05 Dec , 2007
South County Times: Benefit Concert At Lindbergh High To Help End Child Slavery In Haiti
Posted by: jfitzsimmons In: Press
For the past month, students in the Lindbergh School District have been giving back to their community through the program, “A Heart to Serve, Hands to Help.”
Now, they’re turning their attention outward. Not out of the community, but out of the country.
Lindbergh High School will be holding a charity concert on Saturday, Oct. 20, to raise funds to help end Restavec, an institutionalized system of child slavery in Haiti.
The concert will take place outside the Lindbergh High School commons at 4900 S. Lindbergh Blvd., from 1-4 p.m. In case of storms, the concert will be moved inside the commons.
English professor Daniel Murphy said he first heard of the Restavec system after reading the 1998 autobiography of Jean-Robert Cadet.
“Reading about what this man endured as a child really inspired my students to want to lend a hand to help young people who are trapped in child slavery just two hours south of Miami,” Murphy said.
After seeing Cadet on “Oprah” in June 2007, Murphy got the author’s permission to begin teaching excerpts of the book to his Modern World Literature class.
Cadet’s book, titled “Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American,” describes a system in which poor rural Haitian children are sent to middle class households, ostensibly to get an education in exchange for performing domestic chores.
“Sometimes it’ll happen and many times it won’t,” Murphy said.
What happens most commonly according to one of Murphy’s students, Junior Brandon Metcalf, is that the children are verbally, physically and often sexually abused.
“Child domestic laborers…are estimated to number 300,000 within Haiti today,” Metcalf said in an e-mail. “These children act as live-in domestic servants and are rarely sent to school, receive new clothing, or are allowed to play or visit their families.”
Murphy said the fact this is still happening in 2007 motivated four of his students to organize Restavec Rescue, a group dedicated to raising awareness – and donations – to help end the Haitians’ plight. The rescue group organized Saturday’s Oct. 20 concert working in tandem with the Mothers Club, the National Honor Society and several other school organizations.
“One of the neat things about this is we’re reaching out to other clubs to get help,” Murphy said.
The concert will feature three local bands: “In Love And War,” a pop-punk/alternative band composed of current Lindbergh High students; “Last Night’s Vice,” a punk rock band made up of alumni; and “Reggae Redemption,” headed by faculty member Andrew Gray.
Admission is free, but donations are strongly encouraged. All donations will go to the Restavec Freedom Foundation or a similar U.S.-based charity.
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