Prepared for
Haiti's orphanage system is not a care system. It is an extraction system that separates children from families, channels international donations to unaccountable operators, and in its worst manifestations feeds trafficking pipelines disguised as charitable work.
These numbers describe a system where international charity has become the economic engine driving child separation. Orphanage directors pay intermediaries, known as courtiers, to recruit children from rural families under the promise of education and a better life. Once inside the institution, children serve as fundraising instruments, their vulnerability presented to donors as proof of need. The money flows in. The accountability does not flow back.
At the most extreme end, the orphanage system feeds directly into trafficking networks. Children are funneled into unregulated international adoption pipelines, trafficked across the Dominican border (an estimated 2,000 children annually), or absorbed into the restavek system of unpaid domestic child labor. Reports from field researchers and Haitian authorities have raised the possibility of organ trafficking as well, though systematized evidence remains scarce.
Australia recognized this in its 2018 Modern Slavery Act: orphanage trafficking is a form of modern slavery. The Oxford Human Rights Hub has described Haiti's orphanage system as "a form of child trafficking." Yet the data infrastructure required to trace the pipeline from intake to outcome does not exist.
Missionaries and faith-based organizations are deeply embedded in the orphanage economy. Many operate with sincere intentions. But the structural incentives of the system reward child acquisition over family preservation. And the political protection afforded to religious organizations makes reform exceptionally difficult.
Haiti's security collapse has made the situation more urgent. UNICEF warned in 2024 that children represent 30-50% of members in some armed groups. Over two million people have been displaced by gang violence. As the Multinational Security Support mission ramps up operations, humanitarian actors will encounter increasing numbers of children requiring protection.
Without intervention, the pattern from 2010 will repeat: temporary shelters will become permanent orphanages, donor funding will flow to institutions rather than families, and a new generation of children will be separated from parents who are alive and willing to care for them.
Community-based care costs as little as one-sixth of institutional care. The question is not whether alternatives exist. The question is whether the evidence base exists to justify the policy shift. That is what this project builds.
The child protection field knows orphanages in Haiti are harmful. What it lacks is the systematized evidence to trace the full pipeline from intake to outcome, and the forensic data products to compel policy action.
Significant qualitative and advocacy work has been done. Lumos has documented the scale of the problem and supported IBESR in closing 13 institutions. Overture International has facilitated family reunification for children in southern Haiti since 2020. UNICEF has provided technical guidance. Academic research, including Dr. Archer's dissertation, has illuminated the emotional and developmental harm of institutional care.
| Gap | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Systematized orphanage-to-outcome database | Case-level data linking specific orphanages to specific trafficking, adoption, or restavek outcomes has never been aggregated. Data exists in fragments across organizations. It has never been integrated. |
| Funding flow forensics | $100M+ flows annually to Haitian orphanages. Where does it actually go? No systematic tracing of donor-to-orphanage-to-outcome financial flows exists. Donor-side accountability is nearly absent. |
| Missionary-orphanage network map | Religious organizations operate the vast majority of Haiti's orphanages. No comprehensive map links specific missionary networks to specific institutions to specific outcomes. |
| Keyword-extracted pattern analysis | Reunification case files contain rich qualitative data, but systematic keyword extraction and pattern recognition across cases has not been performed at scale. |
| Per-orphanage or per-region fact sheets | IBESR needs actionable evidence documents, not academic papers. No one is producing facility-level or region-level fact sheets designed for regulatory enforcement. |
| Quantified extraction model | The orphanage system extracts value from three populations simultaneously: children (labor, identity), families (separation), and donors (money). No framework models this as an extraction economy. |
The field has the diagnosis. What it lacks is the data architecture to turn fragmented evidence into the kind of actionable intelligence that changes policy. That is the specific capability this collaboration provides.
Ethnographic ground-truth from inside Haiti's child protection system, combined with forensic data architecture capable of producing institutional-grade evidence products. Neither capability exists in isolation in this field.
| Partner | Organization | Role in This Project |
|---|---|---|
| Lisa | Overture International | Primary data source. Reunification case files from southern Haiti operations (2020-present). Closed 5 orphanages. |
| Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin | IBESR (Director General) | Policy counterpart. Via Dr. Archer's accreditation pathway. |
| Daniel Tillias | KONKRET / SAKALA | Community-based youth employment pipeline for orphanage aging-out youth. Economic landing pad for reunified families. |
A three-phase research design that transforms fragmented field evidence into systematized data products, each phase building on the last, each producing outputs that can stand alone for policy use.
Dr. Archer brings direct access to data that exists nowhere else in aggregated form. Overture International's reunification case files from southern Haiti (2020-present) document the journey of children from orphanage intake through family tracing to reunification outcomes. These files contain interviews, intake records, and case notes that have never been systematically analyzed.
Phase 1 involves organizing this case-level data, conducting additional ethnographic interviews where gaps exist, and establishing the qualitative coding framework that will structure the database. Dr. Archer's existing IBESR relationship, reinforced by her March 2026 re-accreditation engagement, provides the institutional access required for government data and policy input.
