Seven Months after January 12, 2010

With the help of all of its partners, Fondation Enfant Jesus has spent the last several months working on consolidating all of its programs as well as engaging in other new programs. These new programs have become a priority based on our Mission and Vision since the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Even with all of the challenges we have confronted, our teams and collaborators have remained focused, allowing each of FEJ’s programs to continue to be operational even though restrictions and setbacks have been key factors for us during these last seven months.

Below, I have outlined my perceptions of the last couple of months and what I forecast the months ahead have in store for Fondation Enfant Jesus.

School Enfant Jesus

Post earthquake: We have and will continue to remain an axis of stability and continuity for many of the children and families in the region. Furthermore, with so many schools in the country that were destroyed, many children have lost their academic year because of post-earthquake trauma. At School Enfant Jesus, we consider ourselves fortunate that our own school structure was not damaged. Our students and teachers have received post-traumatic psychosocial assistance, medical care, and much more. Our partners, (see partner’s dedication page for details) whose primary focus point is our school program, have all participated in the consolidation and ongoing improvement of the quality of education that the children have access to.

The new school year will start on September 13, 2010. During the summer month of July, the administration of FEJ focused on making the necessary improvements to the physical infrastructure of the school, as well as academic improvements to the curriculum. Furthermore, we held teacher evaluations that allowed us to help each teacher review their strengths and weaknesses with regards to their individual performance. We also provided these teachers with the necessary training to allow them to improve their performance as teachers. We have also been able to recruit new personnel. We are confident that the quality of education that we provide will be evident in the upcoming school year.

Our fundamental challenge remains that we have many children still in need of sponsors. We ask that you please encourage all of the friends and supporters of FEJ to help us ensure that every child has a sponsor for the upcoming school year!

Women Reinsertion

Besides the setback from early this year, this program has still met its primary objective to provide the necessary training. We have also provided social reinsertion for 130 women since June 30, 2010. The program has been forecasted to incorporate 250 other women into the program this fall. The management team of FEJ has brought in an external evaluator, Matt Despard, a clinical professor from the School of Social Work from the University of North Carolina. He will conduct an evaluation of the outcome of this program of the recent benefactors in order for the FEJ management team to forecast the immediate future of this program. The result and recommendations from the evaluation will allow us to know how to move forward and how best to have more women benefit from this program.

Adoption Program

Ever since the intensive evacuation effort, we have worked long hours and long days to get as many children home to their adoptive families as possible to countries such as the United States, Canada, France and Germany. We have continued to work with all of our partner agencies to ensure all of the required paperwork in each country is being expedited to the families of these children now living in their new countries. We have also continued to process the children’s paperwork who were matched with families prior to January 12, 2010. Since then we have been able to unite 71 children with their adoptive families. We are doing our best to do the same for another 23 adoptive families before the end of this year.

Orphan Program

Since the earthquake, we have received 90 orphaned children, varying from the ages of 1 month to 17 years. The IBESR and other child protection organizations are working in tandem to return these children to their families. The story of each child is difficult and dramatic. Each child has been scarred in a different way from the events which unfolded on January 12, 2010. There have been days when some of these children’s suffering and agony seems endless, and our staff has become overwhelmed and drained. We have had many ups and downs with some of these children through health problems, emotional issues and many attachment issues; all grieving their losses.

We’d like to give a big “thank you” to the continuous support and devotion of our partners, directors, staff members, advisors, volunteers and friends. We have been slowly stabilizing these children and providing them with the nurturing that they need. The adolescents have had the toughest time with getting back to some form of normalcy in life. Each of these youth continue to grieve in their own way and each struggles with the changes in their lives.

We are very grateful for the two new additions to FEJ, Frank and Jan Vieux, a retired couple that has undertaken the youth program. They have embraced these adolescents, providing them with the needed patience, comfort, assurance and love necessary to help them overcome the fears of their future and confront the losses that each one has endured.

Family Reunification

We have also worked in collaboration with the social welfare program to reunite 42 children with their families since the earthquake. Each situation being very unique has truly been a learning experience for all of us at FEJ.

Women with Disabilities Program

During the last couple of months, we have focused primarily on the implementation of the necessary infrastructure for this program. In addition, we have worked out all of the protocol details with the Secretary of State for the disabled; a Haitian government entity which is responsible for all people with disabilities. We concluded an agreement on July 30, 2010. The program is scheduled to start on September 6, 2010. In the month of August, our team will focus on the final necessary details so that we will be ready to launch the program as planned.

