Children of Haiti struggle to cope
Try to overcome trauma, stigma
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Students often throw up or wet themselves when gunfire erupts outside their school in northern port-au-prince.
when they do, school director Roseline Ceragui louis finds there’s only one way to try to calm the children and keep them safe: getting them to lie on the classroom floor while she sings softly.
“You can’t work in that environment,” she said. “It’s catastrophic. they’re traumatized.”
Haiti’s capital is under the onslaught of powerful gangs that control 80 percent of the city.
On feb. 29, gangs launched coordinated attacks targeting key infrastructure. the attacks have left more than 2,500 people dead or wounded in the first three months of the year. now, in a bid to help save Haiti’s youngest generation, the country is undergoing a wider push to dispel a long-standing taboo on seeking therapy and talking about mental health.
at a recent training session in a relatively safe section of portau-prince, parents learned games to put a smile on their children’s faces. the parents are often so distraught and discouraged they don’t have energy to care for the kids, said Yasmine Déroche, who trains adults to help children overcome trauma inflicted by persistent gang violence.
Gunmen have burned police stations, stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons to release more than 4,000 inmates and fired on the country’s main international airport, which closed march 4 and hasn’t reopened. the violence has also paralyzed Haiti’s largest seaport.
meanwhile, some 900 schools have closed, affecting some 200,000 children.
“we must fight against this social inequality so that all children, all young people, can have the same opportunities to go to school, to work, to earn a living,” said Chrislie luca, president of the nonprofit Hearts for Change Organization for Deprived Children of Haiti. “all of these are problems that have led us where we are today, with the country on the edge of the abyss.”
UNICEF’s Haiti representative said the violence has displaced more than 360,000 people, the majority women and children. In addition, at least one-third of the 10,000 victims of sexual violence last year were children, themselves, “Children Bruno without are maes left assistance, to said. fend for without enough protection,” he said.
more than 80 children were killed or wounded from January to march, a 55 percent increase over the last quarter of 2023 and “the most violent period for children in the country on record,” said Save the Children, a US nonprofit.
luca said among those hurt were two boys struck in the head while walking to school and an 8-year-old girl playing inside her home when she was hit by a bullet that tore through her intestines, requiring emergency surgery.
“we are witnessing a lot of mental health issues,” maes said. “this violence is traumatizing."
“It’s hard to focus at school or focus on playing a game when the rest of your body is worried about whether your mom and dad are going to be alive when you get home from school,” said Steve Gross, founder of the US nonprofit life Is Good playmaker project. Some students are increasingly drawn into gangs, toting heavy weapons as they charge drivers for safe passage through gang territory. “the young children are traumatized and agitated,” said nixon Elmeus, a teacher whose school closed in January. He recalled how his best student stopped talking after an encounter with gangs. Other students become violent: ”Ever since the war started, the children themselves part Gèrye of a have gang.” Jwa acted playmakers, like they’re a Haitian partner nonprofit aimed at helping children, held a training session for teachers that louis attended after gang violence forced her school to close in march. She learned which games were best to distract students from the violence outside school gates.
“How can I recapture these children?” she asked.
with no school, high poverty, and trauma such as having to sidestep mangled bodies on streets, kids have become easy prey. Between 30 percent to 50 percent of members of armed groups are now children, maes noted.
Jean Guerson Sanon, cofounder and executive director of Gèrye Jwa playmakers, stressed the importance of parents interacting daily with children to boost their mental health.
“Sometimes, that’s all we have,” he said, noting that conversations about mental health remain largely taboo.
“If you go see a psychologist, it’s because you’re ‘crazy,’ and ‘crazy’ people are really discriminated against in Haiti,” he said.