Watching Lives Change

Imagine receiving your first hug as a teenager.  This comes after spending all of your life belonging to another.  Not as a child or a friend to be loved, but as an object, an appliance; like an old vacuum you are loaned to your neighbor.  You have no belongings, no time for yourself, no time to play, no one to love you… you live in a house but everyday it is made clear that you are not at home.  No one knows or cares if you have feelings, they disregard your desires, they trample on your rights, and they use every ounce of your strength, and give you nothing but food scraps to replenish it.  In their minds and in your own you are no more human than the stray dog that begs for scraps at the door.  You’ve come to believe that your life does not matter.

Now imagine one year later, sleeping in a bed for the first time.  Imagine waking to find that, for the first time in your life, the sun has risen before you and you don’t have a long list of chores awaiting you… so you go out and relax with your “family.”  Imagine going to church for the first time in life and the pastor is preaching directly to you saying “Yesterday is gone, and everything is about to change.  God is going to do something with your life.  Even the misery will turn out for your good.”  Watching everyone around you closely, you do what they do.  You lift up your hands and you say amen, but not just to copy them, but because you have already seen the first-fruits of the pastor’s words.  For once you are surrounded by people who love you, and for the first time you start to feel it.  They show it.  They hug you, the smile with you, they joke with you, they eat at the same table with you, they share their belongings with you, they provide for you… you have a place at home with two strangers that you now call “Mami” and “Papi,” and they deserve the title because of the love that they show.  You share a room with a “sister” that you had never known, and she loans you her mother’s sunglasses so that you can be styling at church.  For the first time, you no longer belong to the home… the home belongs to you.  You no longer belong to a family, you have a family of your own.  In this you see for the first time that you actually do matter.

If that were you, your cheeks would hurt too after smiling and laughing non-stop for days…  It’s a wonder to behold.  Its a privilege to take part in.  I really love my job.  I get to sit in the front row and watch lives transform.

www.restavekfreedom.org

Mountain Climbing with JRC – A Miraculous Journey

Wow… I thank God that my life is not boring.  If it were any less interesting, I may have had a bit more time to tell you more about it…. oh well.  As usual, again there is much to tell, but I’ll choose one thing from two weeks ago…

On the week of July 5th, Jean-Robert and I set out to visit a child that we returned home in the area of Jacmel last year.  She was a restavek for about a year and suffered unbelievable physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.  Her Gran Moun (owner) was a former neighbor of her family that had moved to Port-au-Prince.  This woman convinced the little girl’s mother that she would take care of her, put her through school, and make sure that her life was rosy, but every single promise was a lie.  This woman put the little girl through so much hell that she ran away.  She was found by the police, who took her to social affairs, who dropped her off at a girls shelter that we work with, and Jean-Robert took the 9-hour trek (one way) over the mountains, swam a river in the rain season, and walked for miles to her house, just to see her happily home with her mother again.  Then he took the long way back home in the middle of the night.  (For the record: There is not a man on earth with more compassion than Jean-Robert.  I thought that I loved people until he introduced me to a new standard).

We had not seen the girl for more than a year because she lived so far away.  We went to visit her because she was due a visit, but also because we were hoping that she would be the perfect candidate for the story that CNN was working on two weekends ago.  If you have seen the report (and if you watch tonight) you will notice that this “perfect” story was not chosen (mainly because we were crunched for time and could not go that far out of the traveling alone), but our trip made for an interesting experience, nonetheless.

We made our first attempt to Jacmel on Tuesday, July 7th.  (Yes, I said first attempt.  There were three attempts total).  We needed a big SUV to make it up the mountains, but we only needed the car for one day.  Big cars are on high demand in Haiti, so the smaller, local rental companies are often reluctant to rent out a big car for one day, fearful of missing a longer contract… so they charge you big bucks for it.  Everyone was asking more than we could afford to pay.  Everyone but this one man, whom we had rented from many times before.  It was a pick-up truck.  The car had its flaws, but  to me, it seemed healthy enough to make the trip (I had never been up those treacherous mountains, so I relied more on JR’s judgment).  We had already spent too much time shuffling around to get a car, so we were in a rush to get up the mountains.  We took off quickly after a cursory check up of the car.

