It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men -- Frederick Douglass

Apr

2014 April Newsletter

Uncategorized

April 18, 2014

Dear Friends:

"Jean-Robert! Jean-Robert!" I heard a child calling my name from a distance, while buying fruit at a market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on April 5th. I paid no attention to her, for many people in Haiti are called Jean-Robert, and I didn’t know anyone in that neighborhood. Then a tiny little girl about five years old in a pink blouse ran toward me and took my hand. "I know the song,” she said and began singing Lanbi Konnen, the song to influence the new generation and create social pressure on the culture of child servitude. I have placed a video of Myadarline, the little girl, on the website. She learned the song at school; her rendition will delight and touch you as only the innocence of a child can.

Two weeks before the encounter with Myadarline, on March 23, 2014, we had a conference with 100 school directors and officials of the Ministry of Education, who approved the teaching of Lanbi Konnen. The venue was provided by the Department of Education, and we served a luncheon to 200 guests. At the conference the audience was entertained by eighty-five elementary school children singing the song. We distributed 300 CDs and DVDs and copies of the lyrics to all the principals, who began teaching the song the following day. The DVDs and CDs were donated to our Foundation by Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Mr. Ivalant Esperance, a Deputy Director of Public Education in Haiti, said that this was a socialrevolution, and a school principal at the conference claimed that the Haitian governmentshould have done this work a long time ago.

Because the conference was televised nationally, school directors from every corner of Haitiwere calling and asking for DVDs and copies of the song. They have invited me to organizesimilar conferences in other cities. My goal was to have 500,000 children nationwide learn thesong. With this momentum, it seems that I will reach one million children during the nextschool year.

I urgently need your financial support for nine more conferences and to make copies of at least3000 CDs and DVDs. My friends, we are reaching a "tipping point.” As Martin Luther King Jr.said, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” Thank you for helpingme seek and find justice for children in restavek servitude.Sincerely,Jean-Robert Cadet

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If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
One of an estimated 300,000 Haitian children enslaved in child labor.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
From an isolated, rural area of Haiti where there are no schools, no electricity, no running water and few possibilities for the future.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Living in the city with a family who is not your own -- not as a foster child, but as their servant.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Between the ages of 5 and 15, and missing out on your childhood.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Three times more likely to be a girl than a boy.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Up at dawn, before any member of the family you serve, to begin preparing for their day, and in bed well after most other children are asleep.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Responsible for preparing the household meals, fetching water from the local well, cleaning inside and outside the house, doing laundry and emptying bedpans.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Getting no pay for any of these activities.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Unable to see your family or remember where they live.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Unable to attend school consistently, if at all -- depending on your owner's financial situation and schedule.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Hungry, as you would probably not get enough to eat or food with enough nutritional value for someone who works hard all day.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely be:
Subjected to physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

If you were a restavek child, you would most likely:
Never have all of your rights as a child respected.