The latest violence in Haiti has highlighted the power of gangs, which often take advantage of institutional negligence to extend their power. This is a well-known phenomenon in America’s poorest country, where gangs thrive on a backdrop of racketeering, trafficking, kidnapping and looting. Armed to the teeth, they create terror, particularly in the capital Port-au-Prince.
The situation in the country is complex, judging in particular by the difficulties in deploying an international mission to help the nation. Today, whole lives are being destroyed, with children at the forefront of this horror.
Guerty Aimé, national coordinator for Terre des Hommes Suisse in Haiti, gives her own account of the current situation. Report.
Mario stands perplexed in front of the school gate. He waddles, hesitates and glances round in search of an answer to his silent question. What’s going on this morning at Argentine Bellegarde?
A group of hurried women jostle him as they pass. They each carry a bundle from which a saucepan, the heel of a shoe and even a piece of bread can be seen here and there. Mario looks at the gaping gate and beyond it at all the people in the courtyard who are busy, walking around or sitting on the ground, surrounded by all sorts of objects, their faces closed.
Mario was there at 1pm, running after his friend Jefferson to catch the football. Where were all the children, the teacher and even the Headmistress, Mrs Hollant, still standing by the staircase, keenly observing how each child presented himself and whether the uniform shirts had been properly fitted inside the trousers?
Mario rubs his forehead and wonders if he’s the victim of a bad dream, like the one in the fairy tale where Adelina is transported in her sleep to the land of a thousand eyes. But no… he’s not dreaming. His school is no longer a school…
It's Friday 1 March 2024. Everything is real.
The day before, at around 16:30, more than 800 people invaded the premises of the Argentine Bellegarde school. Internally displaced persons. 827 people to be exact, including 23 boys and 41 girls aged between 0 and 12, among the 15,000 registered in this never-ending race that has been taking place in Port-au-Prince since 29 February 2024.
The armed gangs, re-federated for the occasion, have decided to launch a final offensive in the capital. Their stated aim: to put an end to the government of Dr Ariel Henry. Since then, morning, noon, evening and even night, the clatter of machine-gun fire has marked the movements of two million people trapped in the hell of Port-au-Prince. These armed attacks have caused massive population displacement in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. 3,204 households, or 14,740 people including more than 5,000 children, have been forced to move. Carrefour feuilles, Ruelle Alerte, Poste Marchand, Rue des Miracles: one by one, the neighbourhoods in the lower part of the city have emptied, leaving a few dogs to roam the rubbish heaps.
Only 17% of displaced persons have been able to find shelter with a relative, friend or Samaritan. For the rest, 83%, it was a matter of finding a wall to take shelter in, any wall and as quickly as possible. And so, in this race to the bottom, we see the emergence of “spontaneous sites for internally displaced persons”, as they are modestly called, where the remnants of families dislocated by wandering try to imprison time. Hold on, survive… at all costs.
Schools become refuges... where to go to school?
After the buildings cracked during the 2010 earthquake, schools have become the new focal point and last resort for the population in distress. Two weeks earlier, it was the lycées: Lycée Antenor Firmin, Lycée Jean Jacques, Lycée des Jeune filles, Lycée Marie Jeanne… But in this new wave, it’s basic and primary schools:
- Ecole Colbert Lochard
- Virginie Sampeur National School
- Caroline Cheveau National School
- Argentine Bellegarde National School
- Darius Denis National School
- Charles Dubé National School
- Colombia National School
The latter four are partner schools of Terre des Hommes Suisse through its education programme on rights, sustainable development and solidarity. More than 1,800 children attend these 4 schools in Port-au-Prince, and like Mario this Friday morning, their world is coming to an end because the schools are closed.
Gone are the laughter, the games, the food, the pictures in books. All the things that make children’s daily lives normal in the midst of chaos: no more.
A thousand images run through Mario’s mind. The GRD club, which last month organised evacuation drills where we learn what to do if the earth ever shakes. The never-ending taps in the courtyard where you can drink germ-free water. The football pitch. The teacher, always cheerful and ready to answer questions. François, who is in charge of the class committee and pouts when he collects the homework books. And Chantale, who makes all sorts of faces to get the class laughing while reciting. And then there’s Robert, the caretaker, who’s always there, sitting by the fence on an old stool. And all the games and songs we play in class in the Wednesday workshop.
Mario took one last look at the fence and slowly, very slowly, made a U-turn. There’s no need to say it, write it or explain it: the school, his school, is closed.
Gone are the football games, the guaranteed meals, the rules and instructions, the jokes and quibbles, the timetables and, above all, the people to talk to. His school, the one quiet, safe place where he could feel secure, play and even cry, his school is closed.
Places where you have the right to be a child
Mario strides away. He will have to pass in front of the base again to take the corridor to his “home” in the shanty town next door. He will have to summon up what dignity he has left to move forward without looking at the men posted outside the base, with their rifles and balaclavas.
Terre des Hommes Suisse in Haiti is working to ensure that Mario, Chantale, François, Jefferson and all the others each have access to a place where they have the right to be children.
The Argentine National School, located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, more specifically in the ruelle Vaillant in Lalue, is one of the places to which we are providing support through facilitation measures for children in highly vulnerable situations. This double-shift school caters for children from the first year of pre-school through to the sixth year of primary school.
Since 29 February, when the site was occupied by IDPs, 437 children, including 241 girls, aged between 5 and 16 have not attended school, as the school is currently not functioning. The management has taken steps to secure the children’s identity papers and school equipment. Educators continue to visit the site every day to ensure that it will not be vandalised and to receive parents who come every day to check on the situation.
Over and above the emergency aid provided to the displaced, Terre des Hommes Suisse joins its voice to that of all the parents of the pupils and to that of ONAPE and MENFP in calling for a rapid solution to be found, enabling pupils like Mario to return to a safe and protective environment.
Guerty Aimé
13/03/2024
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