Change is Possible..

....Defending the Oppressed 

One of the greatest social justice and poverty activists once said, “being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” Mother Teresa

    I always asked God to break my heart for what breaks his, and my request was answered with so many faces of forgotten children around the world. Children from different races, cultures and ethnic backgrounds, some of these children don’t have a home to sleep at night. Some of them don’t have anything to eat and are going to bed every night with empty stomach. Although, these children suffer from different struggles in their lives but most of them seem to have one thing in common which is that they all seem to be forgotten and abandoned by the rest of the world.

      

Lafiteau, Haiti, a small village that is known mostly for its port and beautiful ocean that is surrounded by the mountains. At the heart of this village, there are thousands of children who are struggling everyday to survive. These children have known nothing in their lives but pain, sorrow, despair, abandonment and suffering. The reality of poverty that these children are facing is heartbreaking. I know it and I can also feel it because I am also citizen of Lafiteau, I was born and raised there. Growing up in Lafiteau wasn’t easy, being in a home with eight children with no running water, no medical supplies, and no food was a very difficult life. My mother had to work every day to provide everything that we needed to live. Although, we were often lack some of the things we needed but we were somehow well-off compared to a lot of other families.

     It wasn’t until after the earthquake in 2010 I started to realize the many social injustices affecting my country. People are trapped into believing that it is okay for children to be living in such dire conditions, honestly though no child should have to go through such an awful situation in their life. I believe that every single child has the right to live a better life. Sadly, this is not the case for most of the children in Lafiteau, after billions of dollars that have disbursed to non-governmental organizations in Haiti to help the Haitians back on their feet yet there are thousands of children who are still starving every day and never have a chance to enter a classroom. This, to me, is not right, this situation is not about aid and charity, and I believe this is an issue of social justice. Months after the earthquake in Haiti, a cholera outbreak started in the country and killed over seven thousand people and affected tens of thousands of others. It only takes one bottle of clean water and some antibiotic to treat someone from getting majorly affected with cholera yet seven thousand people died, include children, from cholera despite billions of dollars that were given to help the poor Haitian children and their families. This is just devastating and heartbreaking to hear. Today, I want to be a voice; the voice of the forgotten children of my hometown Lafiteau. These children are innocent, unfortunately, they have been forgotten by the people that were supposed to represent them, but they are happy to know that there are people who can still make a difference in their lives. I am talking to you; we can and should do something. No matter how small our actions may be in the scope of all their needs, the fact that we are able to help these children with their needs will prove that change is possible. Isaiah 1:17 “Learn to do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”  

God, Give the children of Lafiteau a better life..

One village to rescue

Lafiteau, Haiti is a small industrial town located about nine miles north outside of Port-au-Prince. Lafiteau which is also called “Minotrie” is mostly well-known for its port that facilitated the entry for ships in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake as part of earthquake relief operations. The town is also known for its beautiful sandy beaches which are surrounded by beautiful mountains. Sadly, at the heart of this beautiful town, one will find nothing but pain, despair, sorrow and suffering. After the earthquake, hundreds of families left homeless and thousands of children left hopeless and puzzled about their future. 

Today, at the heart of Lafiteau, there are thousands of children that are going to bed every night with empty stomach, waking up every day with nowhere to go because their parents cannot afford to send them to school, and also walking up to six miles to find clean water to drink. Life is simply hard for these children because the earthquake took away everything their families had and left them hopeless. Today, thousands of children inside of this beautiful village who are only relying on international food aid to get fed. For most children living in Lafiteau simply means absence; absence of good sanitation, clean water, food and education. I believe that every child should have a chance to a better life. It honestly breaks my heart to know that there are children below age nine that are going to bed hungry in a world that produces sufficient food to feed every one of its citizens. After the catastrophic earthquake in 2010, for most children life is a daily struggle to survive in Lafiteau, at least I know it is for my younger siblings who are currently living there. For these children childhood as a time to play is meaningless.

