VZCZCXRO1898
PP RUEHQU
DE RUEHPU #0399/01 0711835
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 111835Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7861
INFO RUEHZH/HAITI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 1834
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA PRIORITY 1639
RUEHQU/AMCONSUL QUEBEC PRIORITY 1062
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1457

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 000399 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR 
G/TIP FOR BFLECK 
S/CRS 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR 
INR/IAA 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM HA
SUBJECT: GOH CHILDREN'S SHELTER WELL RUN, POLITICS ASIDE 
 
REF: A. PORT-AU-PRINCE 336 
     ¶B. 07 PORT-AU-PRINCE 1668 
     ¶C. 07 PORT-AU-PRINCE 437 
 
PORT AU PR 00000399  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  Summary.  A large GOH children,s shelter near 
Port-au-Prince, once run by Jean Bertrand Aristide before he 
became President, is now managed by Brother Armand Franklin, 
a reputed Aristide ally, and is doing well with the help of 
international assistance.  The shelter, the largest GOH 
institution for needy children, is well managed, and the 
lives of the children who live there are unquestionably 
better than those who live on the streets in Port-au-Prince. 
Poloff was unable to confirm rumors that Brother Armand 
Franklin intends to follow Aristide,s example and launch a 
political career using the children,s shelter as a platform. 
 End summary. 
 
¶2.  Poloff on February 28 made an unannounced visit to the 
Carrefour Welcome Center, a GOH children's shelter in 
Carrefour that recently completed renovations and that 
figures in the 2007 and 2008 TIP report (reftels A and C). 
(Note:  Carrefour is a poor, high-crime suburb of 
Port-au-Prince.  End note.)  Brother Armand Franklin, who 
many Port-au-Prince residents believe supports former 
President Jean Bertrand Aristide, runs the shelter.  Many in 
the area suspect that Brother Armand intends to use the 
orphanage as the platform for a political movement, similar 
to the way Aristide used the same institution to found his 
Selavie youth group that helped launch his political career 
(reftel B).  The GOH owns the orphanage complex, also known 
as La Centrale, but allows a Haitian Catholic group, The 
Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnation, to operate it. 
 
¶3.  According to Dr. Eliodor Clervil, executive co-director 
of the shelter and the president of the Chamber of Commerce 
and Industry in the Center Department, the shelter's purpose 
is to provide a safe haven for street children, ages 5-20, 
where they can also receive food and educational 
opportunities.  At the time of Poloff,s visit, the shelter 
housed 120 boys and 3 girls.  (Note:  The girls were to be 
transferred to an affiliated shelter named Dos Palais, 
located in Hinche in the Center Department.  That shelter 
housed 150 children, of which 60 were girls.  The third 
shelter is Petit Place Cazeau.  Brother Armand's congregation 
runs all three shelters and owns outright the Hinche and 
Cazeau facilities.  End note.) 
 
¶4.  Even though the Carrefour shelter does not accept 
children with criminal problems, Clervil noted that it 
remained difficult to place children in families.  To provide 
guidance and role models for the children, the shelter 
divides the children into smaller groups and appoints two 
adults who live with them as group parents. 
 
¶5.  The purpose of Poloff's visit was to check the status of 
renovations mentioned in post's submission for the seventh 
annual trafficking in persons report (reftel C).  The 
renovations were completed, but Clervil claimed that a second 
phase of the renovations, which included building extensions 
to existing buildings, was underway.  The focus of this 
second stage is to improve living conditions for the group 
parents and other staff residing at the shelter, and to build 
a new kitchen, funded by the Inter-American Development Bank 
(IDB).  IDB funding also underwrites the meals that the 
children receive. 
 
¶6.  Comment:  The stark contrast between the shelter and the 
surrounding neighborhood is instantly noticeable.  The 
shelter was clean and orderly, and the children appeared 
well-nourished and happy.  The shelter, which can easily 
house more than its current 120 residents, is a large 
facility.  It contained spacious but poorly equipped 
classrooms and ample space for physical exercise.  The 
dormitories are large, airy, and filled with sunlight. 
Poloff noticed that each child received a generous helping of 
the simple lunch of rice and beans.  The shelter could 
benefit from additional desks, books, small storage closets 
for the children, and a better water purification system. 
 
 
PORT AU PR 00000399  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶7.  Comment continued:  The shelter's compound has a long 
political history.  President Dumarsais Estime (1946-1950) 
founded the shelter to house delinquent teenagers.  Francois 
Duvalier, then the Minister of Social Affairs, turned over 
the facility to the Port-au-Prince Archdiocese, who entrusted 
it to the Catholic congregation of the Fathers and Brothers 
of the Holy Spirit.  The priests and brothers ran La Centrale 
until 1964 when President Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier 
expelled the congregation from Haiti.  Duvalier and his son, 
Jean Claude Duvalier, used the facility during their regimes 
to house political prisoners, but the GOH, after the fall of 
Jean Claude, turned over the compound to Aristide, who 
reconstituted the children's shelter there as a platform to 
launch his political career.  While we could not confirm 
widely believed rumors that Brother Armand Franklin plans to 
use this children,s center to develop a political career, he 
is very adept at running multiple large facilities (the three 
shelters and the Pandiasou peasant support organization ) 
see reftel B), and is able to attract and manage funds from 
various international donors. 
SANDERSON