Haiti (MNN) ― Unprecedented levels of poverty have driven almost 225,000 Haitian children into slavery. According to Eva DeHart of For Haiti With Love, parents desperate to feed and clothe their starving children are easy victims for child predators.
"Most of those parents are not deliberately selling those children into slavery," she explained. "They're selling them to people who promise that those children will eat regularly and have a better life."
The enslaved children, known as "restaveks," are taken from poor homes to the homes of families that are less poor. The family takes responsibility for raising the child in exchange for unpaid domestic service. Most of the restaveks are girls, and many of them suffer physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their owners.
"When you're watching your child starve, and you're wanting to feed the rest of them that are there, this looks like a good deal," DeHart said. "And so they take it, not realizing that their child is literally going to be worked to death."
Two people from For Haiti recently went out into the countryside to see what was really going in the lives of the people coming to them for help. What they found was the worst poverty they'd ever seen in Haiti.
"They were just really in shock at the increased number of naked, starving children," DeHart said.
The severe poverty is the result of being battered by a series of hurricanes and a cycle of flooding and droughts. As a result, crop production is limited to some rice growing in isolated parts of the country.
In the midst of all the suffering, For Haiti's year-round ministry and annual Christmas celebration provide hope for a better life. This year's party fed fresh beef, rice, beans, American cookies, and nutritional drinks to over a thousand people in three sittings. Children from two orphanages also joined in the feast.
"They had a lot of fun with it," DeHart said. "We have songbooks in Creole that also have the Christmas story. And they did a little Bible quiz with the kids that were there...the kids got a special toy if they answered the questions right. And then they sang a lot of the Christmas hymns, so it was very, very definitely a positive birthday celebration."
DeHart explained that the celebration of Jesus' birth also celebrates His love shown through For Haiti's work year-round.
"They do associate it with the love of Christ and His reaching out," she said. "It's just the culmination of what we do all year long, because our emergency clinic, the homes that we build--they're all representative of how God loves them and can help them even in the midst of a very, very dreary situation."
For Haiti teaches the people about the Gospel even as it provides for their physical needs.
"They really need to not turn to voodoo, which tends to be their nature when they're in trouble," DeHart said. "It is so entrenched in their background that when things get desperate, they'll float the other way on you. And so it's kind of a constant reminder that God really is more powerful than the spirit world, and we really do need to talk to Him and depend on Him."
The economic instability in the United States is making it more difficult for For Haiti to minister to the desperately poor. It faces challenges in 2010 to continue its work without the support of two major donors.
"We need some donors to fill in these gaps. And it doesn't take major donors," DeHart said. "It takes $5, $10, $20 -- every single one of those helps fill a gap that has been left by the losses. So people don't need to think that they need to be able to write a hundred thousand dollar check. Any check helps."
In spite of all the challenges, DeHart is optimistic about the possibilities for God's work in Haiti over the next year.
"We'll have to make some adjustments because of the people that we have lost, but through prayer and faith, I see things looking up," DeHart said. "I have a very positive attitude about the impact that we'll be able to make with whatever we receive."
