7834: restaveks in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Kramerkar@aol.com

Hello
Again, please excuse the long group email, but I wanted to reach as many 
people as possible.  Many of you who are interested in human rights, Haiti, 
and child labor have asked me to keep you informed about the progress on 
CHILDREN OF SHADOWS, our documentary about the restavek children of Haiti.
When I last wrote to you all in the fall, we had completed all the filming 
and were trying to raise funds to go into the editing stage of the project. 
Great news!  The film is now completely edited and we are going into the very 
last phase of post-production.  
CHILDREN OF SHADOWS will be a 53 minute film documenting the plight of the 
restaveks in Haiti.  The film includes scenes of the children as they go 
through the endless cycle of washing, cleaning, cooking, sweeping, fetching 
water, marketing, etc.  It includes interviews with the "aunts" (adoptive 
caretakers) and with the children themselves.  The film takes us deep into 
the countryside to see the rural context of where these children come from 
and we interview several peasants about why the life is so hard that they 
would have to give up their children.  In a later part of the film, we see 
two children who we had met 2 years earlier and learn what has become of them.
This March, some members of the Haitian community in Miami gave a small 
fundraiser for the film, and the results were wonderful.  We showed the film 
as a work-in-progress, and in addition to raising a bit of money, we had a 
very good discussion about the restavek problem after the showing (thanks to 
all of you who came to the Miami fundraiser)
So what else needs to be done before the film is ready for distribution? We 
need to raise the last few thousand dollars to do the final technical work.  
This includes the sound mix, color corrections, sub-titling, etc. Many of you 
have been so generous to help out in the past.  Others asked us last fall if 
they could make a contribution at a future date.  We are so close to 
finishing the film, and even small donations will add up.  For any of you - 
organizations or individuals - who can help, we would be happy to accept any 
donation through our tax-exempt organization.  Tax-exempt checks may be made 
out to our non-profit organization, Community Environments, Inc. and mailed 
to Karen Kramer c/o Community Environments/ 22 Leroy Street? New York, N.Y. 
10014
Thanks so much for your help.  If all goes well, CHILDREN OF SHADOWS should 
be ready for distribution in September
Karen