Widlene Latest Report

At Risk Children Foundation – Save the Kids Newsletter starts off with a message from the Director. It reviews the work that ARCF has accomplished in the past years and sets goals to accomplish in years to come. This newsletter does a good job of making the reader feel like they are an essential part of the organization’s mission and achievements, as well as keeping our supporters up to date on what we prioritize and where their donations are going.

The At-Risk Children Foundation has for twenty years lived and breathed only for our beloved impoverished Haitian orphans, displaced children and families. We used directly or indirectly our funding for these little ones, each with her/his own story of pain and neglect until ARCF rescued them.

One such little one was Widlene Dorzilma. Widlene found ARCF thirteen years ago when she was eight years of age.  She had been abused and bullied but persevered through her school years under our care.  Now at twenty-one, she studies with her cousin, Cynthia Jean, at College Jean Jacques Dessalines in Philo classes. (Philo equivalent U.S 12th grade +1) classes are required to take Haiti’s National Exam. She remains dedicated to her dream of helping others as a nurse.

We of ARCF-Save the Kids and you who have supported us, can celebrate your helping to care for Widlene and eighty-seven other blessed children. Yours is the work of God.

Meet 11 year old Chirley, 8 Years ago

Chirley was 5 years old when she lost her mother. When we met her, she was 11 years old, and has been in our education program ever since. She completed her primary school cycle at age 15, to attend her secondary at Les “Soeurs de la Charité de St-Hyacinthe”.in Cavaillon, now 19 she is in Port au Prince to complete her schooling. She wants to be an Agronomist, for the development of Custine, the village where she was born. Picture to the left she is with Sister Jacqueline, who adores her.

Free education as we know it in the United States is nonexistent in many developing countries, including Haiti. Today Haiti faces a multitude of challenges, magnified by the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, resulting 600,000 children are illiterate. ARCF’s mission is to break that cycle of poverty among our youth.

Water

Haiti’s widespread lack of access to safe drinking water and poor sanitation is the leading cause of infant mortality and illness in children. Many children, especially those living in rural areas, do not in fact have any drinking water. The situation is frightening in some urban areas. For example, residents of Delmas, a community bordering Port-au-Prince, have access to only one source of clean water and have to pay $.0.50/ cents to fill up a 20-liter bucket — about the size of an office water cooler. But few people can afford that price.

In rural area nearly every water source has become contaminated with human and animal waste because of the absence of a sewage sanitation system. DONATE a well there would be lifesaving.

The average cost for digging a well is $5,900 US Dollars.

Education

Haiti has 15,200 primary schools, of which 90% are non-public and managed by communities, religious organizations or NGOs. The enrollment rate for primary school is 88%. Secondary schools enroll 20% of eligible-age children. Higher education is provided by universities and other public and private institutions.

The average yearly cost to send a child to school is estimated at $550.00 in urban areas and $430.00 in the countryside. This includes enrolment fees, Tuition, uniforms, books, shoes, and all other supplies. These costs are impossible for nearly 80% of all Haitian families, and render school as unattainable. This problem has resulted in an illiteracy rate of more than 65% of the population.

These hurdles to an education can easily create a sense of desperation in parents and contribute to the hopelessness of children. As a result, a seemingly perpetual cycle of poverty continues, generation after generation. That is why Combating Child Labor Project is so vital to changing the culture of poverty in Haiti.

With the help of a recent scholarship the children of Marie Dorzilma is going to school for the first time.

Build School

The country faces shortages in educational supplies, school buildings and qualified teachers. The rural population is less educated than the urban. The 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2016 Hurricane Matthew exacerbated the already constrained parameters on Haiti’s educational system by destroying infrastructure and displacing 50–90% of the students, depending on localities.

The educational sector is under the responsibility of the Ministre de l’Éducation Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle (MENFP). The Ministry provides very little funds to support public education. As a result, the private sector has become a substitute for governmental public investment in education as opposed to an addition. The Ministry is limited in its ability to improve the quality of education in Haiti.

Despite the deficiencies of the Haitian education sector, some Haitian leaders have attempted to make improving education a national goal. The country has attempted three major reform efforts, with a new one in progress as a response to the earthquake and the recent hurricane in 2016..

ARCF’s Combating Child Labor in Haiti project proposes to raise $450,000 to build the Soveyo Learning Center in southern Haiti.

Health Surveillance

In Haiti, less than 20% of the population has access to health care in their community.

The Government doesn’t have the means to ensure an efficient distribution of health resources. The majority of the health care facilities are concentrated in Port-au-Prince and in other larger cities. This situation deprives remote areas of structure to ensure the provision of even basic health care to the population.

The primary problems that At Risk Children- Save the Kids seeks to address is the majority of orphanages /institutions housing orphan or vulnerable children does not have the knowledge or skills necessary to maintain an acceptable minimal health standards. Due to the lack of funding, guardian expertise, many negative behavior patterns have arisen that severely impact the level of care that the resident children receive. Certain cases, even result in the death of a child.

ARCF-Save the Kids Mobile Clinic and Health Education Program is for the benefit of the children and the populations in remote areas with no access to basic health care. This program is based on both preventive, as well as training of the communities on prevention and on the hygiene basic principles.