As a child advocate I know how restavek children are treated and the impact the treatment has on their physical, psychological, and academic progress. This is the reason that, in addition to visiting the children at school, we also make home visits. During these home visits we meet with the host parents to encourage them to treat the children better. Below is just a small glimpse of the impact of these home visits:

Rosedaline is one of the children in my portfolio who I advocate for. She is a 13 year-old girl who was orphaned and has 3 brothers and 2 sisters. She lives with her aunts in an area of Port-au-Prince called Clercine. She was recruited into the Restavek Freedom’s Child Advocacy program in 2009. At first she had a lot of difficulties at school. She also had a difficult time expressing her feelings and I think that was what made school so difficult. Rosedaline failed school two years in a row.

She told me that her aunts give her little academic support. That is most likely one of the reasons Rosedaline did so poorly during the first two years of school. Her aunts did not understand the value of school and the need to support Rosedaline academically and psychologically. However, during a school meeting with all of the host parents at Rosedaline’s school, one of her aunts came up to me and said “I would really appreciate it if you would visit us so that we could talk about how we can help Rosedaline  and treat her better.” I agreed to make this first home visit.

This was one of many meeting that I had with Rosedaline’s aunts. We talked about the importance of education, the moral support that they could give her to help her do better in school, and how important it was to the child’s future that they avoid mistreating her. I explained to them that a child’s success is not only dependent on the child’s intelligence or how hard she works, but that the support they receive at home is also a significant factor. One of her aunts in turn responded that she did not know how to support Rosedaline academically but that the home visits and the school meetings had helped her see things differently. The aunt was happy to have been a part of these meetings and she congratulated the Restavek Freedom Child Advocates for having set up the school meetings and the home visits. The aunt said that she had never really known that the way she treated Rosedaline could be so detrimental to her future. She now understands that children do not just need food and clothes, but love and support as well. I believe this is the problem with many host parents in Haiti—that they do not understand how much the treatment of a child could effect his or her future.

I am happy to report that despite the difficulties Rosedaline was having when she first started school, she is currently doing well academically. Rosedaline has become much more confident. She is in the 5^th grade and will soon be taking the Haitian 6^th grade exams to move on to middle school. Lets all wish her luck!

We are so happy that the home visits with Rosedaline’s aunts were successful!!

Written By: Samuel Jean-Baptiste, Child Advocate