Description

UNICEF correspondent MP Nunan reports on the reintegration of unaccompanied 'restavek' children with their families in post-earthquake Haiti.

Transcript

Reintegrating Reste Avec Children with Their Parents in Haiti MP Nunan: The kids at Foye l’Escale are putting on a show. The residential shelter is currently homed to 42 children and young people. Most were rescued from a life as unpaid domestic servants. They have been given away by their families who thought they were offering their children a better life. It was far from it. “When we arrived there, they made us worked as hard as a horse without getting paid. And they wanted to rape my sister and forced her into prostitution”. “My dream is to see my brothers and sisters who are living in the streets and find in a family so we can grow up because we have rights like all the other kids”. UNICEF estimates that Haiti has 250,000 children living as unpaid domestic servants called reste avecs which loosely translate as staying with. Francoise: Usually these were children coming from the rural areas that were brought to families, rich families in fact in the capital. And they were providing services to the families, but they were also given some education and of course food and care. MP Nunan: But what had been a useful cultural tradition had since to generated into a form of modern slavery. Francoise: You can just imagine the abuse, the possibility of abuse, the potential of violence that can happen. MP Nunan: UNICEF partner Foye l’Escale works to reunite children with their families like Viergemene Decembre who now lives with their cousin. She was given away by her parents at the age of nine to work as a nanny for a woman who beat her. She ran away two months later. Viergemene Decembre: The woman had to go out to sell things. I had to stay in the house with the baby. So I left the baby alone in the house and I ran away. MP Nunan: When to find the child’s family, UNICEF offers financial assistance so a poor family is not faced with the same pressures to give a child up. But key to a successful reintegration are follow up visits like this one. Geslet Bordes: The children must have access to basic services like school and healthcare and someone really taking care of them. MP Nunan: Most parents who’d given away a child did not know the child was going into an abusive situation. And more than 90% at the time are happy to have the child back. “The housework was mine. Going to the market was mine. Washing and cooking were mine. Not going to school that was me. We’re saying no to modern slavery”. Through a partners like Foye l’Escale, UNICEF is helping them do it. This is MP Nunan reporting for UNICEF Television in Port-au Prince, Haiti. For more information, go to unicef.org. Unite for Children.