I read a really eye-opening article today:
Children in Servitude, the Poorest of Haiti’s Poor
By MARC LACEY
Published: September 13, 2008
GONAÏVES, Haiti — Thousands of desperate women pushed and shoved to get at the relief food being handed out on the outskirts of this flooded city last week. Off to the side were the restaveks, the really desperate ones.
As woman after woman hauled off a sack of rice, a bag of beans and a can of cooking oil, the restaveks, a Creole term used to describe Haiti’s child laborers, dropped to their knees to pick up the bits that were inadvertently dropped in the dirt....
Read the whole article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/world/americas/14haiti.html?ex=1379217600&en=26c06128aecbed45&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
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Earlier this summer, I had become aware of the plight of poor Haitians through Nikki's blog. It's really hard to fathom the depths of despair now, especially for the children portrayed in this article.
Rebecca, I know UNICEF is doing some great work here, so I just made a donation.
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4 comments:
Thanks, Holly for the donation to UNICEF! (Sorry it took me a couple of days to notice this!)
On Sept. 10, UNICEF airlifted 11.5 tons of relief supplies to the people of Haiti. So, the folks down there are gettin' to it right away!
On behalf of the Haitians - thanks!
Thanks for the update, Rebecca!
It is just breaking my heart reading about everything going on in Haiti right now :(
I know, Nikki. Do you have any insider information based on your contacts there?
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