Searching for origins: a new collection of DNA tests in the Great South has been launched by the organization "Voie d'Espoir" (Path of Hope)

At 7 a.m., the first rays of sunlight barely illuminate the large courtyard of the La Cayenne Hotel in Les Cayes, when dozens of parents are already crossing the threshold. The event is scheduled for 9 a.m. Yet, as early as 7 a.m., some are there, sitting silently, files under their arms, photos clutched to their chests.

On faces etched by the years, hope is palpable. Eyes scan the entrance, conversations are whispered, hands sometimes tremble. They all await the same thing: a chance to reconnect.

“I couldn’t wait for this day because it’s been too long since I lost contact with my two children,” says Pheliciane Jeanty, 63, originally from Faucault, a town near Les Cayes. Her two children were adopted by French and Canadian families respectively in 1998. Since then, silence.

In the large hall set up for the RAPWOCHE / KONEKTE project ceremony, families place on the tables photographs yellowed with age, crumpled birth certificates, and rare correspondence preserved like relics. Each document is a testament to love, each memory an attempt to resist oblivion.

Leaning on his eldest son's arm, 67-year-old Gilbert Antoine, who came from Port-Salut, walks slowly. He was registered at the Voie d'Espoir office in 2025. His daughter was adopted in Belgium. For him, taking a DNA test today represents a tangible glimmer of hope.

"I had agreed to let her leave so that she could have a better future because our situation was really complicated at the time. I was promised that she would come back after she turned 18. But since then, there has been absolute silence," he laments.

A national issue: the search for origins in Haiti

Beyond individual testimonies, the day of February 23rd highlights a broader issue: that of the search for origins in Haiti for people adopted internationally.

For several decades, international adoption has developed in a context often marked by social emergencies, poverty, and natural disasters. However, the lack of structured records, administrative shortcomings, and certain irregularities have made access to their origins particularly complex for many adoptees.

Today, thousands of Haitians living in Europe and North America are searching for answers: Who are their biological parents? Under what circumstances were they given up for adoption? Do they have brothers and sisters who remained in Haiti?

The founding president of Voie d'Espoir, Michel Joseph, highlights the persistent challenges:
"Our research is often hampered by numerous irregularities in past adoption files. Some information is incomplete, other information is erroneous. This greatly complicates the work of verification and matching."

Despite these obstacles, more than fifty DNA tests were carried out that day in Les Cayes. The samples will be sent to the FamilyTreeDNA laboratory for analysis, in the hope of establishing genetic matches with children adopted abroad.

Between memory and repair

International adoption in Haiti has a complex history, marked by social distress, acts of solidarity, but also by darker aspects. For many biological families, the departure of a child represented a painful decision, often made in the hope of a better future.

Years later, the unresolved separation becomes an open wound.

Created in 2020, Voie d'Espoir has set itself the mission of institutionalizing the search for origins, structuring the procedures, securing the data and supporting, with ethics and rigor, adoptees and their biological families.

Through the RAPWOCHE / KONEKTE project, the organization intends to restore the truth, restore the dignity of the families involved and create sustainable pathways towards reconnection.

Since the launch of the pilot phase of the project in Jérémie in 2024, more than 500 new biological families have been registered in the joint database of Voie d'Espoir and Plan Kiskeya, covering the Grand Nord, Grand Sud, and Port-au-Prince regions. This database is a crucial strategic tool for centralizing information, ensuring the security of procedures, and structuring family tracing processes.

Through the RAPWOCHE / KONEKTE project, Voie d'Espoir and Plan Kiskeya reaffirm their common mission: to restore the truth, to do justice to all these families and all these adoptees separated by adoption, and to create sustainable bridges towards family reconnection.

In Les Cayes, on February 23rd, it wasn't just about DNA sampling. It was about hopeful eyes, waiting hearts, and a society confronting its history.

In the large courtyard of La Cayenne, hope had a face. And that face resembled that of hundreds of parents who had come seeking, at last, an answer.