The U.S. State Department released its 2010 Annual Report on Human Trafficking today.  Haiti remains a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking.  The most significant trafficking issue concerns restaveks – forced domestic servitude of young children given to (mostly) urban families by parents (mostly) from rural areas with larger families.  An estimated 225,000 children were enslaved as restaveks prior to the 2010 earthquake.  Even more children are vulnerable to exploitation in the earthquake’s aftermath.  Below is the Haiti section of the report, which includes recommendations for the Haitian government and the international community. Read more »

Peace Corps/Haiti was never a very large program.  However, Peace Corps Volunteers have long made a difference in Haiti both through the projects we participated in and the relationships we made.  Likewise, Haiti made a difference for us, most of all, in the way we view the world.  While Peace Corps is no longer active in Haiti, those who served there certainly are.  All have been affected by the earthquake and all are taking action in some way.  Below is a summary of what Haiti Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) are thinking, feeling, and doing in response.  In this way, we both bear witness and re-affirm our commitment to stay connected to Haiti.  Read more »