HAITI-UNICEF says youth in Haiti remain optimistic amid worsening instability.

UNITED NATIONS, CMC – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says the youth in Haiti remain optimistic amid worsening instability and that the crisis in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country has left children among the most vulnerable to extreme violence, malnutrition, poverty, and collapsing social systems.

The UN agency surveyed over 3,500 young people in early June, most of whom believe their rights are rarely or never respected.

“When I ask children if their rights in Haiti are being respected, the answer is often a resounding: ‘no,” said Samarre Tercier Marcellin, Youth Advocate for UNICEF Haiti.

“Children are abused, die of diseases and malnutrition that could be cured or prevented, and lack access to quality learning. This needs to change,” he added.

But despite this stark reality, a shocking majority of youth respondents to the UNICEF survey still believe the future of children is brighter than it is in the present.

The UN said Haiti continues to suffer political, socio-economic, and security crises.

Rival gangs are battling for control of territory across the capital, Port-au-Prince, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes, said the UN, adding that this has further exacerbated poverty and severe hunger across the French-speaking Caribbean country.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) added Haiti to the list of countries of “greatest concern due to the escalation of violence by armed groups” in their most recent outlook report for June to October 2024.

FAO and WFP have also identified Haiti as a “famine or risk of famine hotspot,” with over five million people now experiencing acute food insecurity, the highest numbers seen since the 2010 earthquake.

The number of displaced people in Haiti has also significantly increased in recent months, from 362,000 in March to 580,000, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

It said more than 100,000 left Port-au-Prince alone due to the deteriorating security.

UNICEF said this situation has had grave consequences on the children of Haiti. Of the 2,500 people killed or injured from January to March, many of them were children, it said.

“Each day, children are being injured or killed,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the UN Security Council in April, adding that “some are being recruited, or they are joining armed groups out of sheer desperation.”

The UN said an estimated 600,000 of the 1.6 million people facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity are children, and many schools have shut down due to attacks, leaving thousands of children stripped of their right to education.

Despite the devastating conditions, many youths remain hopeful. According to the UNICEF survey, 24 percent are very promising, and 41 percent are at least a little. Fourteen percent said they could be more hopeful, and just 10 percent reported no hope at all, the survey says.

According to the survey, when asked about what would allow the country to change the most, 40 percent cited better access to education, 24 percent economic development and poverty reduction, 19 percent security around the country, and seven percent improved health services.

The UN said humanitarian efforts have intensified due to the worsening conditions.

It said WFP has delivered 43,600 hot meals to nearly 13,500 displaced people in Port-au-Prince since June 1.

The UN said WFP has also allocated $1 million as part of its social protection and resilience activities to approximately 65,000 people nationwide.

The UN said there have also been joint efforts by the Haitian authorities and national and international organizations to prepare Haitian civilians for the hurricane season, which began on June 1.