Wesley builds the analytical infrastructure to transform Phase 1's qualitative evidence into structured, queryable data. This includes:
| Component | Method | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword extraction | NLP-assisted extraction across all reunification case files to identify recurring patterns, actors, locations, and mechanisms | Pattern taxonomy and frequency analysis |
| Network mapping | Cross-referencing orphanage operators, missionary organizations, adoption agencies, and known trafficking routes | Missionary-orphanage-outcome network graph |
| Funding flow tracing | Tracking international donor money from source through orphanage to actual expenditure, using public filings, IRS Form 990s, and field-verified spending data | Per-orphanage and per-donor financial flow maps |
| Geospatial analysis | Mapping orphanage locations against child origin locations, trafficking route data, and border crossing points | Geographic risk maps for IBESR enforcement targeting |
| Extraction modeling | Applying quantitative extraction framework to orphanage economics: who extracts what from whom, at what rate | Extraction flow diagrams and value quantification |
The final phase produces the evidence products that IBESR, international organizations, and donor agencies need. Every product is designed for a specific audience and a specific decision. The methodology draws on BARSS Research's proven capability: the same fact-sheet generation pipeline that produced 296 TPS forensic fact sheets is adapted here for orphanage-level and region-level analysis.
Design principle: Every research output must answer a specific policy question for a specific decision-maker. Academic publication is a secondary objective. The primary objective is evidence that changes how children are protected.
This research involves vulnerable children and sensitive case data. All work adheres to:
| Standard | Application |
|---|---|
| Informed consent | All ethnographic data collected under IRB-equivalent ethical protocols. Case files anonymized before data architecture processing. |
| Do no harm | No publication of data that could identify specific children or endanger families. Facility-level analysis uses coded identifiers until IBESR enforcement action is initiated. |
| Data sovereignty | Haitian institutional partners (IBESR) retain ownership of all data products. Research outputs serve Haitian policy priorities first. |
| Child safeguarding | All team members adhere to international child safeguarding standards. No direct interaction with children for research purposes without IBESR oversight. |
Six core data products, each designed for a specific audience and a specific policy use. Built incrementally across the project timeline so early outputs inform later analysis.
| Output | Audience | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Interactive data dashboard | IBESR, UNICEF, donors | Web-based (Datawrapper / HTML) |
| Reunification outcome comparison | Donors, Better Care Network | Report with cost-per-child analysis |
| Legislative reform brief | Haitian Parliament, international advocates | Policy brief (FR/EN bilingual) |
| Academic publication | Child protection research community | Peer-reviewed journal article (co-authored) |
| Donor-side accountability brief | US/Canadian/EU legislators | Policy brief targeting donor-country regulation |
This project does not start from zero. Both team members bring completed work that demonstrates capability and provides the foundation for the proposed research.
Three engagement tiers designed for different funder capacities and timelines. Each tier produces standalone value. All budgets include field costs in Haiti, data infrastructure, and bilingual (FR/EN) output.
| Category | Allocation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lead researcher (Dr. Archer) | $72,000 | 12 months, field-based in Haiti. Includes field travel to southern regions. |
| Data architecture (Wesley Bertil) | $54,000 | 12 months. Database design, NLP pipeline, fact sheet generation, dashboards. |
| Field research costs | $18,000 | Transportation, interpreter support, community engagement, secure data collection. |
| Data infrastructure | $12,000 | Secure hosting, NLP tools, visualization platforms, data storage. |
| Translation and localization | $9,000 | All outputs produced in French and English. Kreyol summaries for community use. |
| Publication and dissemination | $6,000 | Journal fees, report design, IBESR presentation materials. |
| Contingency (5%) | $9,000 | Security, logistics, unforeseen field requirements. |
| Total | $180,000 |
This project sits at the intersection of child protection, deinstitutionalization, anti-trafficking, and evidence-based policy. Multiple established funders have active mandates that align precisely with these deliverables.
Tier 2 (recommended) implementation schedule. Each phase produces standalone deliverables while building toward the full evidence package.
| Period | Activities | Deliverables |
|---|---|---|
| Months 1-3 | IBESR accreditation finalized. Overture case files organized and coded. Qualitative coding framework established. Database schema designed. | Methodology report. Coding framework. Database architecture document. |
| Months 3-6 | Keyword extraction across case files. Initial network mapping. IRS 990 data collection for orphanage operators. First regional analysis. | Keyword extraction analysis. 3 regional fact sheets. First IBESR policy brief. |
| Months 6-9 | Funding flow forensics. Missionary-orphanage network graph construction. Facility-level fact sheet production begins. Dashboard development. | Funding flow report. 6 facility-level fact sheets. Network map (draft). Interactive dashboard. |
| Months 9-12 | Full network map finalized. Remaining fact sheets produced. Cost-per-child comparison. Academic paper drafted. Final IBESR briefs delivered. | Complete network map. 6 additional fact sheets. Cost comparison report. 3 IBESR policy briefs. Academic publication (submitted). |
"Timoun se riches peyi a."
Children are the wealth of the nation.
Haitian proverbThe evidence exists. It has never been systematized. This project changes that.
For inquiries about engagement, partnership, or funding, please contact either team member directly.