Overview:
On Worldwide Girls’s Rights Day, 1000’s of displaced Haitian girls dwelling in makeshift camps denounced their dire dwelling circumstances and urged the federal government to revive safety so they might return dwelling. Many have fled repeated gang assaults in neighborhoods resembling Delmas 30, Carrefour, Carrefour-Feuilles, Cité-Soleil, Solino, Bélair, Fort-Nationwide and Gressier, discovering momentary shelter in public buildings like faculties and the Ministry of Public Works, Transport, and Communications (MTPTC).
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Sitting on the entrance of a cramped makeshift shelter, 21-year-old Evaïna Pierre tries to appease her crying baby whereas her different baby sleeps. As soon as a resident of Solino, then a refugee in Delmas 30’s Acra Manufacturing unit Outlet camp, she has now taken shelter contained in the Ministry of Public Works, Transport, and Communications (MTPTC) constructing. Her solely want on March 8, Worldwide Girls’s Rights Day? To return dwelling.
“I simply need safety,” she stated throughout an interview with The Haitian Instances. “If I may return to my neighborhood, I’d be so completely happy. Right here, we don’t reside nicely. Water leaks into our tent when it rains, and we are able to’t sleep.”
Pierre is considered one of 1000’s of internally displaced girls in Haiti, the place 55% of the country’s 1,041,229 displaced individuals are girls and ladies, in accordance with the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM).
Many have misplaced their properties, companies and even members of the family to gang violence. Now dwelling in overcrowded, unsanitary circumstances, they are saying the federal government’s failure to revive safety has left them in limbo, susceptible to starvation, illness and gender-based violence.
A refugee camp with no reduction for displaced girls
In displacement camps throughout Port-au-Prince, together with on the MTPTC in Delmas 33, girls endure harmful, unsanitary circumstances.
- No privateness: Girls and kids bathe within the open, typically in the identical area as males.
- Lack of sanitation: Residents should pay 10 gourdes or about 76 cents simply to make use of the bathroom.
- Well being dangers: Piles of rubbish unfold illness, whereas stagnant water creates a breeding floor for mosquitoes.
- Risk of violence: Girls are susceptible to harassment and sexual assault within the camps, the place safety is minimal.
“Each March 8, they keep in mind that we girls exist, however what we actually want is safety,” stated Mirlande Lebrun, a mom of 4 who fled Delmas 30 in the course of the newest escalating gang violence. “We reside on this camp with no assurance that we gained’t need to run once more if gangs assault.”
For a lot of girls like Pierre, this isn’t the primary time they’ve needed to flee.
“Between operating away at two occasions, I misplaced every part. Even my start certificates is gone,” Pierre stated, cradling her child boy, who appeared to be disturbing her as he saved crying. “Earlier than, I offered cosmetics, however now I’ve nothing.”
“We ask for nothing however safety,” Haitian girls insist
Forty-eight-year-old Bethie Joseph shares a tiny, makeshift area together with her son within the parking zone of the MTPTC constructing. As soon as financially impartial, she now is dependent upon charity to outlive.
“We don’t reside nicely right here. Even sleeping is tough, however we now have no selection,” Joseph stated. “If the federal government had taken duty for our safety, we’d not be operating from place to position like this.”
“Each March eighth, they attempt to keep in mind that we, girls, exist. Nonetheless, what issues to us as we speak is our security. We reside on this camp with none assurance that we gained’t need to flee once more on account of gang assaults.”
Mirlande Lebrun, mom of 4, fleeing Delmas 30.
Like many displaced girls, she now not trusts authorities guarantees and feels deserted.
“We’re not asking for something however safety—so we are able to return to our properties.”
Worldwide Girls’s Rights Day overshadowed by disaster
Haiti noticed Worldwide Girls’s Rights Day 2025 underneath the UN theme “Rights, Empowerment, and Alternatives for Each Displaced Lady and Woman, In all places within the World.”
Nonetheless, for displaced girls and ladies in Port-au-Prince, March 8 was simply one other day of survival.
“Girls’s Rights Day is a time for reflection, however extra importantly, motion,” the IOM stated in a press release. “Displaced and migrant girls want pressing help and safety to rebuild their lives.”
The United Nations and humanitarian teams emphasize that displaced girls should be included in discussions on Haiti’s future. Options should deal with:
- Financial empowerment packages to assist girls regain monetary independence.
- Entry to training for displaced kids.
- Social safety techniques to make sure the dignity and safety of ladies.
However for girls like Saloude Ciméus, 44, these options really feel out of attain.
“I’ve fled Canaan, Delmas 3, and the Acra camp, and now I’m right here,” Ciméus stated, standing in entrance of her small shelter on the MTPTC web site. “I don’t know the place else to go.”
She tries to outlive by promoting bottled water, however gross sales are sluggish.
“If it weren’t for God, I don’t know the way we’d survive.”
Haitian girls demand motion
As girls’s organizations gathered for panel discussions and occasions, displaced girls felt forgotten, ready for motion as an alternative of speeches.
Their message to the Haitian authorities?
Restore safety, open the roads, and allow us to go dwelling.
“Let the federal government give us safety,” Ciméus stated. “We don’t want assist. We simply wish to go dwelling.”