Haitian kids on the streets

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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If you find an "abandoned" Haitian child on the streets of your town or village, the proper authority is CONANI which has a strict protocol for caring for them and finding them homes -- mostly trying to reunite them with their families.


http://www.conani.gov.do/documents/01AntecedentesdelProtocolodeNNA.pdf

Theoretically, the PN and the Politur have received training on this and will get the children to a suitable shelter.Habilitan vacacional para albergar a ni?os haitianos - List?n Diario Digital

There has been a lot of press on the program recently -Note that none of these children will be eligible for adoption from here in the DR. All adoptions of Haitian children need to be signed off by the Prime Minister of Haiti.

Despite all the press, CONANI reports that they have had the care of 375 children since the earthquake - and only 24 remain in custody, recovering from their treatment here in hospitals.

I made the leap that all those kids were brought for treatment to the border or here -- and the families were waiting for them. It was impossible to get an answer to this from CONANI. However since the DR was recently blasted by the US State department for not doing enough to halt the trafficing of persons, perhaps all the press is in response to that.

EU define a RD como traficante de personas - ElNacional.com.do

Anyway - please note that children are not in the same category as street dogs but are covered by national and international laws and treaties. It is not legal to simply take one into your home and keep "it" even though your intentions may be great and you may think that you are doing the right thing.
 

mountainannie

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The article does not mention where in Santiago these temporary homes are. Do you?

It is hard to get straight answers from CONANI on this one -- I did get the name of one orphanage where 25 Haitian kids are at the moment and am going to see it and interview the priest on Monday. CONANI does not have its own facilities but places at risk kids with different places, as I understand the system.

My impression is that all the recent publicity is in response to the DR being blacklisted by the US department of State for trafficking of persons.

So far CONANI reports that they had "custody" of 375 children that came here for care - of whom 25 remain and the rest were reunited with family. So these were kids that HAD family waiting - not kids who were trafficked.

It did seem that 375 was a small number considering the number of Haitian kids on the streets of SD- but perhaps I am misjudging.

But my sense - and it is just that now-- is that there are preparations in place for a better "sweep" --

What is happening in Santiago? Are there more and more Haitian kids now visible on the streets? That is my impression in SD-
 

las2137

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Accion Callejera is a well-run Dominican NGO that works with street kids in Santiago. The director is Bentodina Jimenez.

This is what I could find for their contact info, but I don't know if it is up to date:

Tel: (809) 581-0050 - (809) 971-6814

La Fundaci?n Acci?n Callejera, Inc. es una instituci?n sin fines de lucro fundada en el a?o 1989, cuyo prop?sito es promover, de m?ltiples formas, el desarrollo personal y social de los ni?os, adoloscentes y j?venes que salen a las calles a ganarse la vida.

La metodolog?a de trabajo est? basada en las t?cnica de educaci?n no formal que permiten ofrecer al menor un modelo educativo que da repuestas a sus necesidades, como joven individuo activo de una sociedad, despertando en ?l procesos de desarrollo y aprendizaje en las ?reas de destrezas b?sicas, autoestima, cuidado e higiene personal, lecto-escritura, c?lculo, apoyo social, vinculaci?n escolar, aptitudes, deportes, salud, arte y apoyo de colocaci?n laboral.

MA- as far as I know, you are correct in that CONANI does not have facilities but places children with several partner institutions, of which Accion Callejera is one.

Accion Callejera is a member of the Consorcio NINA, a group of Dominican child protection NGOs. Caminante, in Boca Chica, is another great member.