Six-year-old Jean Edwouard just finished making a trip to the nearest water hole. On his head, he was balancing a 5-gallon bucket of water, sinking deep in the sand with every step. When he reached the hut of his aunt and family members, they told him to “gather sticks and make a fire.”

You may not be able to imagine a six-year-old doing this, but it is common in many poor countries like Haiti. You see, Jean Edwouard is, or rather was, a restavek. The word restavek in Creole means, “to stay with.” It used to be that when parents died, their child went to live with a loving family member. But, over the years, in these poor countries, especially Haiti, the word restavek means “slave child.”

That child has to earn the right to eat and to sleep in the hut if he is lucky. It is so common that no one hardly ever reports this to the authorities, and if they do, it means nothing. That child will never have a full meal, or nice clothes, or attend school. Often, these children are beaten and abused.

That day when the Feed My Starving Children team came into Haiti, it was the “day of deliverance” for little Jean Edwouard. I saw him making the fire and talked to him in Creole. He told me what kind of work he had to do and immediately, I told his aunt, “he needs to come home with me.” Since we were giving the village the FMSC food, no one tried to stop me. We put Jean Edwouard in our truck with the FMSC team and headed to the “big house,” (our orphanage), where there were lots of food cooking on the stove.

Jean Edwouard is now finishing high school. He has the talent and wants to be a clothes designer. There are many “tailors,” in Haiti and he wants to design and make clothes, for men and women. He is a very handsome young man, sweet and humble, hard-working. In his spare time, he is one of our “painters,” that keeps all our buildings looking “new.” I asked Jean Edwouard the other day, “How did you feel when you got on the truck with all the white people? Were you scared?” He said, “no,” and then he added, “I knew I would never be hungry again.” John is waiting for the special “Tailor Class” to open in the town of Croix des Bouquet so that he learns “tailoring” in Haiti… However, gang violence has been so bad, that the school closed down. We pray that God will open another door for him. We are thankful to Feed My Starving Children for their wonderful food. Perhaps if we had not been giving “food” to that village, his aunt might not have let go, Sherry