Feb

2011 February Newsletter

Uncategorized

Dear Friends:

Since the January 2010 earthquake, the number of children in domestic slavery has increased. During school hours, they can be seen walking or carrying other children to school. To bring visibility to their plight, we’ve installed five billboards in major towns and did several radio shows. “Respect children’s rights. Let me go to school too,” the billboards say. Listeners called and said they had not paid attention to the reality of these children until they saw the billboards. Campaigns like these are necessary to make child slavery a national dialogue, the first step to sensitizing and eliminating the practice. Every six months, we will replace the picture on the billboard with more powerful ones and do radio shows to give these children a voice. In February, the foundation’s board of directors approved a $12,000 budget on this program, which we want to continue, based on callers’ responses. Your contribution is needed to keep this project going.

We are also working on a curriculum for Haitian schools to influence the new generation to change the mentality that’s perpetuating child slavery. The children being carried or walked to school are also being victimized. After the curriculum is tested in a pilot program, we will lobby the Haitian government for its approval.

In my previous newsletter, I spoke of a national singing contest to create songs that condemn child slavery and encourage families to treat children in servitude like their own. The musicians are working, and I was told that the songs will be ready in April or May.

My new book, My Stone of Hope, the sequel to Restavec, is scheduled to be released this summer by the University of Texas Press. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Sincerely,

Jean-Robert Cadet

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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.