Orphans in Haiti: Finding Nurture for Orphaned Children - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Orphans in Haiti: Finding Nurture for Orphaned Children Orphans in Orphans in Haiti: Finding Nurture for Orphaned Children Date Orphans in Haiti: Finding Nurture for Orphaned Children Haitian children are at a higher than average risk of becoming orphaned because of their low life expectancy, which is due to a number of different factors such as health care and contaminated water. Child slavery is a tradition on the island and children who are slaves, called resteviks, have a low quality of life. Extended families often use orphaned family members as slaves rather than giving them a home. Low levels of healthcare contribute to the number of children who lose their parents as well as to the lowered health of children who are without resources and in slavery. When children become orphans they also become detached from their community leaving them with little support. In addition, education also becomes a less likely prospect. Currently care for orphan care is limited to agencies that most often put orphans with extended families who use those children as slaves. Therefore, from an anthropological perspective, orphan care in Haiti must focus on nurturing because complex cultural patterns continue to put children at risk through abandonment, desperation, and slavery. In order to approach the issue of sufficiently caring for orphans, we first need to ask why there are so many orphans in Haiti. This is not only because of the recent natural disasters, but because of the low level of health care and sanitary conditions available. While there has been a focus on the earthquake in 2010 as a cause of the rise in the number of orphans, we also need to be aware that there were already 380,000 orphans on the island prior to the disaster (Curnutte, 2011, p. 7). A lack of healthcare is one of the contributing issues to the large number of orphans in Haiti. This means the citizens’ general health is lower and that death rates are higher at younger ages. About one in five orphaned children die every year in the care of the Missionaries of Charity, an organization created by Mother Theresa in 1950 (Curnutte, 2011, p. 7). While organizations and outside agencies work towards the issue of orphans, they do not often understand the problems that are unique to Haiti. Coulter (2011) discusses that one of the problems is the power that UNICEF carries over the fate of the children because the organization will hand the children over to family members before allowing them to be adopted into international families because they believe that the children will be better off with their family. This does not take into account the traditions on the island that force many children into slavery. It is a tradition in Haiti that children who are taken in by extended family are enslaved by that extended family. A lack of clean water is also a big reason that the health care is so low. Most of the homes in Haiti do not have running water so water for washing and drinking comes from local water sources such as rivers and pools. Polluted rivers cause the presence of water-born parasites and germs in the bodies, which deteriorate the level of health of those using the water. Often people in Haiti put citrus juice in water under the false belief that doing so will purify it. The lack of clean water is contributory to the deaths in the nation, thus leading to children not only dying at an alarming rate, but becoming orphaned due to illnesses that are water born (Verner & Egset, 2007). Children die at a rate of 74 out of every 1000 before they reach their first birthday, with fifty more dying before they reach the age of five. The average life expectancy is only 52 years of age (NgCheong-Lum, 2006, p. 70). With the low life expectancy and the high number of orphaned children, serious consequences have evolved through cultural traditions that influence the future of these children. The cultural practice of the restevik is one of the worst problems within Haitian communities. A restevik is a child who is taken into a home and used as a slave, and this occurs often in extended families. Poor families have resteviks as well as families with more money. The life of a child who is taken as a restevik is difficult and filled with abuse. Although often they are taken with the promise of providing them with a home and education, it is more often that they have to endure a life of hard work and a low standard of living. Female children are most often taken as resteviks, their work life starting as early as age four. Most are not educated and are not paid or given any medical attention. Physical punishment that is often in tortuous forms is the result of unsatisfactory work. Female resteviks are also often expected to fulfill the sexual needs of the younger male members of the household (Rodriguez, 2007). Although slavery was abolished through a slave revolt in 1804, former slaves began to use children as slaves and the tradition has continued. In Haiti, one can see lines of children carrying buckets of water on their head from the local water resource (Miles & Charles, 2004). As many as 250,000 children are used as slaves in Haiti, which is possibly a low estimate as records are not properly established (Sage & Kasten, 2008). The social issue of slavery is also reflected in the practices concerning water, which leads to the healthcare problems in the nation. The meaning of children carrying buckets of water from contaminated sources can also be seen symbolically – that slavery contaminates the society. Social conditions in Haiti have created a high level of orphaned children who are at risk for being enslaved and living a life of pain and hard labor with no care. In looking at the reasons for there being such a high risk of children becoming orphaned, it is clear that the lack of uncontaminated water is a real problem. In addition, when children are orphaned, they are at risk of having family members enslave them rather than giving them nurturing homes. Contaminated water and healthcare issues are direct causes of the increased number of orphaned children. The lack of a social tradition of providing family for children who are orphaned decreases the likelihood of the orphaned children’s survival because they are abused and not given proper healthcare or an education. In order to find a way to give a better life to children who have lost their parents, new social traditions and a revolution in the sanitation in Haiti would work towards eliminating the poor standards of living that orphaned children experience. Then, what happens to children who lose only one parent? In Haiti, females are responsible for a majority of the domestic duties associated with rural financial activities. Although males will often do the initial work in the field, it is usually the role of women to nurture the plants, harvest what is produced, and take it to the market. The financial foundation of the family rests in the