In Haiti a restavek is a child sent to stay with another family "as a domestic servant because the parents lack the resources required to support the child."
I have read about restaveks before, but the topic has come back to my attention because of a visit to Respire, a school in Gressier, a town not far from Port-au-Prince. The school Respire is run by a young lady (about 28) named Megan Boudreaux.
As she shared her story and the history of the school, I learned that about 60% of the students at Respire are restaveks. She then told a little about restaveks to the kids (high school/college/post-college) who were unaware of what the term meant. I followed up with a question: "How much of the restavek issue do you think is a result of the extreme poverty in Haiti?"
Her response shocked me: "Not much."
She went to explain that in her opinion, the restavek crisis was primarily the result of a darkness in the land, a result of the voodoo that is still practiced in many rural areas (I guess the mountain on which the school is built was--and still is occasionally--used for voodoo ceremonies). That answer surprised me. I understand that spiritual warfare is going on amongst us all the time. If there are forces of good, then there must be forces of evil. And, yes, ultimately, every thing that happens in this world can be described/explained in spiritual terms.
But, to down play the role of poverty in the decision to send a child away in hopes that they will have a better life struck me as odd.
So, I did some research last night and today. Because, there is a distinct possibility that I am wrong.
Here's what I learned:
A restavek is often sent to live with a more affluent family in an urban area so that the child might have access to education and more food in exchange for performing household chores--cooking, cleaning, laundry for the girls and outside chores for boys.
Some reports say that many restaveks live in poverty even though they live with wealthier families and may be beaten, abused, or raped.
The U.N. has declared restavek to be a modern form of slavery.
A 1996 UNICEF study reported that approximately 300,000 restavek children exist in Haiti. However, UNICEF never disclosed where that number or any other data in the report came from.
The Human Rights Watch estimates between 150,000-500,000 restaveks live in Haiti (no data disclosure).
Jean-Robert Claude, a former restavek, wrote a book about his life in Haiti titled From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American. The book supposedly details his life as a restavek, but some commentary on the memoir indicates that his situation was not a true restavek experience.
Timothy Schwartz counters many of the claims made in the UNICEF report--and the subsequent media frenzy in the U.S. about the restavek crisis--in his article "The Haitian Restavek and Child Slavery."
**A Fafo (Institute for Applied International Studies) study surveyed 7,812 families
**found less abuse than reported in the UNICEF report
**many restaveks were over the age of 15 (UNICEF's report stated that restaveks were thrown out onto the streets at age 15)
**Instead of being predominantly girls, 41% were boys
**60% attended school, contradicting previous reports that restaveks worked long hours with no free time, and especially no time for school
Many reports that have come out in the last five (5) years continue to cite UNICEF's 1996 report while disregarding the Fafo report of the mid-2000s.
In all of my (limited) research I did not find one mention that the restavek crisis was in any way tied to the voodoo religion.
http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/voodoo/defense.htm
http://www.gotquestions.org/voodoo-Bible.html
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Christianity_vs_Voodoo
Don't get me wrong; I'm not defending voodoo. But, to blame it for the restavek crisis doesn't seem fair because it negates the poverty that is behind the need to give up children. According to Guerda Lexima-Constant of the Haitian Limye Lavi Foundation, the restavek crisis is the result of extreme poverty:
"I have yet to meet anyone who wanted to send their kid to be a restavec. Parents are forced to because of a lot of national and international givens. The [economic] means they used to have, they don’t anymore. The invasion of foreign rice, eggs, and other things on the market by big business, destroying the peasant economy . . . there’s been a whole chain of events that makes some people have to send their child away."
I believe that the restavek crisis is because of poverty, not the influence of voodoo. However, regardless of why it's a part of Haitian culture, it needs to be done away with. How to end it? Education. Get children into school so that they can have better jobs in the future, providing for steady employment and income, and then maybe future families in Haiti won't be faced with the horrible decision to send a child away to live/work with another family.
No parent should ever have to face that dilemma:
Which child(ren) do I send away so that I can afford to feed the remaining ones?
And I give Megan Boudreaux credit for providing that education not only for the restavek students in her school but also for the families with which they live. The restavek children attend school, and their "host families" learn how to treat them fairly, take care of them, and see the value in all children receiving an education as a way to the endless cycle of poverty.
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