Haiti Deaf Academy​​/ Akademi Soud Ayiti Bercy, Ouest, Haiti

Certified by Institute for Social Welfare/L’Institut du Bien-Etre Social et de Recherches (IBESR) since 2017.

Located on the campus on Lifesong MBO in Bercy, Haiti.

The Haiti Deaf Academy is a 501c3 residential school for deaf and hard of hearing Haitian children. As a first step, students are taught sign language and receive hearing devices and speech therapy if needed.

Key programs include:

Life Skills

Primary School Academics

Parent Education

Community Education

Early Intervention Hearing Screening Program

See IMPACT for more about each program.

OUR STORY

The need for the Haiti Deaf Academy became clear during our work with a community of deaf adults in Leveque, Haiti, as they relocated to permanent housing after losing their homes in the earthquake of 2010. Most adults in the community were not well educated, not job ready, and dependent on others for survival. The adult leaders in Leveque requested that our future efforts focus on the next generation through the offering of language development, academic education, life skills training, and spiritual development.

Haiti Deaf Academy /Akademi Soud Ayiti

Certified by Institute for Social Welfare/L’Institut du Bien-Etre Social et de Recherches (IBESR) since 2017.

We opened as a children's dorm in September 2013 for deaf students from the area who required housing to enable them to attend a local hearing school that had dedicated two classrooms to deaf education. Our name was later changed to the Haiti Deaf Academy to reflect our education emphasis. Traditional day schools do not exist for deaf children in Haiti, so beds were immediately filled, providing access to education that would otherwise not exist for these students. We have filled to a capacity of 48 students and have many on the waiting list.

Deaf adults staff the cottages and provide Christ-based parenting and role modeling. Sign Language is the primary means of communication, expanding the world for many of these children who joined us with no means of communicating with their families or friends. We are finding deaf children living in remote areas or small communities with no hope for education. Many have families who have ostracized them and do not attempt to communicate with them. Unfortunately, as with some disabled children in developing countries, these deaf children are vulnerable to abuse and neglect. We aim to change the lives of these children and help them become productive and valued members of their families.

Most students living in our cottage-style dorms are not orphans and will not be treated as such. The family will remain intact, with sign language programs available for parents and siblings and a social worker to help ensure that the family remains active in the child’s life.

We have provided access to training for deaf men to be pastors so that the children receive a biblical education direct from deaf role models.

By educating these vulnerable children in Haiti, and giving them the skills they need to communicate, along with academic and vocational training and spiritual development, they will be empowered and realize their dreams of self-reliance. They will be transformed.

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Vision Statement

We are a non-profit, nondenominational Christian organization striving to educate, employ, empower, and encourage so that every Haitian child with a hearing loss may know and reach their God-given potential.

Haiti Deaf Academy

Mission Statement

We offer a transformational program that leads to self-reliance by providing language, academic/vocational/life skills training, and physical and spiritual nourishment for deaf & hard of hearing children, their families and deaf adult staff.

Haiti Deaf Academy