We spent a good two hours or so in stop and go traffic, so there was no way for us to know the first problem that we uncovered until it was too late.  Once we started getting out past Mariani and Gressier we noticed that the car began to shake as we went above a certain speed.  We contacted the renter to let him know the problem.  He through out some sort of wild explanation and asked us what we wanted to do.  But we were already so far out that if we waited or went back, the trip would have been canceled.  In hindsight, that should have been our choice.  We continued on cautiously.  Not less than an hour later, our front tire went flat.  We got out quickly to change the tire only to realize that our trusty spare was also flat and balding.  Not only that, the jack that was in the car was no good… it didn’t even have its proper handle.  Someone had really neglected the regular check-ups on this car.  This was my first experience with renting in Haiti, and these are things that you don’t think of in the U.S., but I should have known better here.

Thank God we went flat near some sort of stone/gravel mining operation, and one of the men who worked there went downtown to find someone who helped us fix our spare.  It took a long time, but he did it.  By then, it was too late to go up the mountain, so we headed home.  We got a refund later that week and the man who rented the car to us may be in trouble with his job for being so negligent.  I felt really bad that day because Joycelyne decided to take a break from her studies to go with us.  It was her first road trip in Haiti and all she got out of it was fatigue, hunger, and “tet chaje” (a headache).  I’m sorry Sweetie…  Maybe in December.

We tried to rent a car the next day.  We ran into the same problem as before… no one wanted to rent it to us for such a short amount of time.  We decided to go ahead and get it for three days (the usual minimum), but when we decided to do that, we lost that contract to someone who wanted it for five.  It was like losing an ebay auction at the last minute…  There were no more of the super-big cars that we needed…  Nothing was in our favor that Wednesday, so Jean-Robert went home and I went on to try to pick up a package at the airport for my new business (there will be more on that headache soon).

Early on Thursday, we went in and got a Nissan Patrol for 7-days (since our director was coming in the next day), and took off.  That transaction went much smoother.  We checked everything on that car.  I flipped things over, punched the tires, took pictures… everything.  It was in great shape.  We went on up to the mountains without a problem… except for the fact that it was a LOOONG bumpy trip, and we left at an hour in which all roadside food was cold. (Bumpy is an understatement… perhaps “jerky” or “jarring” would be more appropriate).  We arrived seven hours after our departure.  It took us a while to find the family, but when we did, they were very happy to see us.  (Well, at least they were happy to see Jean-Robert… they didn’t know me yet).

We made a very short visit, talked to everyone, ate some grilled corn, passion-fruit, and drank some coconuts and headed home.  By then it was already past 5pm.  We had a seven hour drive to make home… so we thought.  A few hours into our trip jerky trip up and down the rocky hills, a miracle happened…  We suddenly arrived on the main road.  Jean-Robert and I just looked at each other.  How did we skip two hours of hill-climbing?  I thought that I had fallen asleep, but Jean-Robert’s confusion justified my own.  We proceeded up the winding roads to Port-au-Prince, still wondering about all of the things that we didn’t pass to get to the main road.  It is possible that we got lost, but usually when you get lost you don’t gain two hours.  Also, these mountain roads have very few turning options and very few entrances and exits.  I don’t know how we happened to find the “right one.”

As we drove into Gressier the car started to shake the same way that the pick-up did.  It was late, it was dark, and we had no tools… We had no choice but to continue.  We moved on through Carrefour and just as we pass a police checkpoint, we lose our steering.  Thankfully, we lost it on a straight away, and the car practically “parked” itself out of harms way.  So get this… we are in front of a police checkpoint, so danger is minimal.  We ask the police officer what they can do for us and they offer to take us to a hotel.  Then, when the realize that we had a rental car, they told us that we couldn’t leave it there or we would only find half of it in the morning.  By “chance” the police officer knew a mechanic in the area, and in that moment (11pm) the mechanic was sitting near the street with some friends joking around (Port-au-prince is usually dead asleep by 10).  In no time, the mechanic got under the car, replaced a bolt that got lost in the steering system with a random piece of iron, and we were on our way home.  Even after the quick fix we arrived two hours early…

