Editor’s Note: This story was taken from the FTS website and edited.
Like tens of thousands of children in Haiti, Cam-Suze was held as a restavec, a child slave. Haitian parents who lack the resources required to support their children must often send them to work for a host household as domestic servants. However, restavec is considered modern day slavery since children may be denied a proper education, and could be abused, beaten, or raped.
But, Cam-Suze’s life changed when she met Free the Slaves’ partner, Limye Lavi.
THEN AND NOW
When she was recently asked to contrast her life now with a childhood in slavery she said: “Oh my life was in danger! [But now] my life is beautiful.”
The term ‘beautiful’ certainly wouldn’t describe the early years of Cam-Suze’s life. In fact, she says she lived in misery. Now 15 years old, she was first enslaved at the age of six. Like many restavec children in Haiti, she was forced to work for a family. Looking back, Cam-Suze remembers: “I did a lot of work. I would carry water, I would sweep. I would take the children to school [and] they would beat me, they hit me.”
FREEDOM
All of this was before being rescued by Limye Lavi, Free the Slaves partner organization in Haiti. Now, reunited with her mother, Cam-Suze recognizes that she “went through a lot of misery and it’s thanks to Limye Lavi that I’m here today, not doing that any more.” She goes on to say that now she’s happy because “I’ve been delivered from the misery and now I’m in school.”
And what would she say to those who helped bring her to freedom? “I would lift [them] up and carry them on my head to tell them ‘thank you for coming and getting me.’”
Looking forward, she says, “I’d like to do very well in school so I can help my mother and help other people who are going through that misery too.”
Want to be an abolitionist and rescue children like Cam-Suze? Visit The Freedom Education Project and join our campaign to free a village in India and provide CA public schools with books on slavery!
You change one person, you change the world.
This week marks the one-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Free the Slaves has been part of the global humanitarian response, and caseworkers report they’ve reunited nearly 1000 children with their families. Many were in slavery, and others were at high risk of falling into slavery.
Under the entrenched restavèk system of slavery, poor families send a child to a wealthier home, hoping they’ll receive food and an education. In reality, most kids end up as household slaves.
After the earthquake, thousands of unaccompanied children roamed the streets. Our grassroots partners helped identify which children were actually restavèk slaves so they could be returned to their families. This helped prevent global aid agencies from mistaking these children as earthquake orphans, or returning them to their slaveholders.
Read the story of one Haitian child slaves’ path to freedom.
This child protection team, formed in alliance with the group Beyond Borders, continues to advocate on behalf of child slaves. Nearly 120 case workers are still on the job. They’re training more than 100 community-level child rights groups to prevent more children from falling into slavery. Our team is also providing children with education.
Read about Free the Slaves’ grassroots partner in Haiti, Fondasyon Limyè Lavi.
Thanks to your continuing support, our efforts won’t stop now that a year has passed. In fact, we’re expanding. Smith Maximé has just joined the effort as our Port-au-Prince-based Haiti coordinator. “The earthquake increased the many problems faced by Haiti,” Smith says, “and the destruction of families could aggravate the restavèk problem. It’s not spoken of widely—the link between the earthquake and restavèk slavery, so our work is now even more important.”
Photo from 1909, showing a 6 year old farm laborer near Baltimore, Md.
- StoptheTraffik: Children found enslaved on Worcester, U.K. farm: “Following a police raid on a farm in Worcestershire last week, 7 Romanian children between the ages of 9 and 15 were found picking spring onions. These children were working daily from 7.30am until dusk, without food or water, in freezing weather dressed only in thin summer clothing.“…It’s much too early for the authorities to start back-patting one another though.There have been several occasions in the past where trafficked children, forced to beg and steal on the streets, have been ‘rescued’, reunited with parents, only to find themselves returned to slave labor shortly afterwards – trapped in a vicious cycle. Why? Because some parents may be complicit in the trafficking operation.”
- Miami Herald: Exclusive investigation: Guards cash in on smuggling Haitian children: “It took the young smuggler less than five minutes to ferry the children into the Dominican Republic, an easy, well-timed and completely illegal maneuver that repeats again and again on what is supposed to be the most surveilled border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.’It’s a game,’ said Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, readily acknowledging to The Herald that smuggling is an economic driver between both countries. ‘A lot of people are trafficking. They make money. Everyone along the frontier is benefiting. It’s the sole source of revenues. And everyone accepts it like that.’”
