Restavek: Haitian Children Exposed to Child Labor, Exploitation and Hard Life in the Aftermath of Hurricane Season

With the death of their parents and the losses of everything their family ever owns, Haitian children are the recent victims of the series of hurricanes that battered the Caribbean region in the past few weeks. With nowhere to turn and no means to take care of their children, parents will hand over their malnourished children to well-off family members and friends to take care of them. In many cases, these family members or friends end up mistreating these kids they promised to take care of.

Now, the situation of the Restavek (stay with) is going to be worse. Their guardians lost everything they owned during the hurricanes. They are going to have to take care of themselves. On many occasions, they are left by themselves in the inundated homes they have to clean. Those guardians expect free labor from these kids in exchange of foods, shelter and clothing.

You can help stop this practice by making sure a family is able to care for their own child, let your voice be heard by sponsoring one of these desperate and fragile souls,

Email: sponsorachildemail@gmail.com to get more information about your sponsorship opportunity.

Your Sponsorship Opportunity: Haitian Children Need Sponsors in Times of Needs Caused by Hurricanes, Poverty

Your Unique Opportunity to Sponsor and Lift up a Needy Child

How many needy Haitian children can you sponsor? Just start with one!
Sponsorandfeedachild Program
(http://sponsorandfeedachild.blogspot.com) has a list of needy
children who are waiting for somebody to give them a helping hand.
Maybe all you can afford to sponsor is one child. That is what
Sponsorandfeedachild is all about. It is a tangible way for us,
concerned parents, to reach out and show our own children how we can
help someone else in the world.

The harsh economic and political situation that Haiti has been going
through for the past decades has undoubtedly prevented many parents
from feeding and sending their children to school. I was in Haiti a
few months ago and witnessed the deplorable human conditions! Before the Hurricane season, Haitians had little. Now they have less! Their situations worsened after the recent back-to-back hurricanes that caused mudslides and floodings all over the island.

Some of the parents may resort to placing their kids with more well-off family
members or friends who may be able to raise them. Others who are in a
more desperate situations may end up unknowingly giving up their kids
to "child slavery" where abuse and an uncertain future await them.

As recently reported by ABC News, Child Slavery flourishes where high
illiteracy rates, lack of education and social services exist. As a
poor country, Haiti meets all the conditions for this type of
exploitation to exist. Where else have you heard about parents feeding "mud
cakes or mud cookies" to their hungry children?

Through SponsorandFeedachild Fund, you can make the difference in a
child's life. You can prevent one child from knowing this type of
depravity and misery. Educating and/or feeding a Haitian child will
be greatly appreciated.

If you want to sponsor a child, visit
http://sponsorandfeedachild.blogspot.com or write to us at
sponsorachildemail@gmail.com

More Than 300000 Haitian Children Are Hungry, Shelterless, Affected by Back to Back Hurricanes: Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today that 650,000 people – some 300,000 of them children – have been impacted by back-to-back hurricanes that have recently battered Haiti, warning that ruined infrastructure has impeded efforts to deliver relief to those in need.

Hurricanes Fay, Gustav and Hanna, which passed through the Caribbean nation in a three-week period, have forced thousands of people to flee to their rooftops. Key bridges have been destroyed and landslides have blocked roads, obstructing aid delivery.

With Haiti having witnessed violent riots in April due to the global food crisis, UNICEF said the current situation has been further exacerbated by possible social and political unrest.

Yesterday, urgently-needed supplies were sent to Gonaives, the hardest-hit city with 70,000 uprooted by the hurricanes, by helicopter and boat. UNICEF and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) have provided drinking water and food, and UNICEF is also providing tarpaulins for shelter, water purification tablets and sanitation materials.

“The initial push to provide aid to Gonaives is a start, but there is a great deal more to be done to help children and families that have been affected by the storms throughout the entire country,” says Nils Kastberg, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

UNICEF has made more than $1 million available to help hurricane victims, and a Flash Appeal from all UN agencies operating in Haiti will be launched in the coming days.

Neighbouring countries Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica have also been hit hard by the strong storms, and UNICEF is rushing assistance to those affected while assessing future needs.

“We are faced with a combination, once again, of severe natural disasters in a number of places which is stretching our resources,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told reporters yesterday.

On 3 September, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) deployed a UN disaster and coordination team (UNDAC) to Haiti.

“This is very much the beginning of the operation and we're still trying to establish how bad it is and build up our capacity,” said Mr. Holmes, adding he was ready to assist with assistance from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

The world body's peacekeeping force in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, is assisting in the aid efforts, including for evacuation and for the distribution of relief items.

“It was really, really difficult even for our troops to assist the population due to the level of the water,” MINUSTAH spokesperson Sophie Boutaud de la Combe told the UN News Centre.

“The situation in Gonaives is really critical and everyone is doing the best they can to support the national authorities,” she added.

So far, MINUSTAH troops have helped to evacuate more than 500 people to emergency shelters, Ms. Boutaud de la Combe said. In addition, hundreds of people have been treated by the Mission's doctors and its helicopters have been transporting food and other emergency relief supplies from the capital, Port-au-Prince, to Gonaives.

On the way back, the same helicopters have been transporting people who require urgent medical attention to the capital because the hospital in Gonaives is not able to treat them, she added.

As Flood Waters Recede, Haitians Are Descending from Rooftops to Find Corpses Burried by Mudslides

Without any doubt, kids will not be able to return to their homes. They are displaced by the series of hurricanes. In many cases, schools are destroyed or under water.

So far, Sponsorandfeedachild Program is helping 5 kids. More children can be helped if you decide to do something today.


If you want to help sponsor a Haitian kid or a family, contact sponsorachildemail@gmail.com