Open Letter to Haiti Fund : Reopen Project Pierre Toussaint.

OPEN LETTER Board of Directors Project Pierre Toussaint Fairfield, CT I urge you to consider putting the PPT website back up on the internet so that the public can be made aware of the steps that are now being taken to reopen the drop-in center and school. This has been a very public issue. I am certain that many people would like to help by contributing money. You must also let the public know what policies, systems and procedures are being implemented to prevent what happened to the children at PPT from ever happening again. My advice is to work with sexual assault and child protection groups  both here and in Haiti. If you try and do it yourselves, or rely on the Catholic Church for guidance, you may face criticism. You may not like it, but some will say that the same people, under whose watch the abuse occurred, are now in charge of creating policies to protect the children. I hope you can understand why child protection advocates may not approve. Therefore, you should seek third party assistance. You should strive to become the leading resource in Haiti for child sex abuse awareness, education and best practice prevention models. You should know that I have begun reaching out to other groups in Haiti for their participation. A non profit group that operates a large orphanage in southwestern Haiti has already expressed an interest in helping to implement awareness and child sex abuse prevention programs. We must never forget the horrific harms inflicted upon the PPT students. You mentioned that one of the new board members will be a Fairfield University official. This individual should be prepared to answer questions as to why university officials kept secret the allegations against Perlitz. If any member of your new board is unwilling to be open and truthful about what happened in the past, then it will be said that they are enabling child sex abuse to happen again. You should also know that Haiti Fund board members should be prepared to be open and transparent in an evaluation of how and why the sexual abuse of children went on for so many years. We can't fix the problem if we don't know what happened. You should also know that several members of the Haitian community told me how important it will be to include Cap Haitien community members on your board of directors. I agree. Local oversight can help protect children. Thank you for all you are doing to reestablish the school. Many of you have endured severe and persistent  criticism of your efforts to protect the children. May God grant you the wisdom, strength and courage to carry on. Sincerely, Paul Kendrick