On August 30th the Rinaldi Foundation joined community leaders in Cap-Haitien to celebrate the renewal of a project that strives to reduce violence in marginalized communities of Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien through promoting the economic integration of at-risk youth. With the support of the United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti (MINUJUSTH), Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo (VIS), and the Salesian works Lakou and Lakay, 90 youth from Port-au-Prince and 12 youth from Cap-Haitien will be recipients of internships and formation to help them to enter into the job market and find a new path forward.
The 90 beneficiaries (44 girls and 46 boys) from Port-au-Prince will be placed in 3-month internships at about 50 different enterprises related to the participants’ previous studies. In addition to gaining work experience, the participants will be provided with formation sessions on topics such as resume-writing, interviewing for a job, stress management, rights and duties in the workplace, and ethics. Further, a 2-module violence reduction curriculum will be presented.
Additional activities will also be pursued after the completion of the internships for those youth who have not obtained job offers. About 27 of the beneficiaries will be selected to form 9 income generating enterprises in domains such as tailoring and cosmetology. Further, all the participants of the program will receive toolkits related to their work, providing them a further aid for the road ahead.
While the journey for these youth has been difficult, the project aims to show that good options exist. May these youth have the courage to choose them.