The next day, Jean-Robert and I awoke to the reality that we could have died several times the night before.  If we hadn’t found the “shortcut” and continued on the rocky mountains, the bolt may have dislodged faster.  Then, if we had lost steering while navigating the treacherous curves, we could have driven right off of the edge and into the sea.  If our car had lost steering a mile before the police checkpoint, we would have been in danger and we would have had no way home.  There would have been no one there to protect us, we would have never found a mechanic, and by that time, a hotel (if we could have ever found one) was out of the question.  The whole experience was Miraculous.

I don’t know about you… but I don’t believe in chance.  I’m starting to get used to this “my life is in His hands” thing.  It makes me feel invincible.

Jean-Robert Cadet Restavek Foundation Featured on CNN

Dear Reader,

We are thrilled to announce that we have a new website (www.restavekfreedom.org) and that the foundation will be on national news Monday, July 13th and Tuesday, July 14th.

Please tune into CNN on Monday and Tuesday night to see the Restavek Foundation featured on Anderson Cooper 360°. (If you miss either, the program will re-air on Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th, times TBD.) Our founder, Jean-Robert Cadet will be interviewed by CNN chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, as part of Anderson Cooper’s historic series of interviews with President Barack Obama.

Here is an excerpt of CNN’s official press release:

As President Barack Obama makes a historic visit to Africa, CNN’s Anderson Cooper sits down with the President for an extensive interview and joins him exclusively as he visits Cape Coast Castle, Ghana, the site of an overcrowded dungeon where slaves were held before they were shipped west. Interview topics will include domestic and international issues as well as the President’s own close connection with Africa and the significance of his trip for African-Americans today. CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join Cooper from Haiti, where he will report on the slave trade that continues to thrive in that country. The interview will air on Monday, July 13th and Tuesday, July 14th. Anderson Cooper 360° airs weeknights at 10pm ET on CNN.

Please share this with your friends and thank you for your support!

The Jean Cadet Restavek Foundation
www.restavekfreedom.org

One Month Later…

It has been one month since the Restavek Conference.  The conference itself, as i said before, was an overwhelming success.  We pulled off everything, from logistics to content, almost flawlessly.  The people showed great signs of motivation and interest in this cause.  We even saw a unique miracle as a sign of their self-motivation.  What was that miracle? It was the first Haitian event that I ever took part in in which all of the invitees arrived EARLY (yeah, that’s right… early!… in Haiti!).  We started on time & ended on time.  We started with Tifane’s beautiful song, went into a welcome, heard a couple of talks, and went right into the panel discussions.  The panels ran smoothly up through Mrs. Sixto’s lunchtime speech, and we topped off the conference with Jean-Robert’s moving and challenging speech.  God’s hand was in every detail.

As for me, it was an honor for me to stand before 500+ leaders of various sectors in the nation, speaking on behalf of 300,000+ children who have no voice.  As the emcee of the event, I too had a chance to share my heart about the issue and challenge people to take personal responsibility for the plight of these children.  This great opportunity came after weeks of speaking out for them on television and radio; an honor and a privilege that I had not yet imagined for myself.  It was truly a divine opportunity.

I did not get to take part in all of the panels because I was moderating the religious panel.  I heard great reports from all of the rest, but after spending four sessions with a Pastor, a Priest, and a Hougan (vodou priest) speaking on the same panel about the same issue, I must say that our panel was the most significant… the most miraculous (I may be a bit biased).  Never has it been seen or heard of in Haiti for three men from these three domains to sit together peacefully to discuss anything of substance.  They not only sat peacefully, but they supported one another’s statements, they laughed together, and they genuinely enjoyed one another’s company.  They came representing sectors filled with differences and known for fiery confrontations, but they left as friends united by a common purpose.

That was the miracle of the Restavek conference.  Men and women came from all over the country (and even different parts of the world), from different walks of life, different social and economic statuses, and from different domains of work and they became united toward a single cause: the children, the future of our nation.  Everyone left encouraged and motivated, and I truly felt that the nation is finally ready to start taking some steps toward change.

