The Restavek Freedom Foundation Blog

Latest Update from Haiti

Latest update from Haiti:

“More than two weeks after the earthquake, several hundred people are still camping in the Nazarene grounds where we have our office.  Some have called their friends and relatives who were at other camps to come and join them.  I spoke to 35-year-old Marjorie who arrived here three days ago from Place Boyer,  a  tent city in Petion-Ville. “Here, the facilities are adequate.  I shower and get two meals a day,” said Marjorie, smiling. When I asked her about living conditions at Place Boyer, she said that two portable toilets cannot meet the needs of  thousands.

 “People defecated in plastic bags, and gave them to children to throw away, and there’s no shower,” she said.

“Are the children boys or girls?” I asked.

“They are mostly girls.”

 I asked Marjorie if she thought the children were in servitude.

“Yes,  they are.”

“How do you know?”

“I used to be a restavek.”

“How did you become a restavek?”

“When I was four, my mother worked as a live-in-domestic, so she handed me to my godmother.  The moment I walked into her home,  she treated as a restavek.  As I got older, I cooked, fetched water, walked her children to school and scrubbed laundry. When the children hit me, I was not allowed to defend myself. Everyone in the family abused me.”

“Did they send you to school?”  She smiled, “no, they never did, not even for one day.” Since Marjorie is very articulate for a person who spent her childhood in servitude, I became interested in her story.

“How did you get out of servitude?”

“It was not easy.  When I was 18 years old, my mother came to get me. My godmother demanded that my mother reimburse her for all the years she fed me. It was like my mother purchased me from my godmother.  Then my mother gave me to another family that sent me to school regularly. I was treated well, but not like pitit kay (a child of the house).  I finished secondary school when I was 30 years old.  Now I am a lab technician, working for a doctor. The  woman that treated me well, is now 83 years-old and living in Miami. Her name is Clemence. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her kindness,” said Marjorie.   My thoughts returned to Place Boyer, where I intend to visit in a few days.”