Gigi Cohen: Josiméne’s Story:

When a House Is Not a Child Worker’s Home

Photo Gallery

all photos © Gigi Cohen

Figure 1.   Josiméne looks at a black and white Polaroid of herself. There are no

                 mirrors in the two-room house where she works as live-in maid, or

                 restavec, for a family of four. Josiméne's family lives in a remote part of

                 Haiti's interior, hours by car and foot from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's

                 capital.

 

Figure 2.   One of the two children Josiméne watches argues, and points at

                 Josiméne, while the girl's mother fixes her hair. Josiméne also bathes

                 the children, aged five and four; cleans the two-room house; washes

                 dishes; scrubs laundry by hand; runs errands; and sells small items

                 from the family's informal store.   "I would like to see my brothers and

                 sisters," she said. "I miss them and my parents. I would rather wash

                 the dishes and clean the house for my mother than for these people."

 

Figure 3.   Josiméne shows off her only dress, during a pause between chores. Her

                 possessions also include two pairs of shorts, one skirt, a couple of

                 shirts, a school uniform and flip flops.