sophie

Sophie is a 5-year-old girl who goes to preschool at the house during the year and also comes to camp during the summer. She's absolutely adorable, and always comes running up to me whenever she sees me throughout the day. She's very playful, and her laugh is one of the sweetest sounds I've ever heard. Sophie is also a restavec, or a child slave. She often misses several days in a row of preschool or camp so that she can work and earn money for her family. She's also abused by her family. Haitian culture in general places a much higher value on their sons than their daughters. Male children will receive the best education and the majority of a family's care and financial support.

When Sophie comes to camp, she just likes to be cuddled and held, because she doesn't receive any type of love from the family she works for. She also frequently falls asleep, and we let her sleep whenever she does because restavecs are overworked, especially children. Every day when Sophie is picked up from camp, she cries and cries. She refuses to let go of me and has to literally be pried away. It breaks my heart to send such a perfect, innocent little girl away to such a horrible home life. However, there's also nothing that we can do about it.

Sophie is just one of around 300,000 restavecs in Haiti. However, the sad part of Sophie's story is that she's probably treated better than most of them. The family she works for still pays for her to come to preschool and for her to come to camp. She is getting educated and she also has the opportunity to hear about Jesus and how much He loves her, as well as how much we all love her. One of my favorite things to do is just hug Sophie and carry her around with me in the mornings when she first gets here. She is so quiet, and then once she realizes she's in a safe place, she becomes bubbly and happy again. Sophie admittedly gets spoiled by not only me, but all the other workers at camp, but I'm glad that she has someone in her life who will spoil her.

While Sophie's situation breaks my heart, it also encourages me. Even though sending Sophie home at the end of the day is one of the hardest things for me to do, it also gives me great hope and inspiration to see that even though she leads one of the hardest lives I can imagine, she still carries herself with grace and happiness. Sophie loves everyone around her and isn't bitter, only a little sad sometimes. Whenever I get upset at some child at camp or just frustrated with another volunteer, it's easy to react in anger, but what I should be doing is following Sophie's example. She knows that Jesus is the ultimate example, and that above all else, He loved everyone, even when other people made it hard for him. Sometimes the circumstances and people in Haiti make it hard for me to see how I could love them, but Sophie proves to me every day that it's possible.