Conquering Internalized Oppression

"Once you conquer your selfish self, all your darkness will change to light."

Rumi

Overcoming the Psychological Wounds of Slavery

There are 27 million slaves living in the world today--more than at any time in history. Three hundred thousand of them are impoverished children in Haiti, who "stay with" families as unpaid and uneducated domestic workers, subject to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. This practice, known locally as restavek ("staying with"), is so widespread that one in ten Haitian children is caught up in this form of slavery.

Jean-Robert Cadet was a restavek in Haiti from the late 1950s until the early 1970s. He told the harrowing story of his youth in Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American--a landmark book that exposed ongoing child slavery in Haiti. Now in My Stone of Hope, Cadet continues his story from his early attempts to adjust to freedom in American society to his current life mission of eliminating child slavery through advocacy and education. As he recounts his own struggles to surmount the psychological wounds of slavery, Cadet puts a human face on the suffering that hundreds of thousands of Haitians still endure daily. He also builds a convincing case that child slavery is not just one among many problems that Haiti faces as the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Rather, he argues that the systematic abuse of so many of its children is Haiti's fundamental problem, because it creates damaged adults who seem incapable of governing the country justly or managing its economy productively.

For everyone concerned about the fate of Haiti, the welfare of children, and the freedom of people around the globe, My Stone of Hope sounds an irresistible call to action.

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Child Slaves of Haiti

                        

An excerpt of a film produced by Dane Liu and Carmen Russel on the child slaves of Haiti—restaveks—as seen on Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria. The film explores the lives of children who, due to economic depravity, are forced to leave their families and abandon their education to work as indentured servants.

Child slaves make up about 10 percent of the youth population in Haiti. Driven out of economic depravity, many parents are sending their children to live with others and serve as indentured servants in order to secure their survival. In a short documentary, Dane Liu and Carmen Russell explore the lives of these young children as they are forced to leave their families, sacrifice their education and spend their days working as child slaves.

This report is part of Pulitzer Center-sponsored project "Restaveks: Child Slaves of Haiti" (‪http://bit.ly/uejifk).

Combatting Modern Slavery: In the Footsteps of Charles Lavigerie

Tikondane 

MSOLA Project for Street Children

Lilongwe (Malawi) 

WHAT IS TIKONDANE?

Tikondane Care for Children in/off the Streets (hereafter referred to as TCCS) is a Faith Based Organization (FBO) whose unique contribution is the “hands-on” care and protection of abused, neglected, vulnerable and marginalized children. The project was initiated by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa (MSOLA) in collaboration with the Diocese of Lilongwe and will this year clock 15 years of service.

Children’s stories reveal the struggles and hopes of our people. The political crises and increasing poverty continue to be root causes of the abuses affecting children. Tikondane have noted domestic violence as one of the biggest factors that push children out of their homes. Through the dedication and commitment of Tikondane staff, the advisory board, the partner and all the close collaborators, many children have been reached in 2012. Most of them have accessed their rights; many have been protected from abuse and a few have been saved from death.

AN EXAMPLE AMONG MANY

Vanessa Madaliso (not her real name) writes: I came to know Tikondane project since 2004. One of the social workers found me at night on the street after I had run from home because of violence in my family. Tikondane have been helping me since then. In 2004, they send me to a boarding school be-cause I could not stay at home. I was then in standard three. They provided supports that I needed at a boarding school. I also used to spend my holidays at Tikondane and Tikondane provides with my needs. As of now, I am at Likuni Girls Secondary School in form Two and the Tikondane people are still paying fees for me until now they are still supporting me. When I am sick, they took me to the hospital, giving me food and washing my clothes. They follow the instructions from the Doctor. Tikondane social workers visited my family and they talked with my parents since then there have been a lot of changes: They have stopped shouting at me in any how and beating me. They have started showing love to me. The relationship with my parents is growing. Now I can spend my holidays at home.

CHALLENGES

We have noticed that most young children who are on the street are commuting from their homes (in Area 36, Chinsapo, Likuni, Ngwenya and Chigwirisano) and we are reflecting on the best way to work with parents and the community in this new development. The number of children being used for begging by disabled parents has increased again, having begun during Ramadan, and most of those children are still on the street begging. We have also noticed an increase in the number of street girls; some are renting a house in Area 36 but they are not open to work with us. They don’t want re-integration, which, for the time being, is the service we can offer them.

We were affected by the death of three children living on the street (a 15 year-old boy burnt to death by mob justice after robbery in a shop, another boy who was burnt to death and a 16 year-old girl who was HIV positive). A special challenge is posed by the children in the streets who have been infected with HIV and are suffering from AIDS. Some of these children have access to pediatric ART but living on the streets, they do not adhere well to the medication. Moreover, they lack adequate food to sustain themselves and some continue to engage in sexual activities with other children.

Sometimes, some children from the streets and who are living in complete despair have caused trouble at the shelter. They have thrown bottles and stones in order to provoke us to call the Police so that they can be taken to the cells. On our part we handled this situation amicably and with a lot of penitence and compassion. A day later these children have calmed down and have come to apologize, which has given us the opportunity to talk with each individual.

There were many children returning to the shelter last year, perhaps because of the current economic situation. We were particularly challenged by returnees who had been escorted for re-integration to far distant homes, and we are exploring other avenues to help them.

Information provided by Vicky Chiharhula, MSOLA

Our Problem is Civil Obedience

To End Extreme Poverty, Let’s Try Ending Extreme Wealth

The world’s wealthy gathered in the Alps again last week to discuss how to ‘solve’ the world’s problems. The world’s biggest problem, suggests one top global anti-poverty outfit, may be their fortunes.

by Sam Pizzigati

Apologists for inequality have a standard retort to anyone who calls for a more equal distribution of the world’s treasure. If you took all the wealth of the wealthy and divide it up equally among all the poor, the retort goes, no one would gain nearly enough to accomplish much of anything.

Oxfam International, one of the world’s premiere anti-poverty charitable organizations, would beg to differ. The world’s top 100 billionaires now hold so much wealth, says a new Oxfam report, that just the increase in their net worth last year would be “enough to make extreme poverty history four times over.”

“Oxfam’s mission is to work with others to end poverty,” Oxfam analyst Emma Seery noted last week. “But in a world with limited resources, this is no longer possible without an end to extreme wealth.”

Oxfam timed its new analysis, The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all, to appear right on the eve of last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This earnest “issues” confab annually brings together a glittering array of global business and political leaders.

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