| Haiti – Life in “Lakay” |
| Italy – Gospel Music and solidarity for youngsters in Haiti |
| Italy – “Foyer-Lakay” for street children |
In an interview also available on the “Don Bosco in the World Foundation” site, Fr Stra, the founder of the “Lakay” centre, gives a brief account of the presence of the Salesians in the country. Invited by the local authorities the Salesians arrived in Haiti in 1936 and devoted themselves to vocational training schools and the oratory, winning esteem and trust on account of the quality of the education they offered. One foundation that did not succeed because of the progressive decline of the local agriculture in Haiti, was an agricultural school.
Tracing the reasons for the current socio-economic situation of the country through the last two hundred years of its history, Fr Stra describes the rapid and unchecked concentration of the population in the cities where in the last decades huge slum areas have developed. Here where every type of infrastructure is lacking the people struggle for survival; their only hope often comes from the economic contributions that relatives who have managed to emigrate are able to send, the amount of which comes to a thousand million and a half US dollars, equal to a third of the G.N.P.
This situation, instability in families and the spread of violence leads youngsters to look to the streets for a place to live: “the street becomes their family, their home, where the enjoy themselves, … and often where they die.” From what Fr Stra says it would seem that in the capital, Port au Prince, there are 3 or 4 thousand street children.
Fr Stra, helped by another Salesian and by about fifty lay people, has evolved a careful plan to respond to the situation and help the youngsters. The first step is “making friends” and takes place on the streets where they meet and get to know the youngsters personally. “It is mainly a matter of listening to them “ the Salesian missionary says, “only in extreme cases do we intervene.” The second step is the “playground”, a place to meet where the youngsters are free to come and go away from danger. “Here there is water for them to have a wash; games to play; they can begin to learn to read and write. And above all there are people here who show an interest in them, talk to them.” After having tried to get them to go back to their families where this is possible, the third step is reached. “Lakay”, the house. Here the youngsters can go to school, learn a trade and become part of a group. Then the last step is to try to get them to take their place in society with a job that will make them self-sufficient.
Published 20/06/2008
