Transitioning Home

by Natalie Hagan, Exhibit/Special Projects Coordinator, Restavek Freedom

Our transitional home is a safe home where we help girls from the most abusive situations transition away from the life of restavek and help them rebuild their lives.  They experience the love of a family as they live together, heal, learn, play, and build skills for the future.  

We recently moved some of our younger girls from Port-au-Prince to a second, new transitional home in the south of Haiti.  We had already begun building community in this area through our Learning Center, where we offer literacy, language, computer, and life skills classes to the local residents.  We also use this opportunity to educate families about the system of restavek, and show them better alternatives for their children’s care than sending them to work for a family in the city.

Since leaving the busy city and moving to this quiet rural community, the girls have been able to take some time to adjust to the change in location. Moving to a different city would be difficult for any child, as it requires leaving friends, meeting new people, and changing schools.  Our girls embraced the transition and were curious to see what the future held for them.

Over the summer, Restavek Freedom hosted a summer camp in the community. This was a perfect way for the girls to start getting involved in their new community and make new friends. At summer camp, they met a young man named Jimmy. The entire week of camp he was quiet and kept to himself. One night during worship, Jimmy was completely moved and brought to tears. He came to the front asking for prayer. Since then, the girls in the home have taken Jimmy in like a little brother. They have him over after school to help him with his homework, and Jimmy has begun to share with them more about his family.  This is a powerful way our girls are already having an impact in their new community and fighting for change.

In this new rural community, we are impacting the children and families.  When asked how people feel about the new Learning Center, the words we hear over and over are amazing and unique. This area is developing into a positive community where we are seeing a difference being made and a greater fight to end the system of restavek.