1/22/2010

Haiti Relief and Human Trafficking

Nagging me from the back of my mind is a statistic that I saw recently. It estimated that Haiti has around 250,000 people (mostly children) in bondage. Until today, I could not find the statistic. It came from the HumanTrafficking blog at Change.org. Amanda Kloher writes that the quarter million child slaves in Haiti are known as restaveks.

The trafficking of humans has been a longstanding problem in Haiti. In 2007, the Pan American Development Foundation received $6.4 million dollars to provide services to women and children and create a cross-border awareness campaign.

The stories that rescued restaveks share are horrendous. They are in last place in the Haiti society. These victims of human trafficking are the unseen, forgotten children of the desperately poor in Haiti. With the aid that is beginning to flow into the country you have to wonder when, or if, it will reach these children.




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