Youth Development & Empowerment

Haiti Partners’ mission is to ‘Help Haitians Change Haiti through Education.’ Our belief is that Haiti’s brutal history of colonization, slavery, and exploitation has traumatized its people and created a culture of authoritarian leadership that all too often results in the abuse of power and a scarcity mindset. The abuse of power stifles the positive evolution of institutions – families, organizations, businesses, government. Leaders that abuse power create and perpetuate conditions that inhibit people from growing, innovating and discovering their potential. Given its history and the typical approach of aid, it’s no wonder that Haiti seems stuck. While there are extraordinary examples of Haitians working together, it is common to find tendencies of people tearing one-another down, a phenomenon that often develops among people with long history of being oppressed. Unfortunately, the educational experience of the majority of Haitian children serves to perpetuate a broken society characterized by ineffective institutions. Haiti’s schools typically use archaic practices such as rote memorization, corporal punishment and humiliation, and teach prejudice, conformity, and passivity while stifling critical thinking and the very “out of the box thinking” that Haiti so desperately needs. In order for Haiti to address its many challenges, its children need to experience an innovative, quality education – an education that empowers them to develop their potential, to think outside the box and to engage in improving their communities. This is Haiti Partners’ mission and this is the work that we engage in each day.