Blankets

A few months ago we came into contact with the Restavec Freedom Foundation in Haiti. John Robert Cadet is a former child slave from Haiti. I first saw him on Oprah. This was after we had started Be the Change Foundation. I was so moved by his story. A former child slave, he received an education in the United States and went on to form an organization to help the children still enslaved in Haiti. He is one of the most inspiring people I have ever been in contact with (AND he met Oprah!). Once I saw him on Oprah, I tracked down his foundation on-line and e-mailed him (and did I mention he met Oprah?!). I heard back and he told me of many ways that Be the Change could partner with Restavec Freedom to help the children of Haiti.

Haiti it located 600 miles off the coast of Florida. It is just a 2 hour plane ride from Miami. Haiti holds the title of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Of the 8.4 million people who live in Haiti, 1/2 of those individuals are under the age of 20. Of the 8.4 million citizens of Haiti it is estimated that 300,000 of those people are child slaves. Haiti's problems only begin here. One half of the population is unemployed, only 1/2 of the children in the country attend school and less than 2% of children finish secondary school. For every 100,000 live births in Haiti, 523 of those mothers will not survive the birth. Haiti is also home to the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the Western Hemisphere. For every 8 children, one will die before the age of 5. For every 14 children, one will die before the age of 1. 80% of the people living in Haiti, live below the national poverty line. In addition to the 300,000 children living in slavery in Haiti, another 2,000 are trafficked into the Dominican Republic each year.

If you live in Haiti and you are a Restavec (or child slave):

You are one of an estimated 300,000 Haitian children enslaved in child labor.

You probably come from an isolated, rural area of Haiti where there are no schools, no electricity, no running water and few possibilities for the future.

You probably now live in the city with a family who is not your own - not as a foster child, but as the servant.

You probably are between the ages of 4 and 15, and your childhood with each passing day.

You are three times more likely to be a girl than a boy.

You probably get up before dawn, before the family members, to begin preparing for their day and go to bed well after most children are asleep.

You are probably responsible for preparing the household meals, fetching water from the local well, cleaning inside and outside the house, doing laundry and emptying bedpans.

You probably don't get paid for any of these activities. You rarely get to see your family. You might not even remember where they live.

You rarely, if ever, go to school, depending on your owner's financial situation and schedule.

You may not get enough to eat or food with enough nutritional value for someone who works hard all day.

You may be subjected to physical, emotional or sexual abuse in addition to the various forms of neglect mentioned above.

You never have all of your rights as a child respected.

The facts about Haiti are daunting, overwhelming and discouraging. As with so many other countries around the world afflicted with human trafficking, where do you even begin? Restavec Freedom currently has over 300 children that they support. The foundation encourages the owners of child slaves to allow them to attend school. Restavec Freedom then pays their tuition, supplies them with a uniform made especially for them, and purchases their books. For many of these children, they have never been to school. They have never even tried on a uniform before. They do not know their age or when they were born. They are basically undocumented, unprotected and unloved--until Restavec Freedom finds them. The primary focus is on the victim, children that are currently in domestic slavery. The primary goal of Restavec Freedom Foundation is to end this system but until they can accomplish this goal they try to get these children in school.

I contacted the Restavec Freedom Foundation a few weeks ago to ask them if there were any hands on projects that Be the Change could help with. I received an e-mail from my contact at Restavec with some suggestions of things we could do through Be the Change. At a recent Be the Change board meeting I sat and read through the suggestions to Diane, Kim and Cheryl. I got to the part of the e-mail where my contact with Restavec was describing to me how many of the child slaves in Haiti sleep on dirt or concrete floors. "Blankets!" Diane interjected. "What if we made them blankets?" I wanted to make them beds and ship them to Haiti. But, until we become best friends with an airline or the captain of a cargo ship, blankets will have to do. We all loved the idea of blankets, and I sat right there and e-mailed Restavec to ask if blankets would be a need and something the children could use. The response I got from them left me in tears and were some of the most humbling words I have ever read....

This is a beautiful idea. I am sure the children would not know what to think about having their very own blanket. I donʼt think I have ever seen a child with a blanket in Haiti. We could definitely carry these blankets in our extra baggage as we return to Haiti each month.

