Hello and welcome!
Published: Monday, 20 May 2013After a longer, unintended pause, it’s high time to offer you some news from the "social network south tyrol" association.
Since the earthquake in Haiti on 12th January 2010, much has been done to help the people there, the children in particular. The renovation of the school in “Thorland,” Haiti, has been completed to the full satisfaction of everyone involved. Now some 800 pupils have an earthquake-resistant, hurricane-proof school.
A good job, as far as local conditions permit, has also been done on the restoration and extension of the dining hall where all the school children from the town’s Carrefour area (5,000) can enjoy a warm meal once a day. But that is not all: Thanks to your donations we’ve already been able to have 254 school desks made in Haiti. A further 200 desks and 400 chairs have been donated by the “Amt für Schulfinanzierung” (schools funding office) of the autonomous province of Bozen. These were transported to Port au Prince by container and ship.
Child slavery in Haiti
In Haiti there sadly exists a distressing custom, a tradition which caused horror even before the earthquake. The earthquake, however, made the situation even worse, namely the situation of child slavery.
Among the slaves are children (as young as 8) who have no-one to take care of them, who are left to themselves until they end up in the hands of unscrupulous exploiters, as well as children whose families do not have the means to feed them. They are sold to other families. In the new families, the children have to work up to 12 hours a day: the girls have to take care of housework, while the boys carry out exhausting physical tasks such as carrying water over long distances, lugging building material etc. They do not receive any wages. They simply work to survive. Abuse and rape are not uncommon.
If a girl becomes pregnant, she is thrown out onto the street. Some families are more lenient and let the child go to school for 2 hours in the afternoon – a futile undertaking since the child slaves are so tired that they fall asleep during lessons. Child slaves can neither laugh nor cry. Their apathetic facial expressions reveal the trauma in which they are forced to live.
A village for children
One year after the earthquake, the sisters began a colossal project aimed at counteracting this tragic reality. In Croix des Bouquets, a part of the city of Port au Prince, they began to build a village for just such children who are totally at the mercy of this fraudulent custom: orphans and children who have been abandoned by their own parents. The village was officially inaugurated in March 2013.
Since its opening in January 2013, 138 children aged between 4 and 9 have found a new home there, a place where they not only live, but also go to school and receive psychological support in order to recover from their trauma.
Help is necessary
In the care of our project partners the Salesian Sisters, the children experience warmth, security and love. The association “social network South Tyrol” supports them with your donations.