The Campaign to End Child Servitude

Sixth-grade students participate in a pilot program designed to raise awareness of children’s rights at an early age. Especially in urban areas, many children who attend Haitian schools come from households in which other children are forced to work as servants. Students in this pilot program are encouraged to befriend and become powerful advocates for better treatment of restavèk children, and will grow up unwilling to perpetuate or tolerate the restavèk practice.

As many as 300,000 Haitian children are trapped in modern slavery. Beyond Borders’ Campaign to End Child Servitude helped give birth to and is supporting the growth of a grassroots movement determined to end the restavèk practice and guarantee all children their basic rights.

This peaceful Mother’s Day March in May was one of many activities we sponsored to pressure the Haitian government to fulfill its obligation to protect children from servitude and exploitation.

With support from Beyond Borders last year, the Campaign to End Child Servitude:

  • trained more than 400 advocates for restavèk children in urban neighborhoods;
  • trained 675 child advocates in disadvantaged rural communities;
  • piloted a new school-based child rights awareness program;
  • trained and supported 160 adult survivors of child slavery;
  • organized 6 advanced child rights trainings programs for community leaders;
  • produced 12 radio programs that were rebroadcast by 7 radio stations;
  • helped organize protest marches, street theatre, and a variety of other activities to galvanize public opinion against the restavèk practice; and
  • continued supporting the growth of two networks (one national, one regional) that now include more than 60 member organizations committed to ending child servitude.
As many as 300,000 Haitian children are trapped in modern slavery. Beyond Borders’ Campaign to End Child Servitude helped give birth to and is supporting the growth of a grassroots movement determined to end the restavèk practice and guarantee all children their basic rights.