A normal day in Port au Prince, Haiti. When Alexandra wakes up, it's almost 4 am. She goes through her early morning routine - cleanses herself, gets dressed and begins her work: pealing peanuts that her "host mother" will sell later during the day, to secure her minimal daily income. The host mother however, is still sleeping, along with the rest of the family. Only Alexandra is, just like every day, awake and up on her feet. Her duties do not allow her to sleep in. She is a Restavek - a slave girl.

Alexandra is 14 years old. For the past seven years she has been living with her host family. She lives in a room she shares with her other five host sisters and the host mother. It's approximately 10 square meters and has not more than two beds, only one of which has a mattress. Alexandra sleeps under one of the beds on a cardboard. Every once in a while, when one of her host siblings needs to relieve herself during the night and it happens that Alexandra misses the command to bring them the night bowl, she'll feel the warm spray dripping down on her.

Alexandra hardly ever smiles. More often than not she wipes the sweat off her forehead because of her demanding work. She fetches seven buckets of water on a daily basis, carrying them on her head, never complaining, never stopping for a short break. Her hosting-mother beats her on a regular basis and defends herself saying it the lashes are for educational purposes.

Despite all, she is allowed to attend school, after finishing all her duties. However 'this is mostly not the case', says her teacher, full of worry. 'She misses school too often' I am told. As a result, Alexandra is not able to comply with her learning pensum, resulting in the 14 year old still being in third grade.