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HAITI'S INDENTURED CHIlDREN
THE DAYS AFTER HAITI'S EARTHQUAKE brought
joyous reunions for some families. Others faced the grim
reality that they'd been suddenly robbed of parents or offspring. But for Haiti's 225,000 restaveks, or indentured children, the quake brought only an uncertain future.
Slavery-which ended with independence in 1804-is illegal in Haiti. And technically, restaveks are not slaves.
The institution has its roots in the Caribbean tradition of
child lending between families (usually relatives) to pitch
in with extra work, care for the elderly or sick, or to provide
opportunity to a child from a poor family. Generally, rural
parents send their children to live with wealthier families
in the cities. In exchange for domestic labor, the children
are supposed to receive lodging, food, clothing, medicine, and-most importantly-education. In as many as half of
the cases, they do (though classifying treatment in private
homes is notoriously difficult). The unlucky ones, called
restaveks-from the French rester avec, or "to stay with"
-are loaned through normal channels but denied schooling
and subject to abuse and degradation. This phenomenon
has spiked in modern Haiti, as more and more children
end up with equally impoverished families in the slums.
Before the quake, up to 22 percent of Haitian homes contained restaveks, according to a study funded by USAID.
Keeping restaveks is illegal, but child loans are not and,
given the extent of Haiti's governmental dysfunction, it's
hard to tell which cases are which. Now that the quake
has thrown family networks into disarray, the flimsy social
ties supporting restaveks are likely to break down. "For
families struggling in the wake of a catastrophe, restavek
kids are the first to go; says Glenn Smucker, an anthropologist who specializes in development work in Haiti. "Their
parents are not there to watch out for them, so they're far
more vulnerable" to desertion and trafficking.
But even as the numbers of abandoned restaveks swell,
the demand for their services is likely to decrease. A mass
exodus of residents from Port-au-Prince is reversing decades of migratory trends. If the shift sticks, it means there
will be less need for restaveks in the city. But it's also possible that families suffering from the quake's economic aftershocks will feel extra pressure to lend out their children,
even as it becomes more likely they'll end up as restaveks.
Which, combined with a spike in new orphans, means Haiti will likely see a rise in the number of its street children in
the years to come.
(By Katie Paul - Newsweek)
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