HELP (Haitian Education & Leadership Program) was created in 1997 to support Haitian students with limited resources. HELP's main aim is to combat brain drain, with 84% of trained people living outside the country. HELP Director Conor Bohan, became aware of the need to assist a new generation of Haitian leaders to get a good education, when one of his former students came to him in 1997 and asked for help finding the last $30 she needed to enroll in a professional school. HELP’s objective is to help usher in a new generation of leaders and professionals who will constitute a middle class, develop the economy, populate civil society and contribute to the building of a more just and prosperous Haiti. Eighty four percent of the students in the HELP program successfully complete their studies, and all of them find a job afterwards. HELP is the largest university scholarship program in the country today. For HELP’s Director, one of the foremost obstacles to the country’s development is the absence of well-trained professionals. And yet, a lot of young high-school graduates cannot go to university for lack of financial means. The social and economic barriers in Haitian society aggravate this situation.

One of the institution’s greatest problems each year is its financing. The university sector receives very little support in Haiti, while many organizations are working with primary and secondary education. HELP is thus trying to develop a persuasive argument for politicians, investors and development players to raise their awareness of the advantages of supporting the university sector. HELP would like to be able to integrate 250 students into its program by 2015/2016.

Main partners: MasterCard, Open Society Foundation, Haitian Timoun Foundation, Voilà, Barbancourt, Capital Bank, Digicel, IDB, United States Department of State