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

Sep

2015 September Newsletter

Uncategorized

Dear Friends:

Over 600,000 school children have learned Lanbi Konnen, "The Conch Shell Sounds For All Children” the song we produced in 2011 to change the culture of child slavery in Haiti, and these children are teaching it to their friends and siblings. Because we want to reach one million children, we continue to organize teacher workshops to distribute DVDs and CDs of the song in order to reach our goal. The song is successful because teachers are teaching it, radio stations continue to play it, and it’s empowering the new generation to build a Haiti without child servitude.

Because Haitian schools lack electricity and electronic equipment to facilitate the teaching of the song, it has taken four years to reach this number. During the workshops, some teachers record the song on their cell phones as I play it for them from a laptop. Others take the DVD to a cyber café to play it in a computer at their own expense to learn the song prior to teaching it. I find strength in their desire to work through the hardships in order to change the mentality that’s perpetuating child slavery. https://youtu.be/ilno96HkWHE

In July, a national TV station in Columbia, South America came to Haiti to produce a news documentary on the success of the song to be broadcast in Latin American countries, where child servitude is also practiced. Through social media, they had heard of the song and seen videos of the conferences and school children singing Lanbi Konnen. I am elated that other countries will be using the song as a model to fight their own form of child slavery.

This would not have been possible without your generosity.
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.