- AP: US official: Trafficking victims subject to detention and deportation: “growing numbers of countries are guilty of unfairly treating victims of human trafficking by detaining and deporting them at the first opportunity. Luis CdeBaca is Washington’s envoy on human trafficking issues. He says that while countries are increasingly signing on to conventions targeting human traffickers, the victims are subject to unfair treatment. Anti-trafficking activist Marika van Doorninck says that countries often use anti-trafficking policies to develop anti-migration laws.”
Cam-suz is a former restavek—a childhood, domestic slave—in Haiti. Her life changed when she was rescued by Free the Slaves partner Fondasyon Limyè Lavi.
Like tens of thousands of children in Haiti, Cam-Suze was held as a restavek*, a child slave. Her life changed when she met Free the Slaves’ partner, Fondasyon Limyè Lavi.
When she was recently asked to contrast her life now with a childhood in slavery she said: “Oh my life was in danger! [but now] my life is beautiful.”
The term “beautiful” certainly wouldn’t describe the early years of Cam-Suze’s life. In fact, she says she lived in misery. Now 15 years old, she was first enslaved at the age of 6. Like many restavek children in Haiti, she was forced to work for a family. Looking back, Cam-Suze remembers: “I did a lot of work. I would carry water, I would sweep. I would take the children to school [and] they would beat me, they hit me.”
Her days would start at 4 in the morning, before anyone in the household was awake. She would work until the children were ready to go to school, taking them to classes she couldn’t attend herself. While the children were in school she would do domestic chores, including hauling drums of water from its source, two hours away. “If I took too long, I would come back and they would beat me,” says Cam-Suze. For years she survived this monotony, her days ending at one in the morning.
All of this was before being rescued by Limyè Lavi, Free the Slaves partner organization in Haiti. Now, reunited with her mother, Cam-Suze recognizes that she “went through a lot of misery and it’s thanks to Limyè Lavi that I’m here today, not doing that any more.” She goes on to say that now she’s happy because “I’ve been delivered from the misery and now I’m in school.”
And what would she say to those who helped bring her to freedom? “I would lift [them] up and carry them on my head to tell them ‘thank you for coming and getting me’.”
Looking forward “I’d like to do very well in school so I can help my mother and help other people who are going through that misery too.”
*Restavek is french for “one who stays with.” It refers to a child sent to a household to be a domestic servant. At the mercy of their host family, restaveks are often abused, unable to get away. The restavek system is common in Haiti, where poverty is endemic. Free the Slaves, along with our partner in Haiti Fondasyon Limyè Lavi works to end this abusive system of child slavery.
Our programs rely on the support of anti-slavery activists like you. Donate to Free the Slaves today!
Wyclef Jean says if he were President of Haiti, the eradication of slavery would be one of his top priorities. But the rapper’s bid for presidency was recently denied by Haitian officials. Jean blamed the current Haitian President René Préval for ousting him from the ballot—but vowed to continue to work toward the betterment of his beloved homeland.
However, Jean’s political adventures took an awkward turn at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) yesterday: President Préval tried to bury the hatchet, by calling Jean on stage, and announcing he will make the rapper a goodwill ambassador. Reports say Jean seemed “stunned” by the action.
In an article on the Huffington Post, Jean said he was attending CGI to observe the special sessions on rebuilding Haiti, and said he hoped that the issue of “child slavery and kidnappings” would be addressed in the forums.
But it was Jean’s public feud with the president of Haiti—not slavery—that made headlines today.
Jean’s CGI appearance happened just days after he announced he would step down from running from president of Haiti, after being deemed ineligible for the ballot. Jean publicly blasted the Haitian officials who barred his presidential bid—even calling sitting president René Préval “Satan” in a song released to Haitian radio.
But in a publicity garnering move, President Préval offered Jean an olive branch during a CGI seminar on Haitian disaster relief. In front of a live audience, Préval called the rapper on stage and said, “[Wyclef] has made the plight of Haiti visible through the world even before the earthquake. He carries his country in his heart. And that is why I have made him a goodwill ambassador.”
