At Peace in their Care: The Testimony of Omantide Laurent

"A child is never well off living with someone else. In spite of the problems my mother and father might have, I feel at peace in their care." -- Omantide Laurent

Beyond Borders is investing in rural education in a unique way that allows us to not only slow the flow of children from the community into servitude, but actually allows us to draw children back out of servitude. We work to raise the awareness in the rural community to the realities typically faced by children living in servitude, helping parents understand what a nightmare their children may endure if sent to work and live in the home of someone who doesn't love their child. We then create opportunities for children already sent into servitude do return to their families and attend school with a full scholarship. Omantide Laurent is one such child. She lived for seven years in servitude until September 2007 when our investment in her community school and our awareness raising work led her parents to go and retrieve her and bring her back home and place her in the school we are supporting in her community. Here's her story in her own words:

My name is Omantide Laurent. I’m 17 years old. I’m living now with my mother and father after seven years away from my family. I was in school in the community of Dal, the school you see just after you get down the mountain below Meno. When I first was placed in the home of these other people they sent me to school for a short while. But they ended up not sending me to school any longer with the pretext that they needed to save money to buy a house. So, my mother heard that through the grapevine that they weren’t sending me to school any longer and she saw that the school here now was really beautiful. That motivated her to send for me. Now I’m really happy I’m in school.

I want everyone to know that I’m happy because I’m living with my family even though they are still facing difficulties living with seven children. Now that I’m back with my family I think about my brother who is living in Port-au-Prince and who I never got to meet because I was living in Carrefour and he was living in Delmas.

While I was living with these other families I was the one who did all the various kinds of work. I mopped, washed all the clothes and dishes, made the meals, took care of the children and others. But the only recompense I got was when I was doing one thing after another, if I got anything wrong it was a beating, it was a dirty look, and all kinds of other things that crushed my spirit.

What is really beautiful now is that when I left their house, they told me that they’d love to have me back ! Maybe that’s why at the end they bought me a bunch of nice clothes, though they didn’t buy me any shoes.

Now my mom and dad and I all say : They will never send children away to live with others (in servitude). They are just waiting for the year to end so they can send for my little brother. Here’s the thing: A child is never well off living with someone else. In spite of the problems my mother and father might have, I feel at peace in their care.