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I am Haiti too!(2)

July 6, 2009

Six months of meticulous research, planning, preparation, coordination, partnerships and team building led to an exceptionally well-organized and fruitful conference under the able hands of the Jean Robert Cadet Restavec Foundation and The Maurice Sixto Foundation.

United Nations days: do they make a difference?

The learned leaders of the United Nations have not done us a great favor with their habit of designating commemorative dates that, although meaningful, tend to highlight the weakness of the world body rather than its strength and potential.

Honor Your Children Today!

November 20 is known as Universal Children’s Day. It is the day when the United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and 30 years later in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child. I truly hope that President Barack Obama will direct his administration to do what none of the American Presidents since 1989 have been willing to do: proclaim that the US will not only ratify the Convention but champion its observance throughout the world with meaningful policy initiatives.

Hello, Tamara… Please Don’t Let Me Down!

Fond des Blancs activists Canes and Marie-Therese Maignan who have been involved with the county’s children’s rights committee have been deeply affected by the storms that battered Haiti in the country’s south. It’s hard to imagine that a worse fate could have fallen onto their shoulders as they were barely unable to make ends meet while struggling for social change in their community.

Children in Servitude, the Poorest of Haiti’s Poor – NYTimes.com

On this site, I have called attention to Haiti’s dirty little secret, the fact that tens of thousands of minds are literally being wasted, because they are cast-offs as slaves, nothing but slaves. Several reports describe the utter despair that Haitians are experiencing as the result of the wreck that is now Haiti after being… Read More ›

Vote Against Slavery in Our Time

762 people have signed on the petition urging an end to slavery in Haiti. Some petitioners have left pointed comments for the decision-makers and policymakers that the the petition targets. Eliminating childhood slavery can be done within five years and in our lifetime Haiti can be fixed for the better.

Coming to terms with child slavery in Haiti

the restavèk system is so deeply rooted in Haitian customs that most Haitians either do not or refuse to identify it for what it is: child slavery. And when they are confronted with the facts, they tend to initially deny it. Redemption begins with neither denying nor hiding the truth.

Restavèk: Slavery No Matter How You Slice It

Today in Haiti, at least one in ten children does everything for free – getting up long before dawn, going to bed (on the floor) long after dark, doing all of the work of the house in the hours in between. In the case of the restavèk system, the main reason the child is in the home is to work. It is not for the sake of the child; it is for the sake of the child’s masters

Free the Child, Emancipate the Mind

Sign a petition addressed to the Haitian authorities and their international allies and calling for the elimination of child slavery in Haiti for good.

What if Haitian Athletes Defected in China?

Ten athletes are competing in the Beijing Olympics under the Haitian flag. They are in a country that has leaped ahead in last 60 years while Haiti remains saddled with a political economy and mindset that has barely moved away from the day it gained independance.

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