‘Haiti is one of the worst places on the planet to be a child.’ UN groups sound alarm

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haiti’s children are hungry, many of them malnourished and on the verge of starving. Fleeing burnt out homes, they account for 365,000 of the more than 700,000 Haitians who are now internally displaced, forced into overcrowded makeshift camps with no access to drinking water or latrines.

And that’s not the worst of the suffering for Haiti’s children, 1.5 million of whom have lost their access to education because of rampant poverty and gang violence. In response, many are joining the gangs spreading violence and famine, their recruitment has jumped 70% over the past year while they now make up for 30 to 54% of gang membership, the U.N.’s leading child welfare agency, UNICEF, has reported. Meanwhile, their cases of reported incidents of sexual violence has seen a staggering 1,000% increase — just this year.

“Haiti is one of the worst places on the planet to be a child,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. “Children and families continue to experience unprecedented levels of lawlessness and brutality at the hands of the armed groups.” The precarious situation of children in Haiti, where political stability, gang violence, recurrent natural disasters, poverty and mass emigration are undermining development, was the focal point of a special meeting Monday by the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC. The meeting was convened by Robert Rae, the council’s president and Canada’s special representative to the U.N., who wants to ring the alarm on plight of Haiti’s most vulnerable citizens.