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	Perlitz Victims Still Waiting for Vindication By Amber Nowak The Mirror December 7, 2011 http://fairfieldmirror.com/2011/12/07/perlitz-victims-still-waiting-for-vindication/ Cleaning up the mess that Fairfield alum Doug Perlitz left in Haiti is proving to be more complex than predicted. Fairfield University recently chose Kids Alive International, an Indiana-based evangelical charity group, to provide food, clothes, shelter, and education to the many homeless boys who for years suffered sexual abuse by Perlitz. Kids Alive addressed these needs. Until they pulled out six months into the job. “Our program didn’t work,” Alfred Lackey, Kids Alive president, told the CT Post. “We’re sorry it didn’t work” In January, Kids Alive had arranged for 54 of the former Project Pierre Toussaint students to attend elementary and high school level classes in nine private and three public schools. Only 55 percent of these boys, who are now well beyond grade school age, actually attended class. Some were around the ages of 13 and 15 when they were abused by Perlitz and are now roughly college age. Most needed to work and could not go to school. They need money. Thirteen boys who did not attend these schools were enrolled in Holy Spirit School, where they took courses in trades such as mechanical repair, building construction, welding, tailoring and computer science. But these students had completed only five months of the three-year program before they were forced to quit when Kids Alive stopped aiding them. “The young men who were at the trade school took their courses very seriously,” Lackey told the Post. “They were at school each day and their scores were also satisfactory.” Cyrus Sibert, the Haitian journalist who first exposed the story, and Paul Kendrick, the Fairfield graduate who advocates for the victims, attribute the failure of Kids Alive to a lack of understanding of the student’s concerns and needs. “They launched their program without talking to people like me who knew how complex their situation was,” Sibert told the Post. “They refuse to understand the population they are trying to serve, they refuse to share information, they just listen to one man or a little group.” Sibert asserts that two of the victims who have severe psychological problems are not being treated for them. He and Kendrick also say that Kids Alive tested all of the victims for sexually transmitted diseases but did not provide them with basic physicals. According to their mission, Kids Alive International “reflects the love of Christ by rescuing orphans and vulnerable children, nurturing them with quality holistic care, and sharing with them the transforming power of Jesus Christ so they are enabled to instill hope in others.” President von Arx told the Post that Kids Alive was selected from a number of charities. He said, “It took us a long time to find Kids Alive. We talked to a number of organizations. None of the others seemed able to undertake the task ahead.”
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