His mother died a few days after she gave birth. Jeffer has two siblings, a two-year old sister who is living with a grandfather in the countryside and a six-year-old brother who has been living with an aunt. They all live in a very small room made out of tin and wood with no place to cook inside, just room for a bed and a table. The grandmother was been earning some money for the family and also the aunt works when possible, but now with the baby the grandmother cannot go out searching for work. They are very worried and they see no way how they are able to support the children. The grandmother asked FWAL to help her with caring for the baby. Looking into the situation and seeing the circumstances, FWAL decided to accept Jeffter into the program.

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At the end of March, FWAL had to say goodbye to Bridget Holtz, our American volunteer nurse. Bridget had been with us for over a year and a half and all the children and staff of FWAL loved her, so it wasn’t an easy day for all of us, including Bridget herself!

The children of FWAL prepared a beautiful program for Bridget as a thank you for all she did for us. Some of the older children were the organizers and worked with the different houses to do a song or dance or read a poem. Of course also some of the childcare workers participated.

The children of St. Anne had practiced a beautiful song and a few words, to sing and say to Bridget. The song told her that they all thanked her for who she was and had been for them and that they loved her very, very much.
Further there were songs from the older children, a beautiful dance, a song and poem from to older boys, words from the head of St. Louis and the Assistant Director. Miss Boirand, Bridget’s nurse colleague also said a few words.

All the groups or individual people gave Bridget a paper heart with a wish, picture or memory written on it and a ribbon on it to hang around her neck, so in the end she had a lot of “heart medals”.

At the end of the program, the children gave Bridget a present to remember FWAL and Haiti by for when she is back home, along with all the memories she has have from FWAL of course.

Bridget then said a few words to the children and thanked them for their love and the gift of sharing their lives with her and how much she had enjoyed it and would miss all of them. Bridget organized ice cream and beautiful balloons for all the children and together with two friends she distributed the balloons. Everybody was happy and cheerful and excited about it. It was for sure a beautiful ending of a bittersweet event.

Saying goodbye is never easy, not for our children and not for our volunteers. But we both, children and volunteers, will have good memories to fall back on and know for the future there is someone that knows us and loves us even though we are far apart. We know we are all part of this one big family through our love for each other and the life we have shared. And that, nobody can take away!

So one more time dear Bridget, thank you so much for sharing of your love and life and for being our nurse and friend. Kisses, hugs, embraces and cuddles and then more kisses from all the children of FWAL!

Rosenie and Herline

Rosenie, 6-years-old and her sister, Herline, 3-years-old came to live at FWAL on May 9th, 2011. They have three older half-sisters (19, 16 and 13-years-old) and one older sister Sony (7-years-old) who still lives with their mother. Their family lives in a very poor area of Port-au-Prince where after the earthquake, many tent camps were constructed. Their father died in the earthquake of January 2010 and they lost their house during the earthquake. The family was living in a tent with seven people. Even though the mother tries to earn some money by selling juice, it is never enough to support the entire family. The situation for the children was very difficult and dangerous since the mother was not able to feed them all sufficiently. After FWAL investigated the family situation, we took in the two youngest children to help unburden the mother who had difficulty providing the basic needs.

Rosenie when she arrived.

Rosenie was a little shy when she arrived but after some time she has become more inquisitive and shows her strong, joyful and funny character. Rosenie has made good friends among the older children in the St. Anne home. She had not gone to school before she came to live at FWAL, but she is a fast learner and has advanced in the preschool. The teachers like her positive energy and eagerness to learn.

Rosenie stretching before dance class.

At home Rosenie is always dancing or mimicking adults, and she can crave adult attention. Every now and then Rosenie can really yearn for one on one attention but she finds it hard to ask. Her behavior at that time will be a little difficult and it seems a little unkind, while in fact she is in great need of some hugs and affection. The caregivers understand this and are able to respond to her needs. Rosenie really has a strong and positive spirit.

Herline sleeping.

Herline was very skinny and always tired and sad when she arrived. Actually her behavior was close to apathy, which concerned us. She was very different from her sister Rosenie. Herline was ill very often with diarrhea and she vomited a lot. After testing we could not find a specific reason. All this, being ill, made her more miserable by the day and losing even more weight, which was almost impossible. We decided, after ruling out the physical part, to give her extra milk during the morning and one on one attention from one caregiver, especially during this extra milk ‘meal’. We bought extra nutritious and good tasting milk and she liked it from the beginning.  The warm milk and the close attention seemed to calm and sooth her and make her feel safe with us. Within a month she started gaining weight and changed from a quiet, scared and sad child into a funny, adventurous very loving toddler.

