Jan

Activities for spring 2011

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What we know:

Because child servitude is ingrained into Haiti’s social fabric, its abolition can only come about when the hearts and minds of Haitians are sensitized to the injustice of the system.
Because of poverty, many Haitian children will continue to find themselves living with families other than their own.

Key strategy:

Inaugurate the topic of the restavek system as a national dialogue in Haiti.
- Billboards and radio programs—billboards designed by Haitians and prominently placed around Port au Prince. Strong pictures and strong words with the message that “This is our problem."
- Annual singing contests-- Haitian artists will perform songs that encourage families to treat restaveks as their own – winning songs will be professionally recorded and circulated through Haitian radio and TV stations – along with receiving a cash prize.
- Speakers’ bureau – former restaveks going into schools and churches to speak about their experience as restaveks.
Develop and advocate for a national curriculum that exposes child servitude to change the mentality that’s perpetuating child slavery. Advocate for mandatory and accessible education for children.

Goals for spring 2011:

The billboards (5) will be placed in different locations in Port-au-Prince by February 2011. The radio host will invite callers to speak about children they saw being mistreated and relate this to messages on the billboards.
To have three songs on radio stations by June 2011.
Cadet to speak at 12 Haitian schools from February to June, 2011 and tally student response regarding the billboards.

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If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
One of an estimated 300,000 Haitian children enslaved in child labor.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
From an isolated, rural area of Haiti where there are no schools, no electricity, no running water and few possibilities for the future.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Living in the city with a family who is not your own -- not as a foster child, but as their servant.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Between the ages of 5 and 15, and missing out on your childhood.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Three times more likely to be a girl than a boy.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Up at dawn, before any member of the family you serve, to begin preparing for their day, and in bed well after most other children are asleep.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Responsible for preparing the household meals, fetching water from the local well, cleaning inside and outside the house, doing laundry and emptying bedpans.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Getting no pay for any of these activities.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Unable to see your family or remember where they live.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Unable to attend school consistently, if at all -- depending on your owner financial situation and schedule.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Hungry, as you would probably not get enough to eat or food with enough nutritional value for someone who works hard all day.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Subjected to physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely:
Never have all of your rights as a child respected.