From PADF: In the poorest country in the hemisphere, where approximately 40 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, the youngest are often the first to be abused and the last to receive help.

Nicole Muller César wanted to alleviate the suffering of these children. After a successful, 30-year career in Boston, Nicole returned to her native Haiti 10 years ago to help child victims of violence, exploitation, sexual abuse and abandonment.

The U.S. trained psychologist and social worker brought to Haiti a holistic approach and started the Institute for Human and Community Development. The youngsters are taught social skills, enjoy a hot meal (for most, their only meal of the day) and receive medical and dental care. To overcome the traumas of violence and exploitation, they are in one-on-one and group counseling. The high-risk children in one of Tabarre’s impoverished neighborhoods learn basic reading, writing and math.

Today, for 250 abused and neglected children who previously only knew the slum conditions outside the nation’s capital, the school is an oasis. For Nicole, the Institute is the realization of a dream. PADF is supporting Nicole’s holistic approach through its Protecting Human Rights program., which is funded by USAID.

He spends his days working along with her to help eke out a living, often standing in the polluted river to wash clothes. He is extremely vulnerable to disease and suffers from chronic undernutrition, yet like most of our students, Trocher had never seen a doctor, nurse, or dentist before coming to IHCD, and had never been to school prior to enrolling in our education program.

Elisna is originally from Gonaives, a city in the north of Haiti that was devastated by hurricanes in 2004 and again in 2008. Among the thousands who were killed in the floods was Elisna’s mother, who was everything to her and her only support. For Elisna, this tragedy resulted in her becoming a restavek and moving from Gonaives to Port-au-Prince.

In exchange for her housing, she works for her host family as a domestic servant. She wakes early in the morning to begin the daily chores, which include cleaning, laundry, cooking, bringing the other children to school, and helping in the market.

Despite long hours of hard work, she is treated very poorly by her hosts and finds no help outside of the household. She suffers from extended, traumatic stretches without eating at home, from chronic fevers, undernutrition, and depression, and from abuse. She often cries when she is going home after school and feels very lucky to be able to come to IHCD.

Donalson is a beggar, walking the streets of a suburb outside of Port-au-Prince to try to pick up food or money each day. For him, the nutritious meals and vitamins provided by IHCD are critical to his chance of survival.

Like many other children at IHCD, Berline’s lives in unsanitary and impoverished conditions with a stranger. Her health is predictably poor and her basic social skills undeveloped due in part to domestic abuse and social marginalization. At IHCD, she receives medical services, classical education, sanitation lessons, and free nutritious meals.

Our academic program addresses our students’ lack of basic literacy and math skills and introduces the children to history and the sciences.  A major focus is placed on deep understanding of human and child rights and how to react when one’s legal rights are infringed.  Living isolated lives, in dysfunctional and inhumane environments, the students find a warm, close-knit school community at IHCD that offers group and one-on-one counseling to mitigate the trauma of abuse.  In this way, the children’s social and communication skills are built up so they can sustain comfort upon entry into a mainstream school and overcome their extremely severe emotional problems.

Each day begins with a nutritious, vitamin-rich meal (for most their only meal of the day) to combat lethargy due to under-nutrition, with routine and as-needed health care provided by partnering physician groups and dentists.  In addition, the children’s adult caregivers come to evening vocational classes where they are also taught human and children’s rights, covering the legal consequences of child abuse, and where open discussion confronting their unethical mistreatment of the children is encouraged and supported.   We train caregivers to lead their household and community to socially accept and treat humanely all children who are in domestic servitude.

The birthplace of IHCD’s founder, Fondeblan is a town located in a remote region of Haiti that suffers from crippling unemployment rates well over 70%.  IHCD operates a sister school here for 125 young women that provides vocational and health education.

The young women are trained vocationally in a marketable set of skills allowing them to support themselves and their children upon graduation.  Specifically, they are literate and skilled in embroidery, dressmaking, pastry cooking, and craftwork.  We educate them to understand women’s health, including family planning, safe-sex practices, maternal and natal health, emphasizing women’s human rights as well as civic duties.