lundi 12 décembre 2011

A tragic legacy at Haiti school.

A tragic legacy at Haiti school

Published 05:01 p.m., Friday, December 9, 2011

The story of Douglas Perlitz and the collapse of Project Pierre Toussaint, the school he started for boys in Haiti but then used as a preserve for sexual predation, continues to sow nothing but sadness.

Perlitz, an acclaimed Fairfield University graduate, started the project in 1997. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges related to his abuse of boys he took in from the streets of Cap Haitien, the impoverished country's second-largest city, and was subsequently sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison.

Fairfield University and other charitable groups responded to the collapse of PPT by searching for another humanitarian organization to pick up the work of PPT.

Kids Alive International, an Indiana-based evangelical charity with experience working in Cap Haitien, was selected to try to reassemble the pieces of PPT.

But news comes now that, for a variety of reasons, the group's effort has failed.

Perlitz's victims, of course, are older now than they were when the scandal broke. In so many ways, they were no longer children.

Some had jobs or were in trade school when Kids Alive tried to reconnect with them.

Others, according to Kids Alive president Alfred Lackey, had been convinced that a financial bonanza would be coming their way and were not interested in penny-ante help.

"We were never able to create the trust," Lackey said in an interview with the Connecticut Post. Yes, we'd imagine trust is an elusive goal in dealing with these young men.

And critics of Kids Alive have said the organization came in with a cavalier attitude and was not interested in suggestions from the community on how to approach the problem.

Whatever may have transpired, in the end, the boys -- now the young men -- of Project Pierre Toussaint live on as victims.

"La vraie reconstruction d'Haïti passe par des réformes en profondeur des structures de l'État pour restaurer la confiance, encourager les investisseurs et mettre le peuple au travail. Il faut finir avec cette approche d'un État paternaliste qui tout en refusant de créer le cadre approprié pour le développement des entreprises mendie des millions sur la scène internationale en exhibant la misère du peuple." Cyrus Sibert
Reconstruction d'Haïti : A quand les Réformes structurelles?
Haïti : La continuité du système colonial d'exploitation prend la forme de monopole au 21e Siècle.
WITHOUT REFORM, NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN HAITI (U.S. Senate report.)