Herline eating lunch.

Rosenie and Herline’s mother visits the children often. This was not always easy for the very young girls to understand why they had to leave and other siblings could stay. Sometimes Rosenie did not want to look at or talk with her mother or older sister. This of course was hard on the mother, who loves them and gave them in the care of FWAL because of her love for them. We all hoped that in time the relationship would grow stronger and the children could benefit from the love and support of their FWAL family as well as their biological family. And so it did. Herline and Rosenie now are both very happy when their mother and/or older sisters come to visit.

Rosenie and Herline with their older sisters.

Donna playing with St. Anne children.

My first visit to NPH Haiti since Father Wasson Angels of Light programs/homes have begun was filled with smiles, hugs and the beginning of my introduction to Creole!  “Sak Pase?” which translated means, “what’s up?”

I met with the madams/tias/childcare staff of both St. Anne and St Louis as well as all the general staff of the FWAL programs.  Alfonso Leon, founder of FWAL, was my translator! We covered topics of the role of Family Service International, which is to offer support/materials/trainings in the areas of child development and formation. We also listened to their concerns, their challenges with difficult cases as well as to what was going well in their work.

What was exciting for me to see was the level of competency the caregivers have regarding not only disciplinary measures and management techniques, but their understanding of our NPH family.

In St. Louis, for example, each “house” sits together every evening to go over the day. Usually after homework and dinner, and reviews the happenings of the day. They talk about problems and solutions, feelings and what they learned that day. St. Louis has this deep sense of a family. The staff focuses on creating this sense of security and responsibility that are the base of our core values and this was truly evident. They also use a “point system” for behavior management and the childcare staff says it is working very well. The better behaved children who earn more points help the other ones earn more points. Then the whole house works as a family, as a team.

Caregivers at St. Anne coloring with children.

In St. Anne, we worked with the childcare staff on the theme of “play”. That through play is how these young children actually learn about their world and develop healthily.  We learned about developmental stages of young children and what they could learn through songs, games and repetition. We then played together in small groups and worked with the childcare staff to put their new learnings into practice.

In our work with the general staff of FWAL, we focused on the role of family service, and how we could offer support to their programs in FWAL. The social work and sponsorship staff asked excellent questions about developing more of a sense of family in a “temporary” setting and we discussed the specific challenges. We explored ways we could support the children in programmatic ways as well.  For example, social work can offer programs of Family Conscientization, where biological siblings can meet together with the social work staff and discuss about worries, fears and the realities of their individual family. We also talked about the Grievance Policy (NPHI) which is like a harassment policy where all staff learn about problem solving and resolution of conflicts in a healthy manner. If a just resolution cannot be found, there is a process to follow.

My experience with Kenson Kaas, FWAL Director, and his staff was an enlightening experience for me as a Family Service Staff member. Again and again, I saw our mission of providing love, security and safety to the most needy, in a loving, family environment based on our faith and our founder, Father Wasson’s philosophy, alive in practice and action.

Contributed by Donna Egge – Associate Director Family Services, NPH International

Raising of the flag.

Kay St. Germaine is a special needs school for children with nuerological disabilities and a physical therapy center. It is also one of many of the NPH Haiti outreach programs. Three of our FWAL children; Wideline, Samstern and Valson, who live in the St. Anne baby house attend school at Kay St. Germaine. Every morning at 8 o’clock, the Haitian flag is raised and all the children at St. Germaine sing a part of the National Haitian Hymn. After the morning ritual, all the children go to their respective classes.

St. Germaine classroom.

In total there are 83 children who attend school at Kay St. Germaine. The classes are divided by age and educational level. There are five classes; two with the oldest children, one with the youngest, one with the children with an average level and one with children with a low level. St. Anne’s children Wideline and Samstern are in the average class and Valson is in the class with the youngest children. The day starts with repetition of all the months, days of the week, numbers, alphabet and the weather.

