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Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves
chron.com ^ | 12/22/2009 | EVENS SANON and JONATHAN M. KATZ

Posted on 12/22/2009 9:52:12 PM PST by jerry557

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Poverty has forced at least 225,000 children in Haiti's cities into slavery as unpaid household servants, far more than previously thought, a report said Tuesday.

The Pan American Development Foundation's report also said some of those children — mostly young girls — suffer sexual, psychological and physical abuse while toiling in extreme hardship.

The report recommends Haiti's government and international donors focus efforts on educating the poor and expanding social services such as shelters for girls, who make up an estimated two-thirds of the child servant population.

Young servants are known as "restavek" — Haitian Creole for "stays with" — and their plight is both widely known and a source of great shame in the Caribbean nation that was founded by a slave revolt more than 200 years ago.

Researchers said the practice is so common that almost half of 257 children interviewed in the sprawling Port-au-Prince shantytown of Cite Soleil were household slaves.

Most are sent by parents who cannot afford to care for them to families just slightly better off. Researchers found 11 percent of families that have a restavek have sent their own children into domestic servitude elsewhere.

Despite growing attention to the problem, researchers said their sources were unaware of any prosecutions of cases involving trafficking children or using them as unpaid servants in this deeply poor nation of more than 9 million people.

Glenn Smucker, one of the report's authors and a cultural anthropologist known for extensive work on Haiti, said he believes the number of restavek children is increasing proportionally with the population of Port-au-Prince as more migrants flee rural poverty to live in the capital.

(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: childexploitation; childslaves; haiti; slavery; slaves
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1 posted on 12/22/2009 9:52:13 PM PST by jerry557
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To: jerry557

reste avec, in French.


2 posted on 12/22/2009 9:57:09 PM PST by Ciexyz
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To: Ciexyz

It would be nice if those who report on French-speaking countries would know some French. “Restavek,” indeed.

Quelle fromage! ;)


3 posted on 12/22/2009 10:19:17 PM PST by mrreaganaut (Sticks and stones may break my bones, but lawyer jokes are actionable.)
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To: jerry557

I thought Bill Clinton fixed this.


4 posted on 12/22/2009 10:20:27 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

Yeah, I thought it was now a Communist paradise almost as wonderful as Cuba.


5 posted on 12/22/2009 10:24:59 PM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done needs to be done by the government)
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To: dfwgator
There's only ONE thing Clinton's good at.

Photobucket

6 posted on 12/22/2009 10:28:25 PM PST by rfp1234 (R.I.P. Scotty 7/2007-11/2009.)
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To: jerry557

Black slavery in the western hemisphere and not a peep from people like the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, and all the other phonies in the civil rights industry.


7 posted on 12/22/2009 10:28:55 PM PST by americanophile (Merry Christmas!)
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To: rfp1234
I think one of those kids played the banjo in Deliverance.
8 posted on 12/22/2009 10:29:59 PM PST by americanophile (Merry Christmas!)
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To: jerry557

Our future.


9 posted on 12/22/2009 10:42:01 PM PST by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt), NG, '89-' 96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote)
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To: jerry557

Slavery is a disgusting practice. Those who promote it should be shot in the head!


10 posted on 12/22/2009 10:42:48 PM PST by ABQHispConservative (A good Blue Dog is an unelected Blue Dog. Ditto Rino's!)
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To: jerry557
This is yet another country which the US and other countries have poured gobs of money into, without any sort of success. The people won't do anything to help themselves; instead they rely on their personal ATMs — the US and other countries foolish enough to throw money at them.

It's time for the US to stop wasting taxpayer money on these “developing” countries and force them to actually develop a source of income for themselves.

11 posted on 12/22/2009 11:16:49 PM PST by fatnotlazy
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To: mrreaganaut

It would be nice if those who report on French-speaking countries would know some French. “Restavek,” indeed.

Quelle fromage! ;)


Actually....restavek is Haitian Creole...what the Haitians speak....its like a dialect of French. Educated Haitians can speak standard French, but most speak Haitian Creole (which is somewhat understandable to those who speak standard French)


12 posted on 12/23/2009 1:47:25 AM PST by UCFRoadWarrior (Al Gore is neither a scientist (Global Warming Fraud) nor an economist (Free Trade, NAFTA))
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To: rfp1234
LOL!! That IS clever, and extremely well done! It takes a second, longer look to get your clever little joke. Too bad that picture wasn't around when Slick was the Prez.

Meanwhile, in the US, the American Socialist Party (formerly known as the Democrats) is about to enslave 300 million men, women and children. Or, if you only count those who actually earn a living and pay taxes, about 100 million.

13 posted on 12/23/2009 4:16:34 AM PST by Hardastarboard (Maureen Dowd is right. I DON'T like our President's color. He's a Red.)
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To: UCFRoadWarrior

Sounds a lot like Canada; very painful for those taught standard French! Still, ‘reste avec’ would to my eyes be pronounced in the same way as ‘restavek.’ Perhaps one has to hear the difference?


14 posted on 12/23/2009 4:16:47 PM PST by mrreaganaut (Sticks and stones may break my bones, but lawyer jokes are actionable.)
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To: jerry557

bttt


15 posted on 01/13/2010 7:04:11 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: jerry557

Well well, what happens when the Dummies and the U.N. get together to “help” a country.

Sick a- holes


16 posted on 01/16/2010 3:28:47 AM PST by Marty62 (former Marty60)
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To: americanophile

So they’ve had 200 years to put their plans into action.

Truth stings like a scorpion.


17 posted on 01/16/2010 3:32:10 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: rfp1234
deliver us from evil, Lord Jesus I pray
18 posted on 01/16/2010 3:56:44 AM PST by chuck_the_tv_out ( <<< click my name: now featuring Freeper classifieds)
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To: ABQHispConservative
Slavery is a disgusting practice. Those who promote it should be shot in the head!

I agree. We should start with those that perpetuate the lie that we need an income tax and the IRS.

19 posted on 01/16/2010 6:01:44 AM PST by unixfox (The 13th Amendment Abolished Slavery, The 16th Amendment Reinstated It !)
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To: Ciexyz

Thanks! I was wondering about the derivation of the word.


20 posted on 01/16/2010 6:26:12 AM PST by livius
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