work that a woman will do to get the crops to market and to negotiate the return (NgCheong-Lum, 2006). When a woman dies, her female daughters will have to fulfill her role that has been left empty, which means they will not have opportunities to be educated. Children who are struggling to help support the family by taking over the roles of the missing parent or both parents find that their own futures have been compromised. Children who are orphaned by losing both parents often have their education interrupted because their needs are not of primary interest either to the society or to their extended family. Beard (2005) suggests that orphaned children are the most cared for when they are continued to be nurtured through their community, which includes placing them with extended family members when they lose their parents. However, in Haiti, social conventions often mean that orphaned children become slaves in the houses of their relatives, so this is not the best option in Haitian culture. As well, Case, Paxton, and Ableidinger (2004) state that “Orphans may be more likely than non-orphans to live in poor households and, in the presence of credit constraints; lower household wealth may reduce investment in schooling” (Case, Paxton, and Ableidinger, 2004, p. 484). In other words, children who are brought into an extended family after the death of their parents will have be placed in a lowered priority as money will be spent for educating the family’s direct descendants rather than a cousin’s. The question of slavery leads to the question: what happens to children who endure the full consequences of being orphans? Without parents, children are left to those who are not necessarily interested in their welfare. In addition, they have to deal with their own emotions of grief and separation from the family. The lives of children in this situation become desperate and lost as they find themselves in slavery. Their physical and emotional well-being is lost because of the social conditions they must endure. Then, what are the emotional consequences of losing parents? The loss of a parent for a child is different than it is for an adult. Adults will process the loss through gradually letting go of the inner representation of the parent. Children, on the other hand, often will not let go of the parent and will keep an emotional investment in the parent. The continuing need that exists for the parental role to be filled with the low standards of living often leaves the orphans isolated from the community. Blustein, Levine, and Dubler (1999) write that “Children can simultaneously acknowledge the fact of a parent’s death, yet emotionally remain connected to the fantasy of the parent’s return or to reunion with the parent in death” (p. 114). Understanding the impact and needs of children who have lost their parents is essential in creating effective solutions for addressing the needs of orphaned children. A child who is suffering from grief and one who is lost without the support of their parents needs nurturing to help them reconnect with the world. Although the ability to make competent decisions may be increased, the underlying issues that orphaned children experience involve a distrust of adults, depression, an inability to connect intimately with peers, and a loss of a sense of structure to life (Blustein, Levine, & Dubler, 1999). The question that must be answered is what kind of changes are required to end slavery and improve both the conditions that create a high number of orphans and the conditions that most orphans find themselves in after losing their parents? There are about six laws on the Haitian books that support the end of slavery traditions in the nation, but they are not enforced (Skinner, 2009). It is well known that those children who are daily carrying buckets on their head are likely orphans who have been pressed into slavery in impoverished homes. Agencies would not have a difficult time identifying children at risk with this cultural observational potential so clearly available. In addition, setting up agencies to enforce the laws about holding child slaves would act as a deterrent if those participating in this illegal act were prosecuted. If the costs to having a slave outweighed the benefit, slavery would end (Coulter, 2011). If the policies of Haiti backed the laws, the traditions would change. Through effective law enforcement, cultural traditions can come to an end. Children who are orphaned need nurturing and support from their community so that they can overcome their grief and lead good lives. Through government intervention in the traditions of slavery and in building new community support for orphans, they may have a chance to be educated and to overcome their losses. In a nation like Haiti, the frequency of orphaned children is accompanied with social traditions that allow them to be abused through slavery. In conclusion, through new policies and social change, the problems of resteviks must be addressed and ended. Providing a community for a child who is orphaned is the only way they can find a place in the world again. This will give them hope for a future in which they are loved and have their basic needs addressed. Orphaned children in Haiti are in need of solutions that protect their future and give them nurture through the support of the community, rather than abuse in the form of slavery and its consequences. Resources Beard, B. (2005). Orphan Care in Malawi: Current Practices. Journal of Community Health Nursing. 22: 105-115. Blustein, J., Levine, C., & Dubler, N. N. (1999). The adolescent alone: Decision making in health care in the United States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Case, A., Paxton, C. & Ableidinger, J. (2004). Orphans in Africa: Parental death, poverty, and school enrollment. Demography. 41: 483-508. Coulter, M. A. (2011). Aftershock : A Journey of Faith to Haiti. Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press. Curnutte, M. (2011). A promise in Haiti: A reporter's notes on families and daily lives. Nashville, Tenn: Vanderbilt University Press. Miles, M., & Charles, M. E. (2004). Let Haiti live: Unjust U.S. policies towards its oldest neighbor. Coconut Creek, FL: Educa Vision. NgCheong-Lum, R., & Jermyn, L. (2006). Haiti. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark. Richter, L. M., Manegold, J., Pather, R., & Human Sciences Research Council. (2004). Family and community interventions for children affected by AIDS. Cape Town: HSRC Publishers. Rodriguez, J. P. (2007). Slavery in the United States: A social, political, and historical encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. Sage, J., & Kasten, L. (2008). Enslaved: True stories of modern day slavery. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Skinner, E. B. (2008). A Crime So Monstrous: Face-To-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. New York: Simon & Schuster. Verner, D., & Egset, W. (2007). Social Resilience and State Fragility in Haiti. Washington, D.C: World Bank. Read More