• 22 JANUARI 2010 16:00

    Den brutala verkligheten för barn i Haiti

    Det blir mycket Haiti just nu, men jag måste ändå skriva ännu ett inlägg med det temat. I ett nyhetsbrev från nätverket CRIN, Child Rights Information Network, som skickades den 12 januari läser jag en artikel från BBC om barnslavar i Haiti. Unicef bedömer att det finns runt 300 000 barn som tvingas till slaveri i landet och som lever under fruktansvärda omständigheter. Läs den här artikeln och betänk att det här var situationen redan innan jordbävningen.

    “As soon as dawn breaks in Port-au-Prince the first children appear, staggering under the weight of five-gallon buckets of water.

    The water carriers, many as young as 6-years-old, are some of the thousands of children living as virtual child slaves in the country. Given away to other families by parents too poor to feed and clothe them, they cook, clean and fetch water without any payment. Under what is known as the restavek system, the children are supposed to get food, shelter and a place at school in return. But for many, the reality is very different.

    “Sometimes they beat me with lengths of electrical cable and sometimes they punch me,” says 14-year-old restavek Jenette.

    “I was grinding a coconut and I wasn’t doing it very well so they took a knife and cut me with it,” she says.

    “My mother is dead and my father doesn’t care for me. I would like to run away but I have nowhere to go.”

    Unicef estimates that there could be as many as 300,000 restavek children in Haiti, thousands living with the constant threat of violence.

    “There is physical abuse, psychological abuse and there are cases of rape, and there are children who actually die from the abuses,” says Julie Bergeron, Unicef head of child protection in Haiti.

    She says that parents are often unaware of how their children are being treated.

    “Someone approaching the family will often say to parents that their child will have a better life,” she says. “And often the parents do not have any feedback, they don’t know what is happening.”

    Källa: Mike Thomson, BBC News

    Läs hela artikeln på BBC:s hemsida
     
     

Kommentera





  • Rebecca 22 JANUARI 2010 18:28

    Vad hemskt! Det är verkligen svårt att ens föreställa sig hur de barnen känner. Sorgligt nog så blir det säkerligen ännu värre nu efter jordbävningen.Anmäl

  • nettan 24 JANUARI 2010 10:26

    Det är så fruktansvärt och man får ont i hela kroppen när man läser artiklen.
    Och nu ännu värre efter jordbävningen.Anmäl

  • Christina 4 FEBRUARI 2010 13:07

    En tragedi utan like!
    Självklart vill man hjälpa!Anmäl