Tuesday, at a ceremony at the Residence of France, the French Ambassador in Haiti, Elisabeth Beton Delègue, presented the the National Order of the Legion of Honor to Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, Director General of the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR).

This ceremony took place in the presence ofMartine Moïse, First Lady of the Republic of Haiti, as well as Roosevelt Bellevue, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and many personalities.

At the head of the IBESR since 2011, Villedrouin has demonstrated her commitment to strengthening child protection and this institution. Her many accomplishments include the opening of IBESR offices in each department, the creation of a national database of children in vulnerable situations, the census of orphanages in the country and the establishment of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

In concert with the Haitian Parliament, she played a major role in modernizing the national legal framework on children's rights and harmonizing it with existing international instruments. In particular, she has worked to the ratification by Haïti in 2012 of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, which entered into force in 2014.

In distinguishing Jeanty Villedrouin, France wished to pay tribute to her essential contribution to social development and to the improvement of child protection in Haiti, but also to reward her action in favor of the development of relations between France and Haiti, in particular through issues relating to adoption.

Learn more about the Legion of Honor :

The Legion of Honor is the highest French distinction rewarding the merits of French and foreign personalities in all fields of activity, it has been awarded for two centuries on behalf of the President of the Republic, recognized as the Grand Master of the Order at his inauguration.

HL/ HaitiLibre