Long before the earthquake in Haiti on 12 January 2010, but particularly since, international media
and humanitarian groups have drawn attention to the ‘vulnerable child’ in Haiti, a child often
portrayed as needing ‘saving’. Focusing in particular on the restavèk (child domestic laborer), this
article first explores the ways in which such children are represented as vulnerable and victimized,
despite emerging ethnographic evidence on children’s lived experience that paints a rather
different picture.