The First Lady of Haiti, Sophia Martelly, paid yesterday Tuesday a courtesy visit at the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR), as part of its involvement in the struggle for the protection and development of children in Haiti. The IBESR ensures the smooth running of nurseries and orphanages (760 surveyed across the country), the pre-marital activities and the strengthening of families.

Ms. Martelly visited all the services and praised the work of the staff of this institution who is concerned of the improvement of living conditions of Haitian children. Her discussion with Ms. Arielle J. Villedrouin, the Director of IBESR, focused among others on the various problems faced by children in Haiti and the IBESR approaches to meet the expectations of the population. The Institute of Welfare and Research also works on the placement of minors in families, to the supervision of children victims of trafficking, of maltreatment against children used as domestic servants and the detection of minors in the pleasure houses.

Through its Directorate of Social Defence, IBESR has four services :

• The Social Service Prison (SSP) which monitors the cases of children in conflict with the law, receives the placement orders, assists and organizes meetings with organizations and inmates ;

• The Child Protection Service (SPM), which rescued children in situations of extreme vulnerability (children in makeshift camps, separated children, abused children, returnee children, street children) for their reintegration ;

• The Service of Control of the Prostitution and of the Inspection (SCPI), that controls the operation and attendance of cabarets, dancing and other similar places ;

• The Section Accompaniment of Minors (SAM), which deals with the authorizations in terms of family reunification (532 authorizations for the period 2010-2011), of treatment (34 authorizations) and adoption (111 authorizations).

This visit of Sophia Martelly, to three months of the commemoration of day of the child [10 June] is part of its program to fight against hunger and malnutrition, "Aba Grangou", which also aims to alleviate the problems of the promotion and of the management of children in Haiti.

The Office of the First Lady, aware of the difficult situation of children in Haiti, applies to the search of solutions and the accompaniment of the institutions involved, for the full development of the Haitian man, from its early age.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-4803-haiti-social-the-couple-martelly-officially-launched-the-program-aba-grangou-speech.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-4789-haiti-social-sophia-martelly-will-launch-tomorrow-the-program-aba-grangou.html

HL/ HaitiLibre