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Lurid tales of sex-trafficking around the world, and… problematic conflation of any sort of adult sex work with trafficking notwithstanding, the situation of child trafficking in Haiti is well-documented and endemic.

A very quick bit of Googling will turn up the same stories over and over. Here’s a representative sample from a reliable source, the U.S. Department of Labor:

A 1997 UNICEF study estimated that there were some 250,000 to 300,000 child domestic workers in Haiti, 80 percent of whom were girls under the age of 14. In Haiti, child domestic workers are commonly referred to as restaveks , a Creole word meaning “to stay with.” They are among the most vulnerable and exploited of all children in Haiti. Isolated from family and peers, restavek children are largely unprotected from abuse.

According to UNICEF, most restaveks reach the age of 15 without ever having been to school. Most restaveks work 10 to 14 hours per day and do not receive any compensation for their work. They are often psychologically and physically punished by the master or mistress of the house and sometimes even by their children. Girl restaveks are sometimes sexually abused by the males in the employing families. If a girl becomes pregnant, she will generally be released into the streets. Many such girls become street children or prostitutes.

They said it here.

Also by tradition even in the best of times these children, who’s parents send them from their impoverished countryside to the only scarcely less impoverished city on the usually-empty promise that they will receive an education, are worked the hardest and fed last by their owners “employers.”

This is not the best of times.

If it’s left up to the (often lower-to-middle-class) Haitan families who use them these children will receive disaster-related food, water, shelter, and medical care last. With nowhere else to go (many are brought in too young even to remember where their real homes are) these children may have no where else to turn but the families that used them before.

If you’ve ever spent a minute of your time worrying in the abstract about trafficking it might be a good time, right now, to start thinking about the very concrete problem of what to do about up to a quarter million trafficked children who are now doubly screwed.

My partner and I have already donated to Doctors Without Borders because they’re good people and not just spending all their fundraising dollars on… more fundraising. Which is more than I can say about some of the more sanctimonious “anti-trafficking” organizations. So I’m on the lookout for reputable groups able to directly address the specific needs of displaced coerced children in Haiti. If I find one I’ll post about it here.

According to the charity rating service CharityNavigator the following groups are reputable and fit the approximate criteria. Again I’ll update if I find something more specific.

Save the Children

Note: I’m advocating for donations, not admonishing. Right now there are more than enough priorities in Haiti to go around, and as long as you’re giving through a reputable organization it’s needed and will make a difference.

See CharityNavigator’s list of established organizations on the ground in Haiti now.. Note: The same page has a good list recommendations for how to make sure any donations you go where you want them to go, and how to avoid being scammed instead.