ImpactHaitichild slavery

Putting An End To Gender-Based Violence In Haiti

Putting An End To Gender-Based Violence In Haiti
Eleanor Goldberg
By 

Business Reporter, HuffPost

HAITI - APRIL 11: Seven-year-old Meloude Casseus, a former 'restavek', weeps while being soothed by social worker Pasqual, at Meloude's family home on April 11, 2005 in a rural village near Les Cayes, Haiti. Meloude was returned to her biological parents after she was found running through a Port-au-Prince street, apparently badly beaten, but her family plans to give her to another family that they hope will take better care of her. Hundreds of thousands very young children have been handed over to 'host' families in Port-au-Prince by desperately poor parents lured by the promise of a better life. Instead, the children receive no education and are forced to do hard, menial jobs; oftentimes they are forbidden to join the host family for meals, and sleep on concrete or dirt floors with little clothing. When they reach 15-years of age (by law the age to recieve a wage), families often throw restaveks out to the street and replace them with younger children. These children are called 'restavek,' which in the local Creole language means, 'to stay with.' (Photo by Shaul Schwarz/Getty Images)
HAITI - APRIL 11: Seven-year-old Meloude Casseus, a former 'restavek', weeps while being soothed by social worker Pasqual, at Meloude's family home on April 11, 2005 in a rural village near Les Cayes, Haiti. Meloude was returned to her biological parents after she was found running through a Port-au-Prince street, apparently badly beaten, but her family plans to give her to another family that they hope will take better care of her. Hundreds of thousands very young children have been handed over to 'host' families in Port-au-Prince by desperately poor parents lured by the promise of a better life. Instead, the children receive no education and are forced to do hard, menial jobs; oftentimes they are forbidden to join the host family for meals, and sleep on concrete or dirt floors with little clothing. When they reach 15-years of age (by law the age to recieve a wage), families often throw restaveks out to the street and replace them with younger children. These children are called 'restavek,' which in the local Creole language means, 'to stay with.' (Photo by Shaul Schwarz/Getty Images)

It’s appalling.

In some countries, up to 70 percent of women will experience some form of violence in their lifetimes.

But earlier this month I found reason for hope in the words of a Haitian women’s advocate -- we’ll call her Marie -- who I met in a rural town a few hours away from Port-au-Prince.

“I want women to see themselves as women with possibility,” she told me.

Marie -- and women across the world -- work every day to reclaim that sense of possibility for the millions of women and girls facing gender-based violence.

Read more on takepart.com

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