About a hundred contract workers at the Carrefour Reception Centre, a state home and school for vulnerable and street children, are receiving six months of back pay, Social Affairs and Labor Minister Marc-Élie Nelson announced on October 7.

Nelson met the workers when they came to collect their wages. He said payment for a seventh month was already under way.

He also announced that, at the prime minister's initiative, all of the centre's contract workers will have their contracts renewed for another 12 months.

A delivery of food is being sent to the centre's kitchen so that the children and young people it houses receive regular meals, the minister said.

Carrefour, on the southern edge of Port-au-Prince, has been largely under the control of armed groups, which has made it hard for public institutions there to keep working.