Every day Haitian children are sent away in hopes of a better life. This has become a Haitian tradition. When Haitians don’t have enough money to support their children they sent them to live with another family or many times complete strangers. These foster parents are supposed to take care of these children as if they were their own. They’re supposed to send them to school, buy them clothe, and guide the to a better future. However, this hardly ever happens. These children are taken in as servants, forced to work without pay, secluded from other children in the household and not often sent to school. Before the earthquake out of Haiti’s eight million people 300,000 children were restaveks. After the earthquake one million Haitians were left homeless so the number of restaveks also raised a lot. The big question with all this is. Is this Haitian tradition or child slavery? If the parents give away the children willingly is it still slavery? Jean-Robert Cadet, a former restavek, now runs an organization against restaveks. Cadet tells us that the only reason why restaveks are still around today is because it is socially accepted as tradition. Cadet says only a small percent of restaveks are treated well and sent to school, this makes Haitian parents prefer sending of their kids and hoping they end up with a good family than watching them die while living with them. So is this so called “ tradition” slavery?
