STORY OF FORMER CHILD SLAVE

Former child slave shares story: wane.com

FORMER CHILD SLAVE SHARES STORY
(wane) -

Bill Nathan raises awareness about growing problem

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - When Bill Nathan’s mother suddenly died when he was 6, he had hopes of being adopted into a loving family. Instead the Haitian child was adopted into slavery.

“Slavery still exists and nowadays we have 27 million living in slavery throughout the world and most are children,” said Nathan.

Thursday, he was at The University of St. Francis sharing his story and his music.

He told the crowd he endured years of abuse and was forced to wait on his new family. He slept in an outbuilding with no bedding and ate scraps of food off the table. He said one of his worst memories is walking miles with 5 gallon buckets to get water.

“She (his adopted parent) would spit on the ground and she would say I expect you to come back before the spit dries. So I have to run and get the water and if not she would beat me up,” said Nathan.

But even through the abuse, he kept his love for music. “Every time I went to the water fountain and put it upside down I played on the bottom of the bucket,” he said.

At age 11, his mistreatment drew the attention of Sister Caroline in the city of Hinche, and he was sent to St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, where he was educated and became a leader. He now directs the home, and another home of 16 former street children.

Nathan is now a professional drummer who performs at churches and universities in the United States. He performed for Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in Toronto, and spent six weeks in Bahia, Brazil teaching dance and drumming at a school of the arts for Brazilian street children. The experience led to an opportunity to go to Africa to study drumming under the drum masters of The Gambia and Senegal. In 2008 he performed at Duke University as part of a fundraising carnival to benefit a Durham center for disadvantaged children. He has also served as a voice for the slave children of Haiti at the Telluride Film Festival.

Nathan will also be a featured musician for the fourth annual Formula for Life, a 5k walk-run and silent auction taking place at USF on Sunday, April 15. The event will be at 1 p.m. at Hutzell Athletic Center, and will raise funds to provide food for a Haitian orphanage for the next year.