Violence damages schools in Haiti

Schools in Haiti are operating without enough chairs, blackboards and even bathrooms.

Violent criminal groups are restricting basic government services and increasing poverty, while the state education system faces a $23 million deficit.

Yasmine Sherif is the executive director of the UN organization Education Cannot Wait. “The country needs help,” Sherif said during her three-day visit to the Caribbean country in July.

Sherif said the organization has provided $2.5 million to help nearly 75,000 children in Haiti with cash, food and other programs. And she asked the European Union and other countries, including France and the U.S., to help close the education gap.

“My biggest concern is safety,” she said, pointing to the impact of the violence on education.

Criminal groups, called gangsMore than 2,500 people killed or injured in the first three months of the year. Violence has severely affected life in the capital Port-au-Prince and elsewhere.

At least 919 schools remain closed in Port-au-Prince and the central Artibonite area due to gang violence. The UN says the school closures have affected more than 150,000 students.

“Education is part of the solution,” Sherif said. “That would end extreme poverty, extreme violence and create political stability and create a reliable workforce.”

Consequences of gang violence

Gang violence has also left some 580,000 people homeless in Haiti, with many congregating in temporary shelters or taking over schools, forcing them to close. Schools that remain open are increasingly being forced to take students from other schools that are closed.

For example, the Jean Marie Vincent School in downtown Port-au-Prince has accepted students from twelve other schools.

Charles Luckerno is the principal of Vincent School. He said, “We are not the only ones” who are facing such serious problems. Luckerno said that when classes end for the day, people who have been made homeless by gang violence come into the school and sleep on the floor.

A high school girl getting her hair done is approached by Yasmine Sherif in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Although this poses health problems, Luckerno still lets them stay. He said: “We are human beings. We can’t throw them away.”

Not enough chairs

Williamson Bissainthe is a 22-year-old high school student preparing for his final exams. graduatedHe described the sad state of some schools.

“Many schools lack benches or chairs. Teachers don’t come on time. The most difficult thing is that there are no toilets,” he said.

Bissainthe added: “I hope the generation that comes after me will not have to endure the same suffering.”

Private schools are out of reach for many in Haiti, a country of more than 11 million people, where more than 60 percent of the population earns less than $2 a day.

A woman with a child walks away with food from the World Food Programme (WFP) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Homeless students

Among those forced to flee their homes is 20-year-old Megane Dumorcy. She would like to study agriculture, but completing her education is difficult.

“The insecurity has had a huge impact influence on my life,” she said, noting that some students have been forced to leave their backpacks behind when fleeing gangs. “The state should find a solution for that. We shouldn’t live in a country where our freedom of movement is restricted.”

She said her school is only half finished and there is no library, computer room, blackboard and chairs. She does research on her phone when needed.

In late 2022, Haitian schools suffered another blow when the US launched a program that allowed Haitians and people from other countries to enter the country on humanitarian grounds.

“A lot of teachers have left,” said Frantz Erine, an administrator at the Jean Marie Vincent School.

I’m Jill Robbins.

Evens Sanon reported this story for the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English.