At the age of 10, Mylouise Veillard was brought to a southern Haitian orphanage by her mother, who promised her a better life. For the next three years, Mylouise slept on a cold concrete floor, fetching water from a nearby well and struggling to find enough food to eat. Her younger brother suffered even more than she did in the facility, leaving her feeling worried and anxious about his well-being.
The plight of Mylouise Veillard and her younger brother is a common experience among the approximately 30,000 Haitian children living in hundreds of orphanages plagued with reports of exploitation, forced labor, trafficking, and physical and sexual abuse.
In recent months, the Haitian government has taken a more aggressive stance towards removing hundreds of children from these institutions and reuniting them with their families as part of a concerted effort to close down orphanages, the majority of which are privately owned.
Social workers are spearheading this initiative, often with little more than a photograph and a general idea of the neighborhood where a child may have lived before being brought to an orphanage. The process is challenging in Haiti, a country of over 11 million people, where there are no residential phone directories and many families lack a physical address or online presence.
Morgan Wienberg, co-founder and executive director of Little Footprints, Big Steps, a non-profit organization that assists with reuniting children and their families, likened the social workers involved in the initiative to detectives. She acknowledges that the process is challenging and requires a great deal of persistence to succeed.
The social workers embark on a difficult task of searching for children and their families, scouring through cities, towns, and villages. They navigate through the maze-like alleys of tin-roof shacks, climb hills, and knock on doors, all the while holding up a photo of the child and asking if anybody recognizes them.
During their search, they sometimes discover that orphanages relocated children without informing their parents, or the families were displaced due to violence in their communities, causing them to lose touch with their children.
In some cases, social worker Jean Rigot Joseph resorts to showing children pictures of landmarks to see if they recall where they lived. When he tracks down the parents, he first ensures that they are open to the idea of reunification before disclosing that their child has been located.
Poverty is a significant factor behind the high number of children in orphanages in Haiti. Like Mylouise Veillard and her brother, over 80% of the children in these facilities are classified as “poverty orphans.” Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with about 60% of its population earning less than $2 per day. When parents struggle to feed their children, they often temporarily place them in orphanages, hoping for better care.
According to government reports, around 30,000 out of the 4 million children nationwide live in approximately 750 orphanages. Numerous orphanages were established in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake that claimed the lives of at least 200,000 people. Furthermore, there was a 150% increase in the number of orphanages in Haiti over the following months, leading to an upsurge in trafficking, forced labor, and abuse.
A 2018 report by Haiti’s Institute of Social Welfare and Research and other organizations revealed that only 35 out of 754 orphanages – less than 5% – met the minimum requirements and were authorized to operate. On the other hand, 580 orphanages received the lowest score, requiring the government to close them down.
The Haitian government has responded to the report by prohibiting the construction of new orphanages and closing down existing ones. However, shutting down orphanages can be dangerous, with government officials being threatened or forced to go into hiding while owners seek to maintain generous donations from abroad. According to Lumos, a non-profit organization that works to reunite children in orphanages around the world with their families, faith-based donors in the United States are the largest financial supporters of orphanages in Haiti.
Since most Haitian orphanages are individually owned, there is no association or organization that speaks on their behalf.
Founder of the religious organization Kizito Family in Port-au-Prince, Sister Paesie, argues that homes are a necessity for children whose parents are unable to provide for them or protect them from violence. Her organization shelters and offers free education to around 2,000 children from impoverished slums. Sister Paesie emphasizes the importance of removing the children from violence while inviting parents to visit.
The United Nations reports that gangs control up to 80% of Port-au-Prince and are responsible for an increase in killings and kidnappings, especially in areas where Kizito Family children reside.
Sister Paesie condemns orphanages linked to the adoption business, claiming that they provide room for abuse instead of helping parents, which her organization always tries to do. However, reuniting children with their families is difficult when they are fleeing violence and have nowhere to go.
Sister Paesie revealed seeing several mothers sleeping on the streets with their children in the last month, adding that she receives dozens of requests every day from mothers asking her to accept their children because they have nothing to feed them.
According to reports, unification efforts have been effective in rural areas of Haiti where gangs have less influence, and families can cultivate their food.
Reports indicate that roughly 330 children have moved back in with their families in rural southern Haiti. When Mylouise Veillard, now 17, and her brother finally reunited with their mother Renèse Estève, they were so thrilled to leave the orphanage that they forget their sandals behind.
They joined their mother along with one other sibling, a new partner, and a new sibling in a single-bedroom home at the foot of a mountain where farmers grow corn, potatoes, and vetiver – a plant whose oil is used in high-end perfumes.
In an effort to prevent further economic strain and separation of families after reunification, Wienberg’s non-profit organization constructed Estève’s home. Other initiatives include hiring an agronomist to help families cultivate crops for food or sale to counter the destitution resulting from the crippling inflation in Haiti.
Estève’s home has two small beds, and two of her children sleep on the concrete floor. Their only toys, a small stuffed moose, a teddy bear, a Hello Kitty purse, and a “Black Panther” lunchbox, are kept near the beds.
Although Estève visited her children frequently at the orphanage, leaving them there was tormenting, particularly as she had no job or partner to support and care for them. During her visits, the children frequently complained of hunger and poor living conditions. Desperately thinking of her children, Estève herself struggled to provide adequate sustenance.
She narrates how one day, after being startled at the weight loss of her children, she decided to take them back with the help of social workers, despite the grinding poverty they were returning to.
Eluxon Tassy, who works with children living on the street, in orphanages, or in transition preparation programs, acts as a mentor to them. Tassy, 32, understands what the children are going through and believes that mentorship contributes significantly to the reunification process.
When Tassy was four, his mother left him at an orphanage in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, where he resided for almost 15 years. After spending time at the facility, he spent two years with a family that exploited him as a domestic servant and failed to send him to school despite their promises to do so.
When helping children transition back to their families, Tassy’s first priority is gaining their trust and boosting their confidence. He utilizes art and music, such as singing the alphabet with the younger ones, and is cautious not to deluge them with too many questions about their experiences.
If a child has no recollection of their parents or has been separated from them for a considerable duration, he explains the concept of family and the importance of affection.
In Estève’s case, her children reconnected with her nearly immediately. To celebrate the reunion, she made two meals that day, the traditional Haitian spaghetti breakfast, followed by rice and beans with fish sauce.
“It was easy,” she said. “We were a family again.”