‘Restavec’: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore Launch Campaign to Stop Child Slavery in Haiti

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have just launched a social and global campaign to raise awareness about child slavery in Haiti with the goal to completely ban the “restavec” system that is promoting it, reports Mashable.com.

In the system known as restavec, French for “one who stays with,” a child is sent by his or her parents to work as a domestic servant with a host family, usually because the parents believe that their child will have a better quality of life if they give him or her up.

Both Ashton and Demi strongly believe that the system is simply slavery given a different name. They are forced to help out a host family, clean after them, and essentially work as slaves. Ashton said that most of these children, who can be anywhere from five to fifteen, do not go to school and are not provided the opportunities they deserve.

The DNA Foundation, a not-for-profit organization initiated in January by the Hollywood duo, has announced plans to end child slavery not only in Haiti, but also around the world.

There are approximately 300,000 "restavec" children in Haiti, reports The Huffington Post.

Ashton Kutcher asserted that making this issue known during the reconstruction process is imperative to assuring that these children are released from slavery.

"We call on donor governments, foundations and non-governmental organizations to demand that child slavery be banned as they fund the $11.5 billion that the Haitian government has requested," he said.