The education of young people, especially in underdeveloped countries, is considered to be a main key to open the door to the future.
This is why when we want to measure the level of development in an individual, we refer to their educational level. In Haiti, being an orphan is the worst situation that a child can be in, especially when there is no one who can take care of their education. This situation can destroy the child’s hope of becoming a person of value. It can make them marginalized people in society. This would have been the case of Widlaine, a girl who would have had very little hope without being sent to school by Restavek Freedom (RF).
As a child, Widlaine lost her parents. Although she was intelligent she had no one to help send her to school. For her, all hope was lost. She had already missed two school years because of a lack of economic means. She was received by several host parents, sometimes by an aunt, sometimes by an uncle, who lived in very precarious situations.
Despite the difficulty she experienced, when she was enrolled in school by RF she took her studies very seriously.
When I met her, she explained me that her recruitment by RF gave her life new meaning. The various psycho-social and economic interventions of RF via its child advocates allowed her to regain self-confidence. It allowed her to hold a place of value in the families she lived with and became a model to the others in her school. She is now the president of the central committee at her school. At every meeting I have with her I see a smile on her face. She has become an important person and always declares that she will reach her dreams.
Thanks to the support of Restavek Freedom, Widlaine is becoming proud of herself. She is ready to continue achieving her dream of becoming a lawyer to work in the field of child protection. I truly believe that without the support of RF Widlaine would not have become the exceptional person that she is today.
Jacquelin Medacier, Child Advocate
