Sorry, I haven't had much time to post in the last week or so. I know you've been looking for a new post.

The Haitians are pretty rough on their disabled children. Disabled children are know as cocobai's, which roughly translates to worthless, or disgrace. Disabilities are also seen as contagious, so the parent of a disabled child will try to hide him/her as much as possible. Sometimes the family will just simply abandon the child on a doorstep. Other times, the father of the child will go and find another wife to prove that it wasn't his fault that the child was born with a disability. As a result, many disabled children are raised by single mothers.

If you're happen to be interested in Haiti culture, this is a fabulous monogram about it. http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/culture/monographs/haiti.php

The Sad Truth

Truth to be told, slaves in Haiti were never really diminished. The Haitians have spent over two hundred years trying to rid themselves of the concept of a human owning another human, but more than 300,000 child slaves called restaveks still exist there.

Many parents of children in Haiti are in extreme poverty, therefore not enabling their children from having education and other opportunities. Because of this, many parents decide to sent their children to wealthier families in hope that they will be better cared for. They rarely are. Many times these children are kept in their owners backyard and are given only the worst scrapes, if there are any. Many owners abuse these children physically, emotionally, and sexually. These children don't even have a birth certificate. About two thirds of these children are female. After these children are with their owners, they lose all contact with their birth family. But the worst part is that many cases the owners also send their children to even a wealthier families to become restaveks. It doesn't even occur to many of the children that the way they are being treated is wrong.