Community Empowerment

We have launched four new projects in the last couple of months. The first two were projected in 2009, but were subsequently delayed due to the events that occurred this past January.

1) Agriculture Pilot Project: We have started working timidly in producing our own vegetables and fruits as well as breeding chickens and rabbits to provide more nutritional foods for the children in the school canteen and for the children and youth that reside in our structures. We hired an agronomist that oversees this project and also provides hands-on training to children in our remedial classes and women in our reinsertion program who are seeking to expand their own agro-businesses. We have had a few obstacles in getting maintenance supplies and medication for the animals. We have already forecasted that in order to work towards a self-sustaining agro-business program, more wells will need to be drilled. We are still in need of heavy equipment as well as some agricultural education in order to establish a suitable water irrigation system. However, the project is still progressing. We have started to use the crops for the school and the crèches’ daily menu and have recently started giving fresh eggs from our chicken coops to the children at the crèches.

2) Community Health Clinic: The initial projected construction of the clinic was delayed after January’s disaster. It was relaunched this May when the Japanese Embassy released the necessary funds. Since then, the clinic has been under construction. The essential equipment which was funded also by the Japanese Embassy has been ordered. Our staff and team of experts are now working on the operational component of this soon-to-open clinic.

3) Construction Projects: The walls for the women’s camp, the sanitary toilet, electricity, laundry space and showers have been completed.

The school cafeteria has been completed in the school’s compound.

The water reservoir tower is currently under construction at the crèche in Lamardelle and at the orphanage site in Kenscoff.

The community health clinic is under construction.

Volunteer housing is under construction.

Warehouse space is under construction.

Renovation of temporary housing for the adolescent girls is in progress.

4) Water filtration Project: On August 2, 2010, we launched a water filtration project with Medical Wings and Pure Water For Life. Water Purification Pictures *More details to come soon.

Long Term Volunteers

The extension of these programs has required the recruitment of five long-term volunteers with expertise in the following domains:

Education – Maryse Vieux, an early childhood educator who oversees the school management and sponsorship program.

Program Development – Rob McColley has committed to six months of volunteering to enhance and improve the management of the program.

Social Service – Danielle Nyquist, a social worker, has committed one year of volunteering to collaborate with our staff in the adoption program.

Youth Ministry – Jan & Frank Vieux, a retired couple, has committed to taking charge of the youth program.
Forecasting needs in the months to come:

The main office was damaged during the earthquake and needs to be repaired. We have been using classrooms as office space. In September, the administration must return those classroom spaces, as the school capacity will be at its maximum.

Transportation: Thanks to one of our key partners (see partners homepage) for the generous donation of a 15-passenger Toyota bus. We have now resolved some of the transportation issues we were experiencing. We can now safely transport several children at a time and pick up all relevant staff members at designated points in the village. Moreover, we are also able to transport several volunteers who have come to assist in our program.
However, we are still in need of another vehicle that we can use to pick up incoming supplies, materials and other equipment. This has become a huge burden on our existing vehicles, particularly our pickup that is ten years old. Our rapid program expansion has caused the need for constant repairs of this vehicle. Therefore, in the near future, we will need a bigger truck which will be necessary for the internal transportation of goods, supplies and materials.

Thanks to all of our partners, frequent supplies, materials and food drives are being held to meet our needs. Therefore, we are now receiving regular containers that allow our operations to run much more smoothly and we are able to have the needed supplies available for all of our programs.

The last seven months have been busy, but productive. We could not have achieved all of this without the devotion, perseverance and dedication of all of our partners, volunteers and staff members.

You all “GIVE US HOPE”. Together, we will continue to work toward developing communities for a better Haiti for its children.

It is imperative that we forecast that all of these programs will require operational funding so we can achieve our goals in the coming years and work towards self-sustainability for those we seek to serve.

I would like to thank my mother for her generosity. –All know her as “Mamnie Lucienne”. She remains our pillar at the Fondation Enfant Jesus. I pray and ask for courage and serenity so we can continue on with her legacy.

Lucien Victor Duncan
General Director, Fondation Enfant Jesus
“United together to build.”