At Lumos, the protection of children is at the very heart of our work and we are profoundly shocked and dismayed by the recent reports of abuse by aid workers. While Lumos was not operating in Haiti at the time of the incident in 2011, recent revelations demonstrate that we all need to be vigilant to protect the most vulnerable in society.
Lumos has a zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate behaviour and we are confident no incident of this nature has ever occurred amongst our staff. We uphold robust standards, practices and procedures to safeguard children and support our workforce. We regularly review our policies and procedures and consistently work with staff to ensure they understand the exemplary conduct we expect of them, and how to report any concerns.
Lumos began working in Haiti in January 2015, upon the invitation of the Government. We support national plans to transform the care system, preventing children being placed in orphanages and providing family-based care and support services. Our team in Haiti is made up of local staff who understand the systems, culture and context. This is the same locally-led development approach we use in all countries in which we operate.
An estimated 30,000 children live in more than 760 orphanages in Haiti. Working in collaboration with the Haitian government agency responsible for child protection (IBESR) and the Haitian police force, we facilitate the reunification of families and strengthen systems to prevent family separation. We have stringent systems in place for the regular monitoring of all the children we have supported. To date, Lumos’ dedicated team in Haiti has successfully closed six orphanages that were trafficking children.
Lumos works in challenging environments with some of the world’s most disadvantaged children. Safeguarding those children is our fundamental priority. It is essential that all of us working in international development make every effort to protect children and other vulnerable people by ensuring our staff are recruited, trained and monitored to the highest possible standards.
For media enquiries, please contact Heather McCormick, Director of Communications - +44 (0)7581 302294