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In the aftermath of the earthquake, the eyes of people who were blind and blissfully ignorant to the horrific things that daily occur in Haiti have been opened.
The majority of Haitian people struggle everyday for necessities like water, food and shelter – necessities that Americans view as being owed to us as citizens and as human beings.
The earthquake in January shattered an already unstable Haiti and added fuel to fires that have been blazing for decades.
For example, homelessness was already a huge problem, but now thousands of orphaned children are added to the equation.
The disaster has stripped children of their homes and families and has destroyed their sense of security.
These newly orphaned children are now extremely vulnerable to the thriving child slave trade in Haiti.
Child slavery has been an entrenched Haitian tradition for hundreds of years.
Before the earthquake, there were a reported 300,000 restaveks, Hatian children working as domestic servants, living in Haiti and the Dominican Republic alone.
It is now believed that the number has doubled.
Children end up as restaveks for many different reasons; many of which are not cruel in theory.
Families that cannot afford to adequately care for their children send them away to live with distant family members or more affluent families who are better equipped to support them.
Often, the families are reassured their child will be taken care of and given the opportunity to receive an education.
But too many of those promises are lies, shielding the true intentions of the family receiving the child.
The majority of families who purchase children are doing so to use the child as a laborer.
So though the intentions and hopes of the child’s family may be honorable, many times they are unwittingly selling their child into bondage.
Many survivors of the restavek system have said they would rather have stayed with their families and suffered from poverty than to have been sold away.
Some have said they would have rather died with their loved ones than to have lived their lives as slaves.
It is impossible to put a value on someone’s life, but those who dabble in child slavery have done so in an abhorrent manner.
Similar to the tactics used during the era of chattel slavery in the Americas, children are priced based on what they are needed for, their age, physical structure, appearance and health.
Once purchased, they become the property of their owner and remain in their possession until they either escape, die or until they are released.
One woman served as a restavek for 20 years. She moved with the family to the United States and was forced to live on a mattress in a closet.
During her 20 years of servitude, she suffered severe mistreatment and was raped on a daily basis.
It was not until she was 26 years old that she escaped.
The Haitian government has turned a blind eye to the tragedy of the restaveks for unknown reasons.
A law passed June 5, 2003 called "The Law of Solidarity," banned slavery and outlawing restaveks in the country of Haiti.
Following the same ordinance, there was a petition against the restavek system signed by 12,500 residents in the town of Fond des Blancs, Haiti.
Reverend Miguel Jean Baptiste is in charge of the Maurice Sixto shelter in Port-au-Prince.
The shelter provides aid, protection and education for restaveks who have escaped from abusive families.
He drew attention to the fact that during the slavery era of the 1800s, there was little value placed on children by the masters of plantations.
Children were taken from their families and sold without a second thought.
He feels the Haitian people have carried that mentality with them.
When something is prevalent in a culture, it is easy for the residual mentality of it to pass down from generation to generation.
This is not to defer blame from the Haitian people, but there is a history behind this issue, and it needs to be acknowledged in order to comprehend the subject in the proper context.
Slavery is and will always be a wrong and disgusting crime against humanity.
It is unbelievably tragic that the first black nation to rid its country of slavery is now enslaving its own children.
When we send our aid to Haiti, let’s remember that there is more than hunger and lack that needs to be dealt with.
Not with recrimination and reproach but with compassion for the children who are being physically, mentally and sexually abused.
America was once gripped by slavery, and we overcame.
With education, forward movement and support, Haiti can overcome as well.
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