FOLLOWING THE MONEY: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRIVATE AID, ORPHANAGE PREVALENCE, AND CHILD OUT-FOSTERING IN HAITI
Open Access
Author:
Adrien, Carolyn
Graduate Program:
Rural Sociology
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
November 08, 2022
Committee Members:
Laszlo Kulcsar, Program Head/Chair Leland Luther Glenna, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Brian Clemens Thiede, Committee Member Kathleen J D Sexsmith, Committee Member
Keywords:
orphanages charity private aid international development child out-fostering charity finance
Abstract:
In the US, charities allocate billions of dollars in private donations to global development annually, but little is known about the resulting activities, geographical reach, and collective impact. This thesis research investigates this type of private aid and development finance to Haiti and the subsequent relationship to household demographics. Analyzing 1,812 charitable organizations with programs in Haiti, this study finds that charitable organizations allocated a collective $2.55 billion dollars in private donations to programs in Haiti during the fiscal year 2017-2018. These funds were allocated to programs outside the scope of conventional programs for rural development, including $97.13 million to orphanages and $93.76 million to evangelism. This study also concludes that household demographics are affected by orphanages that receive substantial donations. In a logistic regression analysis, statistically significant results show that for each additional orphanage per 100,000 people in Haiti, the probability that a child between the ages of 0-4 years is out-fostered increases by 3.7 percent. The collective charitable funding allocated to Haitian orphanages increases their prevalence in communities, which influences households' decisions to out-foster children.
