Empowering Adult Handicapped Haitians

Our partners, the adult residents of St. Vincent's Center for Children with Disabilities, have been featured in the St. Vincent's Newsletter for Spring 2025.  We thought you'd like to read this!

Excerpt from the St. Vincent's Center Newsletter: Spring 2025

"The Adult Residents Who Give Back

They are all deaf, blind, or in wheelchairs, but that doesn’t prevent them from serving. The adult residents, all of whom are graduates of the School, play a vital part in the daily life of the Center, easing the burden on staff and advancing the care and education of the students.

Here are some of the ways that they ”pay it forward”:

Now the oldest resident, Jimmy, who is blind, teaches Braille, plays the accordion and, for many years, taught music and accompanied the handbell choir.

Jean-Marc and Mackenson,who are also blind, help the youngest students learn Braille and teach them how to study their lessons after class.

Evens, who is visually impaired, delivers potable water to all 22 classrooms, administrators’ offices, and residents’rooms.

Jonelson is deaf, but he’s the one who successfully oversees the discipline of the youngest at the Center.

Carlentz is also deaf. He interprets for deaf adults and helps wheelchair-bound children move safely around classrooms and campus.

Judith has severe scoliosis, but she’s completed cooking school and, as a gourmet cook, works at the Café which the adult residents have set up and run on the campus.

Although Moïse is in wheelchair, he helps to water the garden, and Maille, also in a wheelchair, is responsible for informing everyone when meals are ready.

Kenson repairs and refreshes wheelchairs for everyone at St.Vincent’s and also for the nearby Partners in Health orphanage and school, Zanmi Beni. Several years ago, he translated the Perkins Institute for the Blind Braille Machine Manual into Kréyol and, with two others, repaired 19 Braille machines.

The daily interaction with students, some 20 of whom reside at the School, makes this multi-generational community a closely-knit family.

Two Deaths in the Family

Adult residents play a vital role in the daily life at St.Vincent’s as the article on the opposite page attests. Thus, a death leaves a big hole not only in the family, but also in the work that keeps the schedule humming.

Samuel Elizaire died in early December from a sudden respiratory infection. At age 41, he had lived at St.Vincent’s since the age of three. He was our much-valued assistant bookkeeper, having graduated from St. Vincent’s, secondary school, and Quisqueya University with a degree in accounting. Samuel was also the person entrusted with the weekly food purchasing, despite being wheelchair-bound. He was the beloved ”Uncle” to all young residents and students, and at nighttime, he was the resident “protector” when Père Duveaux had gone home.

In later December, Lilian Azor also died. Known fondly as “Dixie,” she was deaf and used her experience of that disability to teach deaf children in the school. Visitors in the West Tennessee Haiti Partnership remember all of the meals she cooked for them when they stayed in the St.Vincent’s Guest House prior to the 2010 earthquake. At St. Vincent’s since the days of founder Sister Joan, Dixie was also responsible for supervising younger residents after class.

While enduring physical disabilities, both Samuel and Dixie refused to let themselves be defined by their handicaps. St.Vincent’s is richer for them."