Most of the children really like to shout out loud because they know well all the information. They talk in class about the days of the week, to learn about the past, present and future. All the classes work with a theme which changes monthly. For example ‘daily life’, where they talk with the children about what do you do in a normal day, the food they eat and how they travel to school. At the moment they are learning about their environment. The children learn about the difference between mountains and valleys. Also the teachers do some safety education in case of an earthquake. The education is very interactive. The teachers shows the children pictures of sand, an island, the sun and the globe. There are plates with sand on it, and the island, sun and globe simulated so that the children need to designate the right plate.

Teaching with a sand tray.

In St. Germaine the goal is to teach the children enough daily life skills that when they leave school they have the possibility to have a small job. The goal of St. Germaine is to integrate the disabled children into society. That’s why they also do a lot of practical things like teaching the children to wash their own clothes and how to cook.
St. Germaine has seven teachers and six classroom assistants. There are not only teachers who teach the children, but also physical therapists because many of the children also have a physical disability. The children practice walking with more stability. Physical therapy is also available to children who do not attend the school. There are six physical therapists and there is a dance and singing instructor that hold class once a week. A therapist also helps children who are not able to speak well, to improve their communication skills. Additionally a prostheses lab is onsite, offering children prosthesis if needed.

At 10 o’clock the children receive a snack. The children who need to be fed, are taken by staff to the dining hall. There are ten of these workers specifically for the lunch program and they also do the laundry and help children use the bathroom so that the teachers can solely focus on teaching and can stay in the classroom at all times. At midday all the children receive lunch at the school.  St. Germaine has two cooks who prepare a nutritious lunch. In groups, children go to the dining hall where they eat and at half past one the school day ends.

Valson during a break.

Wideline, Samstern and Valson, as all the other children, love going to school at Kay St. Germaine. They really miss going to school even if it is just the weekend and especially during longer holidays. The school is a safe and fun learning environment which focuses on their individual needs.

Wideline in the classroom.

FWAL is grateful that our three special needs children have the opportunity to go to attend this quality school. Wideline, Samsten and Valson have improved in their skills already since attending. Wideline is much calmer and has learned words and ways to express herself. Samstern is much more stable when he walks which gives him many more possibilities to keep up better with games and other things his friends do. Valson is more independent and is now also able to eat on his own.

Samstern claps to a song.

St. Germaine is a dream come true for all the students and families. The school provides a great opportunity for our FWAL children to learn and to be integrated with other children who are like themselves. Through this collaboration of programs, NPH Haiti continues to offer quality, comprehensive solutions for Haiti’s children.

Contributed by Joanne Baker

Last Saturday we had family day at FWAL. Every second Saturday of the month the parent(s) or other family members of the children living at the FWAL program can come to St. Louis to visit them. The children of the St. Anne baby house also come to the St. Louis house. All the children are dressed up in their best clothes and are really excited to see their family.  Many family member comes from far which means they left really early in the morning. Some of them arrive at 7 or 8 0′clock, depending on how easy their travel was, if they could find public transportation or if they had to walk a long distance. At 9 am the parents can enter the St. Louis home.

Most of them bring food to share like potato chips and sweet drinks. Also they may bring home made rice and beans, fish sauce and if they can afford it a piece of chicken.

The children are very happy to see any family that arrives. They sit together at a table, close to their St Louis house and talk to each other about what has happened at home, how it is going at school, how their friends are and so on. Sometimes they play games together. It’s just a very relaxing day with everybody hanging around and enjoying each other’s company.

At the same time for some children these family days are difficult because they either have no family or their family is not able to visit. Some families can only come every other month or maybe just three times a year. They have no financial means to make the trip or it is too far away or they simply have to work. This is hard on the children. At FWAL we try to do our best by making this day also enjoyable for these children. We try to occupy them with games, drawings, some television, and most important we are there to comfort them. Sometimes a teacher from school will come or one of our social workers, for one or two children so they have a visitor. But we also ask the families that do come to give attention to the friends of their children. This works out very well and we think the family visiting days benefit all the children from FWAL.

Last Saturday two brothers, Jamesly and Widely, who came to live with us in St Anne only five months ago had three visitors. Their father, mother and grandfather came to see them. They brought a lot of nice food with them. They sat down at a table and also invited some friends of their sons to join. Everyone got some spoons of rice and sauce and little snacks. It is a beautiful and heartwarming thing to see, how the family is also sharing with other children and try to make it a nice day for everyone.

Most children’s family really try to come. It is important for everyone and in this way the relationship between family and child stays strong and when the children grow up, become older and one day will leave the FWAL program, they will have a strong family support for the relationship stayed intact.