Fondation Limye Lavi

Our Mission

Who is Limye Lavi? What does Limye Lavi do? Limye Lavi is a Haitian organization that has been in existence since 1993. It works with marginalized communities in Haiti, especially those that are the most rural. Its mission is to work together with other organizations to help people in the most marginalized communities to cultivate the types of education and experiences that are based on respect and dignity, and which lead to autonomy. Limye Lavi works with all types of people, without distinction, particularly people from marginalized communities. Limye Lavi's main goal is to help the communities it works with to organize themselves and develop strategies so that: - all children in the community attend school and receive a quality education ; - community members neither send children to, nor receive children from the restavek system ; - the rights of all children are respected ; - communities produce more agricultural products and apply good techniques to increase income and improve economic living standards. Fondasyon Limye Lavi's work is focused in 3 main areas: Education, Protection and Defense of Children's Rights, and Agricultural / Economic Accompaniment. 1- Education Limye Lavi holds in-services for teachers and school directors, organizes rural schools into networks to meet together and create solutions for the educational problems experienced in the rural communities, organize themselves to defend children's rights, and work so that all children can go to school and receive a quality education. It incorporates a Match system to help schools cover their budgets, Book Banks so students can have books to study, and Accelerated Programs so older children who haven't had the chance to go to school can benefit from a good education. Limye Lavi also holds trainings for adults in the community to raise parents' awareness of how they can become more effectively involved in their children's education. 2-Protection and Defense of Children's Rights Specifically to protect and defend children's rights, Limye Lavi works to eliminate the restavek system (child labor system) in the rural communities. It holds trainings for community members about children's and youth's rights. It helps communities create committees to defend and protect children's rights, and accompanies the committees in helping the most vulnerable children in the communities, especially those children who return to the rural communities from being in the child labor (restavek) system. 3-Agricultural/Economic Accompaniment To help the communities increase their agricultural production and raise more money to function, Limye Lavi holds trainings focused on money management and agricultural techniques, and accompanies them in improving their planting and technical skills, taking better care of their gardens, and developing economic activities to increase agricultural production, save money and manage credit programs among themselves. Limye Lavi specifically uses methods that are built on participation, that allow people to share ideas and respect each other, develop tolerant and democratic spirits among themselves, and which develop collective ideas and shared leadership in the communities. It develops and uses methods such as: Reflection Circles, Open Space, ESK (Edikayson se yon Konvesasyon- Education is a Conversation), etc.