However, I believe there is still hope; one day I hope to see every child in Lafiteau has access to sufficient food, clean water and education. I hope these children will someday get to know what it means to have a smile on their faces again. Frankly, I believe this day is today; the day for us to stand and raise a voice for these forgotten children. The day that every one of us chooses to make a difference by doing something more, I believe we can do it if we try. I am sure the children in Lafiteau wish they could turn back time to start over again, unfortunately, they can’t. But we can, and they are relieved to know that there are people out there who still care for them. If you are one of those compassionate people, today is the day for you to raise that voice and do something, these children are calling for you to help, I hope you hear their voices and reach out to them. They are determined to never give up, Please don’t give up on them. I hope that your heart will be touched by the children of Lafiteau the way they have touched mine.

Sincerely,

A citizen of Lafiteau 

Voice of the Children Foundation - Presentation

Voice of the Children Foundation

Voice of the Children Foundation is a group of young people from Lafiteau, Haiti coming together to work toward making a positive difference in our community. We are committed to reduce hunger and rescue abandoned children that were majorly affected by the 2010 earthquake.

Vision:

Food and Education for most vulnerable children in Lafiteau.

Missions

Our mission is to serve the most vulnerable children in Lafiteau, Haiti by providing them with food and education. VTC works to eliminate huger hunger and illiteracy in one of the Haiti’s poorest villages. We are faith-based organization focusing on providing ethical, timely and long-term solutions to the problems that are affecting the community of Lafiteau. We do this through gathering children and helping them with:

• ·         Basic needs
• ·        Nutritional foods
• ·        Affordable education

Programs:

Food: Our feeding program mainly has two aspects; one aspect is focusing on organizing supplementary feeding in areas where malnutrition is at rife. And another aspect that focuses on helping famers to grow better crops to help feeding their families. The second aspect mainly deals with the issue of having clean water to raise better food in the Lasfiteau community.

Supplementary feeding program: Children are the most vulnerable to malnutrition; it is easier for an adult to go through a whole day without any food, whereas it is possible for a child. So, we believe that organizing supplementary feeding program for children, especially in school, is very important in their learning process. We have seen children in our program getting better at school when getting a ready-to-eat meal in the middle of their day. In our supplementary feeding program, we are currently feeding children once every week, sadly, this is not enough to get them going. We started this program last year; it is a part of our education initiative for the children in Lafiteau. We realized that children who are not properly nourished are having a hard time concentrating and learning in school. We are welcome anyone who would to partner with us to advance this program in order to provide more meals to the kids.

Nutritional foods: Nutritious foods are very important for children to remain healthy. Nutritional food is linked to different aspects like childhood growth and development. We are hoping to start a program that will help farming families in Lafiteau to improve their agricultural system so that they can grow better and sufficient food to feed their families. We believe that one thing that can help the Lafiteau families improve farming development is getting access to water. In Haiti, access to clean water remains a major issue for millions of people. So having access to clean water means everything to people in Lafiteau because they need to drink, cook and grow crops. In Lafiteau alone, people spend countless hours every year walking to find water. Sadly, a lot of the time women and children are mostly the ones walking miles to collect water for their homes, which is likely contaminated water that isn’t safe to use. We believe that in order to produce sufficient food to feed the community, water play a very crucial part in the production process. We are also hoping to start our first water project this coming summer 2014 in partner with other organizations in order to help the community to gain access to water sources to use to grow crops and secure their own food supply.

 Education: In our education program, we mainly focus on creating vocational school program which is helping children who do not have any education at all. We start with them by providing basic lessons like teaching the alphabetical letters and also showing them how to write their name and the names of their family. We also help children who are already have an education by proving them with school supplies and other things they need to further their education. We also meet with them once or twice a week to teach them biblical stories, geography and the Haitian literature. We are also looking into partnering with other schools in the community in order to help facilitating the education that they are providing the children.

Partner with us

We welcome any group or organization that would like to work with us to help make a positive difference in the community of Lafiteau. We really appreciate your support and commitment to change lives.

Leaders:

Marie Andre Legrand

Kesnel Olvil

Villarson Toussaint

Rodriguez Alexis

James Mesidor

Chardine Aristil

Johane Mesidor

Richarson Jeremiah

US Representatives:

Claude Gillot

Doris Estes

           

Contact Us:

Email: voicechildren@yahoo.com, voiceofthechildren1@gmail.com

Phone: 011509-3887-7276, 712-470-3840

Address: Route National #1

                Lafiteau, Haiti