Restavec: Child Slavery In Haiti

When I was about seven years old, on my first trip to Haiti, I remember seeing skinny, dark-skinned girls sweeping front paths, carrying buckets of water on their heads and hoisting heavy bins, while other children their age walked to school in crisply pressed uniforms.
I recall taking an interest in these girls because they were barely older than I was yet something in their faces disturbed me; they were young but they had weary expressions that belonged to tired old women.
I didn’t know the name for these children until I was older and picked up a book called Restavec, by Jean-Robert Cadet. When I asked my parents more about it they said it was a shame but true, it was their country’s dirty little secret.
The term restavec (or restavek in Creole) means “stay with” and refers to poor children taken in by families as servants. The children are supposedly given food, clothing, and even schooling in exchange for work. But the majority are not sent to school or allowed to play. They are essentially child slaves. Reports on the topic, from former restavecs and children’s organizations have shown that restavecs, mainly girls, are beaten, left to sleep on floors, poorly nourished and given raggedly clothes to dress in. That’s why it was so easy for me to recognize their status when I was only seven, they are at the bottom of the Haitian caste system.
It is a tragic irony, because Haiti was the first country to abolish slavery (see my post from 1/2/09). Yet today, there are still restavecs in Haiti despite the international attention that has been focused on the situation. In fact, we only have boys in the Clermont Center for Homeless Adolescents because the girls have usually been snatched away to be restavecs.
To learn more about restavecs, check out Fondasyon Limyè Lavi an organization dedicated to ending the restavec situation in Haiti.
Tonight’s episode of Law and Order deals with a child slave trade ring between Haiti and New York, (NBC 10pm/9 Central). American Current readers, do let me know what you think of the episode, as I’ll only be able to see it later and online.
Thanks for reading this and do pass it on!
This post is from my blog: http://currentsbetweenshores.blogspot.com