5. Providing Support for Survivors

Social movements are strongest when those who have the most at stake or who have been most injured take the lead in pushing for change. Escaped or freed slaves took great leadership in the American movement to abolish slavery in the 19th century. African Americans took the lead in the civil rights movement of the last century.

We avoid engaging children currently living in servitude in the overt organized struggle to end the practice. To do so would be to put them at grave risk for violent retribution. We do, however, involve survivors of child servitude in the Campaign.

These survivors are typically adult women who we find through their involvement in adult literacy centers or women's support groups we work with. Children who have survived servitude can be found in the safe houses of partner organizations for children escaping servitude or life on the street.

Many survivors of servitude feel great shame over their experience and status as a former restavek child. They are almost always deeply wounded by their experience in servitude. We work to support the healing and welfare of these survivors by providing our partners in Haiti with training to understand and better respond to childhood trauma.

We help survivors find meaning and strength by inviting their involvement in the struggle to end child servitude. Survivors of child servitude can speak with great conviction and moral authority and understand the complex realities for children in servitude better than anyone.

We have been working with a core group of adult survivors from different parts of Haiti who we are encouraging to form their own local solidarity groups for survivors of child servitude. Participants meet together and often help us with awareness-raising activities we organize--participating in radio programs, offering testimony before groups and government representatives, and speaking out at gatherings.

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