Reporters Karen Keller and Jennifer Weiss spent 12 days in Haiti, arriving the day after the presidential runoff election on March 20 to cover a child slavery (a.k.a. “restavek”) story. They spent five days documenting the life of Rose Manette and three other servant children in the JP/HRO camp operated by Sean Penn.
They decided on the issue after learning that underaged domestic servants worked in camps for people displaced by the earthquake. It seemed shocking to imagine that Haiti was a troubled enough place that even destitute families with almost nothing to give could take on servants. A local friend had told them that the ‘restavek’ represented the root of Haiti’s problems. That was enough to send them investigating.
All photos by Karen Keller