PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – The Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR) has started a programme re-evaluating the functions of children’s homes in Haiti, where nearly 32,000, mainly abandoned children live.

“This reassessment of children’s homes is a prelude to the process of deinstitutionalization of children in Haiti. Without the data, we cannot give good results,” said Diem Pierre, IBESR Assistant Director General.Under the two month programme, which is being funded by the French Embassy, LUMOS, UNICEF, World Vision in Haiti and Rapha House, an estimated 740 centres including 453 establishments in the 20 communes of the department of the West will be examined and evaluated.The authorities said the data would be used to identify the centres that need to be closed, those that need to be refurbished and those that are compliant and licensed.IBESR Director General Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, said she remains convinced that “there is no better place for the development and vitality of the child as his family”.