She is sure the children would not know what to think of a blanket of their very own.

She has never seen a child in Haiti with a blanket.

She will soon.

On January 31, 2009 we are going to hold a very special event. A blanket making...event? Party? Whatever you would like to call it!It will be held at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection:1700 Makefield RoadYardley, PA 19067It will be from 10am-2pm. We will serve snacks, and spend the afternoon making blankets for the child slaves of Haiti who sleep on dirt or concrete. If you can't sew, that is perfectly OK. I cannot sew on a button to save my life, but I have made several of these blankets. If you can draw a straight line with a ruler, cut in a straight line and tie your shoes, you can make one. You may have seen this type of blanket before, it is two pieces of fleece fringed and knotted together. We're asking each person to bring with them 4 yards of fleece material. You are welcome to just bring 4 yards of one type of fleece, or 2 yards of one color/pattern and 2 yards of another color/pattern. You need 4 yards total, but it either needs to be 4 whole yards, or split 2 of one fleece and 2 of another. OK, I will stop explaining now because I think I am just making it more confusing. E-mail us if you have questions and I promise to try and explain it better! In addition if you have pins, or a pair of scissors it would be helpful if you can bring those as well.

Please click on this link http://degraziermedia.com/BSPG/Restavec.html. Or cut and paste it into your browser. Right click and then click on "open." It will take a few minutes to download, but I promise it is worth it. These are just a few of the restavec children living in Haiti that Restavec Freedom is working with.

For whatever reason, in the past few months, Haiti has been on my heart. If you've been around me, I am sure you have heard me say "There are starving children in Haiti..." I am especially sure you have heard me say this if you have been within earshot when ridiculous items come on television that people can buy. Like a few months ago when I saw something on television about a "Spa Capsule" you can purchase for your home. Seriously?! A spa capsule? Do you have any idea how many children in Haiti you could feed or educate for the cost of a Spa Capsule?! At the zoo this summer when we were in the wild cat exhibit I noticed that people had donated tens of thousands of dollars to help cover the cost of the exhibit. Tens of thousands of dollars were given to keep animals in captivity. Surely these donors had not heard of the starving children in Haiti. I pointed this out to Denise, she agreed, and Morgyn told us (sarcasticly) that we were so much fun to go to the zoo with. "Sorry! It's your mother's fault," I told her.

So why the children in Haiti? I have no idea. Maybe because their suffering seems so deep. Maybe because I have been so close to the country I could almost touch the border. Maybe because I have heard personal, first hand accounts of the poverty and suffering from Denise. Maybe it is because the faces I have seen, and the words I read when I received the above e-mail have made a lasting imprint on my heart. A few weeks ago I was visiting with the Anderson family (who are now in South Africa). I was looking at pictures on the computer of the recent havoc that all over from the latest tropical storm. I saw pictures of destruction, devastation and death. I've never been so disturbed by photos, or so driven to want to do something to help these people.

I know there is suffering all over the world. I know that Be the Change cannot single handily save every child, or free all 27 million who are enslaved. We can't even free the 300,000 in Haiti. Giving a blanket to even 300 of those children merely seems like a drop in a very large bucket. But that is where the starfish comes in.

Do you really think that what you are doing is going to make a difference?

Yes, as a matter of fact, we do. We can't save all 27 million, we can't even rescue the 300,000 living in Haiti. And, I am not so naive as to think that a blanket is going to change the course of these children's lives'. But, it will make a difference. We can make sure that 300 of those children spread out a warm, soft fleece blanket over the cold concrete or dirt before they lay their heads down. We can give them a blanket, an object that is just for them. We can give them something clean and new. Something that we put our love and time into making just for them. We can give them the dignity of a more comfortable place to sleep. We can send them the message that they matter, that they have value and that they have worth. We can tell them they deserve so much more than the dirt and concrete. We can tell them that while their "owners" might hold them captive, their captivity is not what defines them. And that will make a difference.

And the old man paused thoughtfully as he picked up another starfish and tossed it into the sea and replied "It made a difference to that one."

Please join us on the 31st of January making blankets, sharing love, with the children held captive in Haiti. Please join us in dreaming of the day when not another blanket is needed.