In Haiti, child malnutrition worsened by gang violence

August 6, 2023

In Cité Soleil, the largest gang-controlled slum in Port-au-Prince, malnourished children are flocking to the Fontaine hospital in early August.

The associative structure, installed for more than 30 years in this extremely impoverished district of the Haitian capital, 80% controlled by gangs, offers a rare respite to the inhabitants in this “zone of lawlessness”, in the words of the founder, Jose Ulysses.

Caregivers here take care of infants and young children taken by their mothers or sent by associations or even priests, explains the director to AFP.

“Every day, we receive around 120 to 160 children for vaccinations, and that’s when we do screenings, especially for malnutrition,” says Mr. Ulysse.

“Four five years ago, on this batch there were ten, but today it is 40-50 children a day who need nutritional aid”, he laments.

Faced with this explosion of cases of malnutrition, the center operates a triage. The less severe cases go home after some examinations, and nutritional support is provided to their families. Those in critical condition are hospitalized.

“In some situations, the children are downright skeletal and have trouble breathing,” explains the director.

Emaciated face, protruding ribs, swollen abdomen, rickets… these children, aged several weeks to two years, are often subject to medical complications.

“Before we had a capacity of 20 to 25 beds, but this year with the peak (of cases of severe nutrition, editor’s note), we have increased”, he explains. “We welcome about sixty now.”

“But if we had the means to accommodate more, we would have a lot more,” he adds.

Installed in small beds, brooded over by the gaze of their mother and the nurses, several children are placed on a drip. They will stay there for several weeks with their mother, until their weight is stabilized. The latter also suffer, in the majority of cases, from malnutrition.

In a doorway, David, dressed in a yellow top, observes the passage. Aged only 19 months, he is one of the residents suffering from acute malnutrition.

The health center, supported by Unicef, is one of the few still open in the capital, undermined in recent years by the omnipresent terror of armed groups.

Gang violence has caused a 30% increase in severe acute malnutrition among children in the country in one year, according to figures published in May by Unicef.

Nearly one in four children now suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 115,600 children are expected to suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition in 2023, according to the UN agency.

At issue: an exacerbation of the chronic security and political crisis suffered by the small Caribbean country, accompanied by a worrying resurgence of cholera cases.

“More and more mothers and fathers no longer have the means to provide appropriate care and food to their children,” lamented in May the head of Unicef in the country, Bruno Maes.

“The violence has consequences on the whole life of the Haitian population: on health because people can no longer access health centers, on the economy because people cannot go to work without taking the risk of being caught. and stealing on the way home from work, on trade, etc.,” explains Mr. Ulysse.

Snipers on the roofs, rapes used as weapons, kidnappings, murders, “violence is everywhere”, deplores the director.