Helping Haitians Build the Movement to End Child Slavery

The Reality:


As many as 300,000 children live in a form of modern day slavery called restavèk in Haiti. They are typically forced to work every waking hour without an opportunity to play or attend school and endure severe abuse and neglect.

Evelyn Benèch (pictured left) was only 10 years old when her desperate parents sent her from their remote rural community to live with a family in Port-au-Prince. Although this urban family promised to care for Evelyn and send her to school, they instead forced her to work nonstop and regularly abused her. Evelyn had become trapped in a modern form of slavery.

Fortunately, Evelyn’s mother participated in a child rights training course developed by Beyond Borders. As she learned about the great risks facing children who live apart from their families, Evelyn’s mother decided to do all she could to find and retrieve her daughter. It wasn’t easy, but eventually Evelyn’s mother found her daughter and brought her back home where Evelyn, now 14, goes to school and is free to play and enjoy her childhood. Beyond Borders works both in rural communities like Evelyn’s and urban neighborhoods to help people address the root causes of child servitude.

Our Accomplishments:


Beyond Borders and our Haitian sister organization, Fondasyon Limyè Lavi (FLL)
  • Provided leadership in the earliest efforts to bring a nationwide end to child slavery.
  • Supported the development of the largest network of Haitian organizations committed to ending child slavery. 
  • Developed radio programming to raise awareness of the risks facing children sent to live with others and the obligation all adults have to protect children from harm.
  • Launched November 17 as the National Day to End the Restavèk Practice, which receives increased attention each year.
  • We use facilitation methods that encourage meaningful dialogue so that neighbors have a safe space to talk about child protection issues. The transformative conversations set the stage for opportunities to address the issues with wider circles and larger groups.
    Created a highly participatory adult education program that leads to deep individual and community change in the treatment of children.
  • Developed and trained NGOs and Haitian Government in the process of reunifying families with their children who had become separated either by the earthquake or restavèk.
  • Designed and piloted an approach that not only helps rural communities stop the flow of children into servitude, but also leads many parents to retrieve children already sent away.

Our Ongoing Objectives:


  • Continue building the movement in neighborhoods to protect children and prevent further trafficking of them into the restavèk system. 
  • Reform the Haitian legal system to include specific protections for restavèk children. 
  • Ensure the processes for reunifying restavèk children with their families consider the child & their family, their community, and the restavèk family and community. 
  • Improve the tools and strategies rural communities can use to stop and reverse the flow of their children into servitude. 
  • Continue using radio programming, press conferences & street theatre to increase awareness of and engagement in the movement to end the restavèk system. 
  • Help the Haitian government and institutions develop healthier strategies and practices for reunifying separated children with their families. 
  • Develop a community-based alternative care structure for children who are unable to be reunited with their families.