This is our sweet “Jonas.” You may remember that he was a “restavek,” child that we found in the mountains during one of our Food Distributions. The word restavek, in Creole, means, “rest with or to stay with.” However, it is just a nice word for “slave.”

When a Haitian child’s parents die, they go to live with a relative. Normally, you would think, “Oh, he or she is lucky to have a relative take them in…” not so. The child becomes an indentured slave. They are made to do hard work. They will never eat as much as the other children… they will eat “whatever is left.” If the child is a boy, he will end up working in a field, in the heat of the day with the older men, with very little food to eat. The child will “never” get to go to school! This “restavek slave child,” will have lost his “childhood.”

This was Jonas’s life… until we got there. We noticed a very young boy working in the hot sun, along with the older men. He was afraid to talk to us and kept “looking around” the whole time! When we saw the lady who “owned him,” we told her we were taking him back to Love A Child. (Restavek is still against the law!) We took “little Jonas” with us and he was scared to death! He had never ridden in a car and never been that close to white people! He had a “check-up” at our clinic, and had never had a shot (that was rough!). He had never had a shower or slept in a bed. Jonas had never been to church or school! He had never had “three meals a day” because most of the time, he “never ate one meal a day!” He had never sung a Christian song!

Jonas never had a birthday and of course, never had a Christmas… or a Christmas tree! So, you can imagine what he thought about Santa Claus! The other kids told him this was just a “comic” guy,” so he jumped in with them! He is ten years old (well, that’s because we made a Birth Certificate for him). He is in first grade! Now, he loves everything and everybody!! Jonas is sweet, humble, and hardworking! He “loves” working right next to “Santa,” which was really Camy!! Looks like Jonas will end up being a mechanic! Thank you, partners, for making another great “impact,” on the life of one of our Haitian children!!!!

Sherry