Restavek
This is the latest installment of this blog highlighting the conditions of Child Domestic Workers in Haiti.
In Haiti, many poor rural families hoping to provide a better future for their children send them to live as domestic servants in the homes of urban / semi-urban families. The majority of these children are girls and are extremely vulnerable to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. These children are known as Restavek.
Findings from the survey
The recent survey by the FAFO Research Foundation and the Institut Haitien de l’Enfance shows that 29 percent of children of school age do not attend school, with a further breakdown of this figure showing that the main stated reason for nonattendance (13.62 percent) is the inability to afford school fees. Other stated reasons include:
lack of funding for additional school costs, school closure, young age, lack of familial permission, and lack of necessary identification papers. 1.51 percent of children do not enroll for other reasons than the above, while lack of time, disinterest and repeated exam failure make up 0.28 percent, 0.96 percent and 0.41 percent of the reasons why children do not attend school.
The figures go on to show that a staggering 81.16 percent of children receive no support for schooling, while 10.45 percent of children receive support for education from family members and 8.39 percent get support from non-family members. A further breakdown of these figures show that 26 percent of financial support for schooling comes from the state or other organizations, with 21.46 percent coming from other relatives while parents are responsible for 16.37 percent with other non-relatives, godparents and the children themselves, making up 7.70 percent, 1.24 percent and 0.28 percent respectively.
Data Source
The raw data provided to Haiti Now by FAFO Research Foundation and the Institut Haitian del’ Enfance, were collected in 2013 - 2014.
Haiti Now has published this data online in an interactive manner. Click here to review this data in more detail, and to see other dimensions of the living conditions of Restavek in Haiti. Click here to see all our visualizations.
Building The Residential School
Haiti Now administers comprehensive programs that enable girls to overcome domestic servitude. It is now working on building a residential school dedicated to the long term empowerment of Restavek girls.
In this residential school, Haiti Now will provide an accelerated education, health care, emotional support, mentoring, arts, sports, and healthy socialization with peers and adults. Our goal is to provide the comprehensive support needed for Restavek girls to build a healthy and financially secure future, all under one roof.
Please support us at https://www.haiti-now.org/donate/
