Haiti

Serving the Most Vulnerable

NPH has been in Haiti for more than 35 years, addressing the social needs of the poorest of the poor, raising children in a loving environment, and creating future leaders. Following the twin disasters of 2010, the earthquake and cholera outbreak, our programs launched into high gear serving over 1 million people. The NPH programs are vast and include multiple homes for children, healthcare campuses, and various educational facilities in Port-au-Prince and Kenscoff, Haiti.

Haiti’s economy suffered a severe setback in January 2010, when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed much of its capital city, Port-au-Prince, and neighboring areas. Already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80% of the population living under the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty, the earthquake inflicted $7.8 billion in damages. Seven out of ten Haitians live on less than US$2 a day, according to the International Red Cross.

The country was hit by another serious 7.2 earthquake in August 2021 in the south of the country, which killed 2,200 and left over 12,000 injured. According to UNICEF, 800,000 people, 250,000 of them children, had been affected by the quake and in need of humanitarian aid. In the aftermath, NPH Haiti supported victims in the Les Cayes area of the country by rebuilding the homes of victims and delivering food and clothes.

NPH Haiti Special Needs Programmes

Students at our Kay St. Germaine school taking part in classes

For more than 30 years, NPH Haiti’s Special Needs Programmes have provided life-changing support for children, youth, adults, and families living with disabilities.

Through compassionate residential care, rehabilitation services, specialized education, and family-centered support, these programmes offer dignity, stability, and opportunity to some of Haiti’s most vulnerable populations.

In a country where access to disability services can be limited, NPH Haiti continues to provide comprehensive care that not only meets urgent physical needs, but also strengthens families, promotes inclusion, and creates brighter futures.

Understanding the Need in Haiti

In Haiti, living with a disability often means facing barriers that extend far beyond medical challenges. Widespread poverty, limited healthcare infrastructure, political instability, social stigma, and restricted access to education leave many children and adults living with disabilities among the country’s most vulnerable populations.

For many families, the absence of specialized services creates overwhelming pressure. Children and adults with disabilities may face exclusion, neglect, or abandonment—not because they are unloved, but because families often lack the resources, support, and services needed to provide proper care.

Against this backdrop, access to compassionate rehabilitation, inclusive education, and long-term disability support is essential.

NPH Haiti’s Special Needs Programmes exist to help meet this urgent need by providing not only direct care, but also hope, dignity, and opportunity.

Haiti Disability & Inclusion: Key Facts

Approximately 4% of Haiti’s population aged five and over lives with some form of disability, though broader estimates suggest the true number may be significantly higher due to underreporting and systemic barriers.

More than 53,000 people living with disabilities were identified through Haiti’s disability registry across surveyed municipalities.
Less than 30% of surveyed Haitians living with disabilities are literate, reflecting severe educational inequality and barriers to opportunity.
Employment opportunities for people living with disabilities remain highly restricted, contributing to cycles of poverty and exclusion.
The 2010 earthquake significantly increased rehabilitation needs due to traumatic injuries and long-term disabilities.
Social stigma and discrimination continue to isolate many children and adults living with disabilities.

Our Programs Today

Kay Christine

Kay Christine is the residential heart of the Special Needs Programmes.

Founded in 1993, it provides a safe, nurturing home for children and adults with severe disabilities who require continuous support.

Here, residents receive:

24-hour care
Therapy
Adapted education
Medical support
Emotional care
Recreational opportunities
Vocational development

More than simply a residence, Kay Christine offers family, stability, and the opportunity for each resident to live with dignity.

Kay St. Germaine

Kay Ste. Germaine serves as a vital rehabilitation center for both NPH beneficiaries and members of the surrounding community.

Its services include:

Physical therapy
Neurological rehabilitation
Speech therapy
Developmental therapy
Stroke recovery
Post-trauma rehabilitation
Mobility assistance

For many families, Kay Ste. Germaine provides access to rehabilitation services that would otherwise be out of reach.

Kay Gabriel

Kay Gabriel supports children living with disabilities through specialized education, therapy, and developmental services.

Its services include:

Special education
Speech therapy
Physical therapy
Developmental support
Family guidance
Outpatient rehabilitation

By helping children remain with their families while receiving essential support, Kay Gabriel strengthens both individuals and communities.

“I am so grateful to devote myself to helping these children receive the life that they deserve: health care, education, spiritual formation, and, most importantly, a community and family.”

– Kenson Kaas, National Director of Childcare, Hermano mayor

Values

PREPARATION

NPH Haiti empowers children, young people and families, especially in providing a quality education for the most vulnerable in the poorest and most precarious communities in the Port-au-Prince area. In 2020 alone, NPH had over 2,550 students enrolled in our schools, fulfilling their dreams, building a better future, and becoming agents of change in their communities. One of those schools is the FWAL (Father Wasson Angels of Light), created as a crisis response to the 2010 earthquake when “tent cities” formed by thousands of families and children after being made destitute.

In 2004, Gena Heraty, the Director of Kay Christine (home for special needs children at the St. Helene home), started with a team offering outpatient services to disabled children in the slum of Wharf Jeremy. The concept was not only to provide physical therapy, but to support and educate the mothers with tools to care for their children. This outreach grew and was then relocated to the Father Wasson facility in Pétionville, which was destroyed in the January 12, 2010 earthquake. The program, named Kay Eliane, was re-established in a facility in Pétionville with 140 children receiving weekly therapy and pre-school stimulation.

Adjacent to the St. Damien Pediatric Hospital in Tabarre, is Kay St. Germaine, a 2,300 sq. ft., rehabilitation, physiotherapy and educational center which opened in September, 2008. Kay Germaine offers children with neurological disabilities physical, occupational and speech therapy, a school program for higher functioning patients including a free lunch and support and micro credit loan services to families in need. Volunteer therapists work alongside the local staff to support and train them in providing services.

SPECIAL NEEDS

HEALTH CARE

The healthcare programs of NPH Haiti are motivated by the gospel command to care for the sick and strive to offset the injustices of poverty and unemployment which make healthcare inaccessible for many poor people. Poverty imposes a tremendous burden of sickness and suffering on many children. In an effort to help precisely these children, St. Damien Pediatric Hospital offers both children of poverty, and children of any social level in emergent distress, quality and dignified healthcare. St. Damien always seeks to include the parent participation in this care through ongoing dialogue, on-site opportunities for education, and encouraging any level of material support they can offer for the care of their children.

NPH Haiti Timeline

In 1987 the St. Helene home in Kenscoff was opened

Our timeline

Breaking generational poverty begins with helping a child.

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