According to the Miami Herald, Jean looked “stunned,” and did not respond. Several news reports made note of this awkward moment.
In a statement released through his blog earlier this week, Jean had said, “Though my run for the presidency was cut short, in this way, I feel it was not in vain.” He added, “Some battles are best fought off the field.” To help Haiti, Jean said, he will concentrate on music, rather than politics.
It seems that Wyclef Jean is still learning the ropes when it comes to political diplomacy. At least with music, he is on familiar ground.
To this end, Jean will release an album next February titled If I Were President, The Haitian Experience. And today, he is taking part in the inaugural episode of a Wall Street Journal video series called “Conversations.” Filmed before a live audience at New York’s Lincoln Center, Jean will be interviewed by WSJ writer Lee Hawkins about creativity and activism. He is following the interview with a live performance.
Will slavery be a topic of discussion? We’ll keep you posted.
- Children & Young People Now: Help for trafficked children caught in cannabis farms: “Children are being trafficked into the UK to work in so-called “cannabis factories”. There are now moves to treat those found during raids as victims rather than offenders.”
- Arirang: US imposes sanctions on North Korea for human trafficking: “President Barack Obama says the US will impose financial sanctions against North Korea in the next fiscal year until it makes significant efforts to combat human trafficking.”
- CNN: Legal advisor in Haiti kidnap case extradited to U.S.: “After Haitian authorities detained 10 U.S. missionaries this year on kidnapping and abduction charges, Torres-Puello contacted their church in Idaho, saying he was a legal authority on Haitian and Dominican law, the Marshals Service said. ’He obtained money from the families of the missionaries and began representing himself to the Haitian court and international media as the attorney/spokesman for the detained Americans,’ the Marshals Service said in a release Monday.”
- Genevalunch.com: International Organization for Migration, Mexico team up to fight human trafficking: “Migrant workers heading north to the US have been targets and when their families do not pay the ransoms they are sometimes murdered by the hostage-takers… The information campaign is part of IOM‘s regional counter-trafficking project, which is funded by the US State Department Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration.”
- Yorkshire Evening Post: Owner of an Indian restaurant in U.K. jailed for enslaving staff: “An Indian restaurant boss has been jailed for three years for people trafficking… Her sons, Raja, 33, and Shahnawaz Khan, 30, once dubbed the Indian Jamie Oliver, are already serving three year jail terms after they were found guilty at a trial in March.
A brief article appeared over the weekend in The Palm Beach Post with the headline: “Human trafficking becoming epidemic in Florida.” The piece was likely a response to the recent rash of modern day slavery arrests reported in the sunshine state. All but one of these news stories involve undocumented migrants, lured into the US with promises of work—but forced into slavery. Many of the victims were hidden in plain sight, afraid to get help for fear of deportation or retaliation from their captors.
Here are some of the recent reports of modern day slavery in Florida:
- Earlier this month, six men in Jacksonville were charged with sex trafficking of a 15-year old runaway girl. The minor was able to escape, and report the crime to the police.
- Three people were arrested in Alachua County for trafficking 34 Haitian workers into Florida. The laborers were forced into debt and made to work on farms, their passports confiscated upon arrival.
- A report in The St. Petersburg Times, opened with a story about a Guatemalan woman who was brought to Clearwater, Florida ostensibly to work as a maid. Instead, she was sex trafficked. Her captors warned her not to escape, because police “will show you no mercy.” Clearwater Police Chief said this case demonstrates how undocumented immigrants, trafficked into slavery, victims are unlikely “to report the crime. That’s how you breed these organized crimes.”
- Two sisters from Honduras were trafficked into a Palm Beach nightclub, where they were forced into sex slavery. Authorities investigated the club after an anonymous tipster called the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hot line.
To learn more about identifying domestic slavery, download our pamphlet, “Slavery Still Exists and it Could Be in Your Backyard: a community member’s guide to fighting human trafficking and slavery” here.
If you suspect a case of modern day slavery, please call the Human Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline, toll free: (888) 373-7888.
