Гаитидегі бала еңбек және құлдық: Restavek мәселесі

Name for a working child in Haiti
A restavek (or restavec) is a child in Haiti who is given away by their parents to work for a host household as a domestic servant because the parents lack the resources required to support the child. The term comes from the French language rester avec, "to stay with". Parents unable to care for children may send them to live with wealthier (or less poor) families, often their own relatives or friends. Often the children are from rural areas, and relatives who host restaveks live in more urban settings. The expectation is that the children will be given food and housing (and sometimes an education) in exchange for doing housework. However, many restaveks live in poverty, may not receive proper education, and are at grave risk for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. The restavek system is tolerated in Haitian culture, but not considered to be preferable. The practice meets formal international definitions of modern day slavery and child trafficking, and is believed to affect an estimated 300,000 Haitian children. The number of CDW (Child Domestic Workers) in Haiti, defined as 1) living away from parents' home; 2) not following normal progression in education; and 3) working more than other children, is more than 400,000. 25% of Haitian children age 5–17 live away from their biological parents.

The restavek tradition dates back centuries. Following the January 2010 earthquake, thousands of individuals in Haiti were displaced from their homes and families. According to anecdotal evidence, many of these individuals were children who had nowhere to turn but to become part of the Haitian restavèk population. Along with displacement due to natural disasters, children are solicited as restavèks by recruiters looking to find domestic servants for families. Many street children are former domestic servants who were dismissed by or ran away from the families they worked for. These children have not fully escaped the restavèk life. Instead, they become part of a different level that results in their exploitation in begging rings and prostitution.

The estimates for numbers of restaveks in Haiti range from 100,000 to 500,000. A 2002 door to door survey found the number of restaveks under age 17 in Haiti to be 173,000, and 59 percent of them were girls. It is believed that the widespread damage and displacement caused by the 2010 earthquake has caused many more children to become restaveks. Children who were orphaned by the quake could potentially be turned over to work as restaveks by distant relatives who cannot care for them.

Two major factors that perpetuate the restavek system are widespread poverty and a societal acceptance of the practice. is the most poverty stricken in the western hemisphere.</blockquote>

The practice of restavek is widely accepted in Haitian culture, although the upper classes have increasingly begun to look down on it. Individual factors that increase a child's likelihood of becoming a restavek include lack of access to clean water, lack of educational opportunities, access to family in a city, and illness or loss of one or both parents. The Restavec Freedom Foundation hosted 13 additional conferences titled "Compassion and Courage" (fn=lang xx italic) across Haiti. These conferences were hosted from the spring 2012 through the spring of 2013, and asked community leaders and pastors to take a stand on the issue of restavek. Over 3,000 leaders participated in these conferences and have agreed to take the lead in their respective communities to bring an end to the restavek practice. Other organizations in Haiti, such as Restavek Freedom Alliance, BEM Inc. are also actively working in south western Haiti with restavek children. Organizations such as the Center for Action and Development (CAD) and L'Escale in Port au Prince exist to house, feed, and give medical and psychological care to escaped restaveks while working to return them to their families. Heroes: In the episode "The Eclipse" (Season 3, Episode 11), Nathan Petrelli meets a girl restavek while being held captive by Baron Samedi, Rene's (The Haitian) brother. The restavek and her sister are freed by Peter Petrelli.