Children displaced by violence in Haiti dreaming of returning home and to school

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Maribelle Chérilus, a 14-year-old teenager, has been living with her big sister in a poorly maintained tent at the public High School site Lycée Marie Jeanne camp for people displaced by violence for the past nine months. They fled gang attacks in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of the Savane Pistache area in August 2023. Maribelle’s story is similar to thousands of other children in different encampments whose lives have been shattered, cut off from friends in school. Their biggest dream is to return home and live a normal childhood life.

“We’re struggling here because we’re far from home,” Maribelle told The Haitian Times with permission from camp officials. “At home, I felt safe and comfortable. Now, here if it rains, we wait for the rain to stop so we can sleep.”

 Maribelle Cherilus, a 14-year-old girl.

June 9 marked National Children’s Day in Haiti—a day celebrated since 1960—the reality for Maribelle starkly contrasts with the ideals set forth by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989. Instead of enjoying the rights to safety, education, and a nurturing environment, Maribelle’s daily life is a struggle for basic necessities and security.

“The situation for children at the site is dire,” Johnny Elysée, the camp coordinator, told The Haitian Times. “They are deprived of education, health, housing, and basic care, living in conditions that can only be described as ‘animal-like.’”

Maribelle and her older sister have not returned to their home in Savane Pistache. Like many other displaced families, they are attempting to rebuild their lives after armed gang attacks on peaceful residents, which surged in February, upended their existence, and chased them out of their homes. The ongoing violent attacks have dramatically increased the number of displaced children in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, leaving families like Maribelle’s in a state of constant uncertainty.

Maribelle’s current days are spent playing with other children in the cramped, unfinished spaces of Lycée Marie Jeanne. To pass the time, they engage in simple, non-violent games like hide and seek, hopscotch, and knucklebones, sharing laughter and everyday jokes amidst the chaos of their displaced lives.

The scene at Lycée Marie Jeanne mirrors that of other family-displaced sites. Some families find shelter under plastic sheets, while others sleep between makeshift walls of plywood—barely enough to block the sun, but failing to keep out the rain. The school, never intended to serve as a refugee camp, lacks even the most basic amenities for those displaced by the gang violence. “In the shelters, people don’t even have a place for their hygienic needs,” Elysée said. “It is only by God’s grace that the displaced people haven’t already succumbed to disease.”

National Children’s Day, the situation of children remains dire

Children remain the principal victims of crises and gang violence in Haiti. In response to the dire situation, Unicef ​​launched an appeal for $221.7 million in 2023 to support Haitian children. Their objectives for 2024 include providing 652,400 children and women with access to primary health care, educating 448,743 children, young people, parents, and community leaders about the dangers of gang recruitment, and ensuring 502,123 children have access to formal or non-formal education.

Despite these ambitious goals and the efforts of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Haitian government, the plight of children in Haiti remains dire. In the first five months of 2024 alone, more than 180,000 children have become internally displaced. UNICEF reports that the United Nations has verified over 400 severe violations against children during this period.

Recent estimates from UNICEF in May reveal that 90% of the Haitian population lives in poverty, with three million children in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Alarmingly, over half a million children reside in areas controlled by armed groups, making them highly vulnerable to violence and recruitment. UNICEF reports that children constitute 30 to 50% of armed group members, often coerced and exploited due to their socio-economic and political vulnerability.

This harsh reality has profoundly impacted Adée Lubeau, a 9-year-old girl who fled her home in Carrefour-Feuilles during the attack of the Grand Ravine gang. Now living with her family in the Marie Jeanne camp, Lubeau longs for her past life, where she enjoyed visiting her grandmother and playing with her cousins.

Lubeau, who was in her fourth year of elementary school, struggles now to continue her education. Her school relocated several times—from the Church St Gérard’s premises to another neighborhood, Rue Mulet, and finally near Place Jérémie—before persistent gang attacks made attending classes impossible. 

“When I was at Carrefour-Feuilles, I lived decently and went to school every day,” Lubeau told The Haitian Times. “Because of the attack, I stopped going to school and I don’t know where they moved the school now.”

Currently, a group of educators and university students is striving to prevent children from losing the 2023-2024 academic year. Through the “Livres en Main, Abrite-toi (Books in Hand, Take Shelter), around 2,000 children are receiving academic support to help them pass their end-of-year exams, according to project coordinator Hugues Fenel Petit-Homme.

 “We are starting the process to ensure that the children we assist can complete their exams and receive their report cards to advance to the next grade,”  says Petit-Homme.  “We don’t want to leave the children like this after they have come so far.”

Parents’ plight amid Haiti’s crisis and violence

The ongoing violence in Haiti continues to have a profound impact on parents, who fear for their children’s future as they face deprivation of essential needs and education. Jacqueline Sainsima, a 43-year-old single mother, is the perfect example of the many who live with anxiety as she raises three children alone in a displaced camp following the killing of the children’s father by armed gangs during the attack in Savane Pistache. She battles every day to provide for them.

Sainsima once lived a stable life as a trader, selling bread to support her family. “Everything was going well until our area was invaded by gangs who killed, raped, kidnapped, and forced residents to flee,” she recalls. Her life was upended, but not for the first time. 

Years earlier, during the rule of a gang leader known as Ti Je in the country’s neighborhood of Carrefour-Feuilles, Sainsima was shot in her right hip. The bullet remains in her body today because doctors warned that removing it could leave her disabled. Despite this, she perseveres in caring for her children amidst constant turmoil. Sainsima’s greatest wish is simple: to return home, rebuild her small business, and ensure her children can go back to school and lead fulfilling lives.

“For four years, my children have struggled to finish their school since the reign of Ti Je,” she told The Haitian Times. “My children are not living very well. They sometimes sleep and wake up without eating, and they have lost weight.” In her plea, she asks,

 “I ask the state of my country, if it has the will, to help me in this situation so that my children can live better. I am not used to experiencing this kind of situation.” Sainsima’s story serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring struggles faced by many Haitian parents and their hopes for a brighter future for their children.

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Children displaced by violence in Haiti dreaming of returning home and to school was first posted on June 12, 2024 at 8:00 am.