Fairfield U. in talks to help Haitian boys. Michael P. Mayko, Staff Writer Published: 10:09 p.m., Saturday, December 11, 2010 (Page 1 of 2) Fairfield University and the Order of Malta are negotiating with a charitable ministry to finance a five-year, $850,000 project to help feed, educate and counsel 82 boys displaced by the closing of a Haitian school operated by convicted sex abuser Douglas Perlitz. Kids Alive International, an 84-year-old Valparaiso, Ind., charitable ministry with operations in Haiti, submitted the proposal during a recent meeting with Fairfield University's president, the Rev. Jeffrey von Arx, and a representative from the Order of Malta, an international Roman Catholic charity. The Order of Malta provided the initial 1997 grant that allowed Perlitz to establish Project Pierre Toussaint in Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city. Officials from Fairfield University, the Order of Malta and Kids Alive were not immediately available for comment. While talks between the three organizations are ongoing and a proposal is on the table, no final commitment has been made, according to sources. The Fairfield University community had been the source of much of Perlitz's financial support, and the school has come under increasing pressure to aid the youths. The Kids Alive proposal does not call for reopening Project Pierre Toussaint. The program had included a block-long intake center in the downtown area where homeless boys could eat, shower and obtain rudimentary schooling. Those that showed promise could be graduated to the Village, eight buildings surrounded by 10-foot high walls in the Blue Hills section of the city. The final phase involved a rented house where Perlitz hand-picked high school students to live and receive tutoring. Project Pierre Toussaint shut down during the summer of 2009 when contributions dried up in the wake of the scandal that led to the federal arrest and conviction of Perlitz, an honored 40-year-old Fairfield University graduate who had received much of the financial support for his project from the university community. Perlitz ended a tumultuous year-long legal battle by pleading guilty in August to a single charge of traveling from New York to Haiti in June 2005 to engage in sex with one of his underage students. But that single plea won't prevent Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Senior Agent Rod Khattabi from bringing six of Perlitz's alleged victims to the U.S. to testify at his Dec. 21 sentencing in U.S. District Court in New Haven. In the original indictment of Perlitz, prosecutors alleged he had sex with 23 of his students, most of whom were believed to be underage at the time. Perlitz faces anywhere from eight to 19 years in prison from U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton. The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network has begun a campaign urging Haitian nationals living in the U.S. to attend the 10 a.m. sentencing or to write Arterton. Since Perlitz's Cap-Haitien program shut down, most of the boys returned to the street to beg. Many sleep on roofs, in courtyards or in the woods. It's the plight of homeless boys like these that led Kids Alive to begin a ministry in Haiti in 2002. Two years later, it opened its first children's home in Cap-Haitien. Today the organization ministers to 81 children in seven residential homes and provides schooling for those and another 38 children. The five-year proposal calls for developing individual plans for each of the 82 boys. The goal is to educate and provide them with job skills in one of the poorest countries in the world. Rather than using the Village to provide schooling, Kids Alive proposes sending the boys to private schools in Cap-Haitien for the next three to five years, depending on their needs. The proposal, which would be financed by Fairfield University and the Order of Malta, calls for renting space in downtown Cap-Haitien, where staffers would provide the boys with two daily meals, technical training, nutrition guidance, medical assistance and psychological counseling. Students would attend either morning or afternoon sessions at private schools and also receive tutoring. Additionally, they would get psychological counseling and be required to attend a weekly Bible session. A program director, two teachers for tutoring, two cooks and a counselor would be hired to staff the program. If the program is funded, it is expected that Robinson Gedeus, who was a supervisor at Project Pierre Toussaint, would be hired in a similar capacity, according to sources. While working for Project Pierre Toussaint, Gedeus visited schools in Fairfield. He was one of the first Pierre Toussaint officials to confront Perlitz regarding allegations of sexual abuse. The proposal "appears to be a first step in helping these kids," said Paul Kendrick, a Fairfield University graduate from Maine who has been advocating for the sexual abuse victims in this case since 2008. "To me, it was always about how we can show these kids they are not being abandoned." Over the last several months, Kendrick and Ruth Moore, of Speak Truth to Power, a Newton, Mass., charity that advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse, have raised money to help feed and clothe the displaced children. Kendrick also led demonstrations demanding that Fairfield University, where tens of thousands of dollars in donations to Perlitz's program were collected, aid the boys left homeless when the project collapsed. Kendrick privately discussed the plight of the former students with von Arx in a Saturday afternoon meeting during Fairfield's Homecoming weekend. Much of the money raised by Kendrick and Moore was sent to Cyrus Sibert, a Haitian journalist who exposed the abuse back in 2007. Sibert used it to buy bags of rice, spaghetti and beans, as well as clothing for the children. "Cyrus essentially became the guardian for these kids," Kendrick said. "He never asked for that position. It just fell upon him because the kids had no one else to turn to. He was their go-to guy, the person who would listen to them, protect them, shelter them and feed them. Over the past several months, he put aside his own comfort and privacy for them." Kendrick and others have raised money to fly Sibert, a married father of three, to the U.S. to attend Perlitz's Dec. 21 sentencing. Meanwhile, Kendrick said he will be meeting with psychology graduate students and university officials in Massachusetts next week with the hope they will help design a counseling program for the victims and possibly provide treatment. "We need to know what is the best plan to help these kids deal with this trauma that will be with them for the rest of their lives." Kendrick said. "I recently sat with one of the victims who spent the whole time with his head down begging God to forgive him for what he had done." ____________________ "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.)