So what has happened since?  Our office has spent several weeks catching up to our own program, paying more attention to our own children.  Still every week I am receiving calls and emails from excited organizations and individuals telling us about their ideas and efforts.  Many of them need some help and direction getting started and I always wish we could do more for them at the moment, but our own children are our priority for now.  We are still a very small organization, despite the big splash that we made at the conference, and our resources, especially our human resources, are limited.  At times I have been a bit discouraged to see so much momentum yet be so limited in our ability to keep it rolling, but from what I see, the issue is still fresh in the minds of all of our attendees .  The fire is still burning, and it won’t go out any time soon.  I am fully confident that we will be able to contact anyone on our list of attendees, even in a few months, and enlist their full participation.  I believe that the conference had that much of an impact.

I have already called upon the members of my church who were in attendance, and we are now planning a campaign to root out this system in our church and in the surrounding community.  Their enthusiasm is greater than it was on day one because they have been thinking about the issue ever since, and they came ready with some great ideas for a very smart campaign.  This will be the first of many to come.  Hopefully it will become a model to be replicated in other churches and neighborhoods around the country.  The media campaign is still in the planning phases, but we have some great ideas flowing…

Why does all the good stuff always happen when I am just getting ready to leave the country…?  I only have 35 days left.  Booo…

The Beginning of the End of Child Slavery

If you’ve been wondering where I have been, I have been hard at work on the upcoming conference to start a movement against child exloitation in Haiti.  Every day the event gets bigger.  We are preparing to receive hundreds of guests, mostly from Haiti, but also from Europe, the U.S., and other Caribbean nations.  We will also have media present from different corners of the world.  I have a feeling that God really wants to deliver these children (well duh…).  His hand is all over this thing… All of the pieces simply fit themselves together.  The people that we have met in the last week and a half have saved our skin, given us access to corners of Haiti that we thought were lost.  There is much left to do but we are very excited and very positive about it all.

Of course this is not really about holding a conference to talk about the issue and move on (like most conferences in Haiti).  We really are after a movement, and we think that we are well-positioned to get one rolling.  I also think that Haiti is ready to receive this movement.  After all this time, what could make me think so?  Well, all along, there have been more people in our nation that are against this system than there are people who are for it.  All we have to do is convince these people to TALK.  Speak out!  Say “Enough!”

During child interviews this week, I caught onto something that is very key.  Almost every child that I talked to (this week) has a neighbor that feeds them or gives them a little money from time to time because they feel sorry for the child.  But never have I heard of a neighbor that confronts the “owners” of these children while they are in the middle of beating them to a pulp.  These neighbors are friends of the family… They see each other often.  They laugh together and joke around with everyone in the house.  Everyone but the restavek.  They help her in secret, because no matter how close they are to the family, they feel powerless to speak on the behalf of the child who is, very clearly, not in the family.  I bet that some of them wish they could…  Our goal is to convince them that they can… and they should.  We want these caring neighbors to stop thinking “what a shame” in their hearts to saying “shame on you” to their neighbor (of course respectfully, tastefully, and lovingly).  As I look at I’m really starting to believe that we can get people to start talking.

We are preparing for it.  We are getting ready to make a lot of noise.  It won’t be long until this issue is made a public issue.  It won’t be much longer until one neighbor starts talking to another about the sad, shameful stories that they heard on the radio or saw on the TV.  When they start talking to each other, the third neighbor, the one with the restavek, will start to think twice before they beat the child.  They may even buy a mattress for her to sleep on rather than forcing her onto the cold concrete floor every night.  In another year, perhaps the child will be in school… in the morning even, rather than being sent to a sub-par afternoon school which exists in part because there are children in our country that work during the day.  Maybe afternoon school won’t even be necessary anymore… who knows.

I know that I tend to speak idealistically, but I feel this as strongly as everything else that I know to be true.  On May 23, 2009 we will see the beginning of the end of child slavery in Haiti.  God himself has vowed to break the chain.  (Trust me, I know this because He’s a good friend of mine…