Daniel Is No Longer Living In Restavek!

by Frantso Sagesse, Child Advocate

Daniel* is 25 years old and lives in Port-au-Prince.

His family is from Jeremie, in the west of Haiti.  He has five brothers and one sister, but he hasn’t lived with them in a long time. He doesn’t know anything about his father.  When he was 7 years old, his mother passed away; at that time he came to live with a host in Port-au-Prince. That’s when his nightmare began.  In this house, he was the first to wake up and the last to go to bed.  He wasn’t allowed to touch anything, especially the other children’s things. His chores consisted of fetching water, going to the market, sweeping the outside of the house and doing everyone’s laundry. The worst was that his host often beat him for no reason. When one of his neighbors saw this, she took him in to live with her.

Daniel was happy because he thought that his life would change. However, his life grew even worse.  He lived this with woman for two years, and even though she enrolled him in a small school, it was very difficult for him.  He didn’t have school books or a notebook, and he only had one very old pair of shoes.  He was always late to school and never got a full week of school in at a time, because his host had four children, and it was his responsibility not only to do all of the chores in the home, but also to take care of the kids before they went to school.  When the kids came home from school, he had to help them take a bath, eat, sleep and play. When Daniel realized how bad his situation was, he left and lived on the street for one week.  At the end of this week, he met an adult and explained to him his situation.  This man invited him to come live with him, but food was a problem.  The man gave Daniel food sometimes, but in order to get the food, Daniel had to go fetch water and throw away the garbage.  Daniel didn’t feel well at this house either, and went to live with friend after friend, until he landed a place to stay.

It was then that we met Daniel.

When we encountered him, he wasn’t going to school and was very sleepy all of the time. We approached him and invited him into our Child Advocacy Program.  Daniel was very happy.  We went to visit his house to see his living situation, and began to help him socially and psychologically.  Daniel began to make progress in his learning; he knew all of his lessons and passed all of his exams.

Two years ago, Daniel took the 6^th grade state exam and passed.  He decided to move in with a good friend of his, and chose to go to a secondary school near his new home.  He did well his 7^th grade year, and started his 8^th grade year well also, but failed his first exam.  I met with him to see what he was going on, and he said that he wasn’t interested in school anymore, and that he would like to become a driver so he could earn money.  I tried to convince him to continue with school, but being in his mid 20’s, he was really ready to have a job.

So, last year Restavek Freedom helped Daniel enroll in a driving school.  He has now been in driving school for 6 months, and is now earning a living.  He is able to pay the rent for his house and eat when he wants.  He has gained weight, is growing physically and saving money. He is even providing for his brothers and sister now as well.

Daniel is not in restavek anymore.

*Child’s name has been changed to protect their privacy.