Haiti

Compassion started working in Haiti in 1968. Today, there are over 109,000 children registered in our programs through 299 church partners.

Where We Work

Snapshot of Haiti

54%

of people live below the poverty line

72%

of people lack access to proper sanitation

51%

of people can’t read and write

Letter from Compassion Haiti Director, Guilbaud Saint-Cyr

Dear Sponsor, My name is Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, and I have been serving as the Compassion Haiti Country Director for 14 years now. The ministry of Compassion began in Haiti in 1968. The Lord has currently blessed us with more than 108,000 registered children in partnership with about 300 local churches. We feel so grateful for the enthusiastic and generous contribution you have provided to your sponsored child!

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Letter from Compassion Haiti Director, Guilbaud Saint-Cyr

Dear Sponsor,

My name is Guilbaud Saint-Cyr, and I have been serving as the Compassion Haiti Country Director for 14 years now. The ministry of Compassion began in Haiti in 1968. The Lord has currently blessed us with more than 108,000 registered children in partnership with about 300 local churches.

We feel so grateful for the enthusiastic and generous contribution you have provided to your sponsored child!

Our committed sponsors enable children to have hope and a future, and to participate in effective programs designed to shape their lives so they can become responsible and fulfilled adults.

One vivid example is a young man who lived in the poverty of Solino, one of the largest and most dangerous slums in Haiti. One of five children in a family that struggled to meet their basic needs, he became a Compassion-sponsored child at an early age. Through the program, he had access to quality education, Bible training, medical and food support, and income-generating training. Eventually he attained a bachelor’s degree in administration at a prestigious university in Haiti and a master’s degree in discipleship from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Today, he is ministering to children in the community where he grew up, reaching out to gang members by modeling the way. He not only meets the needs of his nuclear family and extended family, but he also chose to sponsor two little boys through Compassion—one from his former child development centre and another from Colombia.

We have several priorities for the coming year. As a strong and growing ministry in Haiti, we plan to reinforce our partnerships by equipping our church partners with new technology for timely processing and delivery of child information to sponsors, and by helping them serve more children. We are also considering partnership with new denominations in the regions we already operate in, to serve the high volume of new children we foresee in the future.

We will continue to implement our WaSH (water, sanitation and hygiene) strategy, started a year ago, consisting of providing water, sanitation and hygiene services coupled with education and awareness training. We can save lives and enhance child development through WaSH initiatives. We are completing our pilot phase with 12 centres and can already see the great impact of the strategy. Our vision is to implement WaSH in all our centres throughout the country.

We are developing a new youth development strategy to enable all our eligible high-finishing students to fulfil their inner calling and potential through higher education, and transition the current Leadership Development Program model to a broader, integrated approach under the responsibility of churches.

We are fighting tirelessly to eradicate poverty, this evil that takes away our precious children’s hope, dignity, and joy of living. We firmly believe that what happens in the life of a child ripples throughout their environment, now and in the future. Each sponsor’s letter and word of encouragement has untold impact on a child and gives that child back hope, dignity and joy. Please write as often as you can.

Please pray that God’s wisdom will lead us to be more effective in carrying out this ministry of releasing one child at a time from poverty in Jesus’ name. Changed environments may help children, but transformed children will inevitably change their environments. Let us continue to band together to make this happen for the glory of God.

All these great accomplishments and initiatives have been made possible because of wonderful sponsors like you. Thank you again for your partnership and for your commitment to your sponsored child; this is a battle we can’t win without you.

In Jesus,

Guilbaud Saint-Cyr

Country Director Compassion Haiti

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Safe water in Sarazin

Located in the Central Plateau region of Haiti, Sarazin is a poor neighbourhood with a population of about 24,000. People depend on agriculture to make a living and pay for their children’s school fees. But Sarazin struggled with one particular problem above the others—the lack of safe drinking water. And the community isn’t alone: around 42 per cent of Haitians don’t have a safe source of drinking water.

Safe water in Sarazin

“For the past 20 years, people in Sarazin walked at least a mile to collect water from a public water fountain that was always crowded with people, as it was the primary source of water for the entire population,” says Mrs. René Joseph, a local community leader.

In times of drought, the water issue got worse. The springs became dry, and the water fountain was sometimes closed. People had to wake up very early in the morning to gather as much water as they could for that day and the days ahead. Otherwise, they had no choice but to resort to the rivers, borehole wells, or even miserable hand-dug-wells to get their drinking water. These sources were contaminated and waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera were rife.

Initially, the project staff used iodine tablets or other purifying tablets provided by Compassion to purify the drinking water that the children consumed at the development centre, but children were still exposed to contaminated water at home. Then, in April 2016, a sustainable response was presented to this problem: local staff and Compassion Haiti decided to build a reverse-osmosis water fountain for the local church and an additional treated water fountain for the community, at a closer location than the old one.

“I love to drink water [at the centre], because it’s purified and I won’t get any diseases,” says eight-year-old Michel Magdala.

To make sure children consumed clean water at home as they did at the centre, program staff also distributed filters to the children to take home, so that they can treat water they collect from the rain and other unpurified sources.

“Making the decision to put these water fountains in the community was significant, because children can now drink clean water both at the centre and at home,” says Fritzner Prince, the Project Director. “They can learn how to practise hygiene principles, and the risk of contracting waterborne diseases is highly reduced. It’s a blessing for us!”

Prayer requests for Haiti

During the past few weeks, we have had a lot of torrential rain in Haiti and many places have been flooded. Those rains have deeply affected schools, transportation and many other institutions in some specific regions of the country. Now, there is a risk of the spread of many types of disease like cholera, malaria and typhoid fever. Please pray that the rains will stop soon and that the living conditions of the population will be improved.
Please pray for the family of Robendy Pierre Francois, who was registered with Compassion. Robendy passed away recently after having suffered for many years from sickle cell anaemia. The family is deeply shocked by the event. Please pray that they will have with peace in that situation and that they can see the sovereignty of God in that sad event.
There has been a conjunctivitis breakout in the country lately, and a few of our staff members and registered children have been affected. The Haiti office leadership has already shared advices with our staffs and the ICPs on the best way to avoid that disease. Please pray that the conjunctivitis will not continue to affect more people in the compassion ministry in Haiti.
Please pray for the family of Pastor Moise Magloire, who led the church that partners with HA-787 Saint-Raphel Child Development Centre. Pastor Moise passed away the last weekend; his death was unexpected as he hadn’t been diagnosed with any disease or displayed any symptoms. Please pray for his church, the child development centre staff and especially his family, as they are grieving his death.

Stories from Compassion in Haiti

5 Faces of the Devastating Haiti Earthquake

It’s been five years since a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti, killing up to 300,000 people and injuring the same number. Of the three million people who were affected, many were left homeless. Almost as soon as the tremors stopped, Compassion staff and local church workers were on the scene to help.

3 Children Share Why They Love Receiving Letters

Supakan’s home has only one piece of furniture: a cupboard made from cardboard and glass. It’s where her family keeps their favourite, most precious belongings—like Supakan’s letters from her sponsor. Why are letters so valuable to sponsored children? We asked three children from around the world to share why their sponsor’s letters mean so much.

10 Eye-Opening Photos of Classrooms In the Developing World

Most classroom in Australia look fairly similar. Although they might be decorated differently, you can pretty much expect to see the same things—some desks, a board, and maybe some computers. But what about the classrooms of children in Compassion’s programs? We all know education varies across the world, but so do the classrooms!