The roots of the restavek system in Haiti run deeper than families simply sending their children away to distant, better-off families. Instead, the persistence of children living in restavek is partially the byproduct of inadequate access to education and other basic services in rural communities. For families unable to provide for all of their children, it’s an attractive idea to alleviate their burden and presumably grant their children better opportunities by sending them away.
To discourage this practice, Restavek Freedom is working to bring the desired, necessary resources to rural communities of Southern Haiti. By conducting a census of communities in Port Salut, the organisation is gathering and assessing community wants and needs in order to establish future programming and improve the English, literacy, computer skills, and job-training services that the Restavek Freedom Learning Center currently provides.
From 8:30am to 4pm on Monday through Friday, teams of 2 to 3 Port Salut staff members head out into the field, armed with clipboards, pens, and a GPS. After approaching a home with a cordial “Bonjou” or “Bonswa,” the staff members sit down with the residents, explain the purpose of the census, and begin asking for information. The residents rank literacy, job training, professional school, computer class, and English in terms of priority for their community and are encouraged to suggest other ideas as well. Restavek Freedom also jots down notes on the number of adults and children living in the home, water source, water distance, closest health center, and GPS coordinates.
The goal is for each team to collect information from around 25 houses a day and to eventually amass data from all 5 zones of Port Salut, totaling 77 communities. In addition, the organisation hopes to use the GPS points to eventually create a comprehensive map of the area. Since there is no existing data of this type, the information will help Restavek Freedom be more effective in providing resources to the population.
Andrea Van Grinsven, 2015 Summer Intern
