30617: Minsky: (news) restavec story: Madeira man tells of slavery on 'Oprah' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "tminsky@ix.netcom.com" <tminsky@ix.netcom.com>

Madeira man tells of slavery on 'Oprah'
Cincinnati.com The Enquirer

Madeira resident Jean-Robert Cadet talks about his childhood as a Haitian
slave on "Oprah" (4 p.m. Wednesday,
Channels 9, 2).

Cadet, a teacher at Northern Kentucky University, wrote about his 15 years
of slavery in his autobiography,
"Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle Class American."

Earlier this year, he established the Jean R. Cadet Restavec Freedom
Foundation (www.restavecfreedom.org) to help
children in forced domestic servitude and to end slavery in Haiti, says
Jean Conn, foundation director.



The anti-slavery activist has addressed the United Nations International
Children's Emergency Fund in New York, a
UN slavery committee and the United States Foreign Relations Committee

(Cadet's website:)

> From the website: http://www.restavecfreedom.org/
Haitian children enslaved by poverty are forced into domestic labor

?Poverty is a reality but not an excuse? - Jean-Robert Cadet

It is hard to imagine slavery still exists today.

We've read about it; studied it in school. A time when man's inhumanity to
man cast an ugly stain on the soul. We are
relieved it happened so long ago - that it is all over now. Now, as we
vacation in the Caribbean's sun-kissed waters -
the same waters that lap at Haiti's shores - it is inconceivable to us that
thousands of children are enslaved. That
just an hour's plane ride from Miami, they scrub floors, empty bed pans,
cook and serve their owners in hopes of a
better life that never comes.

As we kiss our children good-night, we cannot dream of a place where
children go through life without a single
tender touch. We cannot imagine that cowhide whips, sold on street corners,
are used by owners against the children
who serve them, as these children shoulder work an adult would consider
back-breaking.

It can't be true - but it is. These children are real and they are
suffering. Today, as a result of extreme poverty,
thousands of Haitian children are placed into domestic servitude. They are
robbed of their childhood, their
innocence and their hope. They are called restavecs.

The literal translation of this Creole word means "to stay with." For
generations, it has been a last and desperate
solution for poor families. Unable to feed or educate their children,
parents send them to stay with and work for
other families in exchange for the promise of a better life. Currently,
there are an estimated 300,000 restavecs in
Haiti, many of whom are enslaved in forced domestic service. They are
unpaid, undocumented, and unprotected.
These restavec children are often physically, emotionally, and sexually
abused. They are denied education and suffer
many physical illnesses due to neglect.

Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavec, endured years of physical and
emotional abuse as a domestic slave until he
found access to an education, first in Haiti and later in the United
States. Education ultimately led to his freedom but
he has never forgotten. He founded the Jean R. Cadet Restavec Foundation,
which directly intervenes in the lives of
these children. The goal of the foundation is relief and advocacy for
enslaved children while raising awareness on a
global scale to end modern-day slavery in Haiti.

Now that we know the truth, together we can act to give hope and even
freedom, to those who need it most.



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