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| Trudell Thomas |
Dresses for Haiti by Trudelle Thomas
Dieula
gazes from across the room. With her
bright eyes and shy smile, she looks like a typical eight-year-old. In truth, she is a house servant who spends
her days doing laundry, dishes, and chores.
She is a “restavec”—a Creole term meaning “stay with” that refers to a
child owned by a more well-to-do family.
I sponsor Diuela through a group working to end child slavery in Haiti,
and know her only from the photo I keep on my sewing table. Her sweet smile has inspired my neighbor Pam
and me to spend many happy hours sewing clothing for girls like Dieula.
From
a news article, Pam and I learned about the struggles faced by children in
Haiti.
Many children are unable to attend school because they own no clothing but a cast-off T-shirt. Many lost their parents in the 2010 earthquake. One in 15 works as a restavec.
Many children are unable to attend school because they own no clothing but a cast-off T-shirt. Many lost their parents in the 2010 earthquake. One in 15 works as a restavec.
Pam
and I quickly recognized a way to put our creativity and sewing skills to good
use. We began to make simple sundresses
using pillowcases. Soon we improved the basic pattern and buying fabric:
yellow gingham, pink florals, blue batik, and more. We haunted fabric stores for good deals and
loved the challenge of making a dress pretty and also sturdy enough to hold up
to being washed in a rocky creek. Since
many girls own only one dress, we figured our how to make some reversible. We added ruffles and pockets. Over the past year we’ve sewn eighty-plus
dresses, each one unique.
Making
things with our hands is a soulful endeavor that has given us a sense of
solidarity with the Haitian people. We
both recall clearly how having a pretty dress in childhood could lighten our hearts. By reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, which tells of Paul Farmer’s inspiring
medical work, we’ve gained a sense of the beauty and resilience of the Haiti
people through.
To
stay motivated for the long term, we needed some assurance that the clothing
was actually reaching people in need, so we linked up with the Restavek Freedom
Foundation, based in Cincinnati, where we live.
We were able to visit their headquarters, meet people who work there,
and talk about ways to collaborate.
Lauren, our contact person, agreed to keep us updated. She suggested our dresses needed sturdier shoulder
ties, and also gave us the idea of buying panties, hair-ribbons, and lacey
socks to accompany the dresses. (We buy
bobby socks and add lace trim.)
Our
talk with Lauren also led to the idea of making baby slings for mothers. In a country with few sidewalks or strollers,
slings allow a mother to carry her baby and still have her hands free for
shopping and household tasks. Remembering
how much we loved carrying in our own babies in slings, we’ve made 55 baby
slings so far.
Sometimes,
sitting at my sewing machine, I imagine walking down a road in Haiti. It smells of sewage and is lined with drab
shacks. Then I turn a corner and up
ahead is a group of girls jumping rope.
In their brightly colored dresses they are as pretty as a field of
wildflowers.
To
learn more, see the Web site for the Restavek Freedom Foundation www.restavekfreedom.org and read the book Restavec:
From Haitian Slave to Middle Class American by Jean Robert Cadet. This is the book that first brought the problem of child-slavery to world attention.
We also recommend the wonderful novels by the
Haitian writer, Edwidge Danticat, such as Breath,
Eyes, Memory and Krik Krak.
Rosemary Williams launched Currency of the Heart to inspire readers to “pay it forward” from the heart’s most precious currency. We’d love to hear from you! To share your story or to request permission to republish this blog post, please email rosemarycwilliams@gmail.com.
© 2013 Rosemary Williams
