At a glance: Haiti

Real lives

A story of hope for Haiti’s children

© UNICEF Haiti/2004/Delvigne-Jean

In a classroom in Ecole primaire speciale a young student says that her aunt’s house was completely destroyed by armed militias during the recent conflict in Haiti.

By Thierry Delvigne-Jean

Saint-Marc, Haiti, 16 March 2004 – The students at Ecole primaire spéciale in the city of Saint-Marc are visibly happy to be back in their classrooms. Their school was closed three months ago when civil unrest started to spread throughout the country.

The school is normally bustling with hundreds of students. Today, only 114 showed up for class. Many of the students have fled to the mountains with their families after the first outbreaks of the conflict, and most have not yet returned for fear of violence. The townspeople say that in the last days of February, a group of about 120 men, women and children were killed by armed militias in a nearby area called La Scierie. Many are reported to have burned to death when their houses were set on fire.

© UNICEF Haiti/2004/Delvigne-Jean

A burned out house in the town of Saint-Marc, in an area called La Scierie, where around 120 people are reported to have been killed by armed militias.

Schools are now slowly reopening in most parts of the country, offering children a safe haven away from the violence in the streets, a place where they can meet their friends and get support from their educators. Over the past weeks, UNICEF has distributed educational and recreational materials to schools in and around Port-au-Prince, but many schools in remote areas across the country are still in dire need of basic supplies. This is why UNICEF is currently planning a nationwide “Back-to-School” campaign to be launched in the next few months.

The memories of the recent tragic events are still fresh in the students’ minds. A group of schoolgirls at Ecole primaire spéciale can only speak of the violence they witnessed in unfinished sentences. “Many people were killed… A man was decapitated…Another was burned alive…” The words hardly describe the gruesome scenes to which they have been subjected. Guerna raises a timid hand from the back of the classroom to say that her aunt’s house was completely destroyed by armed militias.

© UNICEF Haiti/2004/Delvigne-Jean

UNICEF Representative Francoise Gruloos-Ackermans visits the primary school Nemours Colimon in Saint-Marc, about 90 km north of Port-au-Prince.

Saint Justin Elie, their teacher, stands by the blackboard. He is still shaken by the recent events, and is not yet ready to speak with his young students about what happened. “I’m waiting for things to cool down,” he says.

Jean-Michel Charles, an official of the Fondation Paul Gerin Lajoie, speaks with more confidence. “I’m not afraid,” he says. “I try to stay calm. It’s something I’ve learned to do. But it’s hard for the children. They saw a lot of violence, and we have to help them psychologically because they are very young.”

He is quick to add that the recent conflict is not the only challenge facing the children in this community. “The students can’t buy things, and the prices have gone up. They don’t have any materials. It’s an endemic problem here.”

Just a few blocks away, a small group of boys and girls are chatting in front of Ecole Nationale Nemours Colimon. The school normally receives 565 children. Today, only 209 showed up for class.

Serge Kenol, the principal, shakes his head. “Many children have nothing to eat and when they go back home there is nothing to eat there either.”

It is yet another version of the same story. A story that every child in Haiti knows too well.

Even before the recent crisis, Haiti’s children faced enormous challenges. Close to half of primary-school aged children were not attending schools. 80 per cent did not go to secondary school. The country had an illiteracy rate of over 55 per cent, the highest in the Americas. And the crisis has only exacerbated the situation.

But there is hope that this time, the story will have a happy ending.