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WFP / HAITI VIOLENCE
STORY: WFP / HAITI VIOLENCE
TRT: 07:50
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: CREOLE / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 SEPTEMBER – 4 OCTOBER, PORT-AU-PRINCE / JEREMIE, HAITI
26 SEPTEMBER, PORT-AU-PRINCE
1. Aerial shot, Cite Soleil
2. Various shots, roadblocks, Cite Soleil
3. Various shots, Médecins Sans Frontières’s (MSF), Tabarre Hospital
28 SEPTEMBER, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
4. Various shots, displaced people living in the area around a radio station
26 SEPTEMBER, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
5. SOUNDBITE (Creole), Christela, displaced person:
“I have 5 children; I left my area because of the violence. My money has been stolen, and I can no longer rent a house. I'm taking refuge in a school.
6. Various shots, Christela’s children eating WFP hot meals
7. Various shots, displaced people, Lycee Jean Marie Vincent, Tabarre
8. SOUNDBITE (Creole), Duvernise Altema, displaced person:
“The gangsters forced us to leave home. We had no choice but to go to the embassy, but we couldn’t stay there; they threw tear gas at us. This is why we’re here now, but we really don’t feel well because we can’t send the kids to school. I don’t run my business anymore; it’s ruined. We don’t have any money to live; I wish I could return home so that we could live in peace and dignity.”
9. Various shots, displaced people, Lycee Jean Marie Vincent, Tabarre Shot: 26Sep23
10. SOUNDBITE (Creole), Duvernise Altema, displaced person:
“When there’s something to eat, we support each other. We live together and help each other. When one has nothing to eat, the other gives a bit of food.”
11. Various shots, market, children being tested for malnutrition
4 OCTOBER, JEREMIE, HAITI
12. Aerial shot, Jeremie
13. Various shots, people working in rural areas
24 SEPTEMBER JEREMIE, HAITI
14. Various shots, buses arriving from Port-au-Prince, Honise Antoine’s house
23 SEPTEMBER, JEREMIE, HAITI
15. SOUNDBITE (Creole), Honise Antoine, displaced person:
“They broke into people's houses, killing, burning, and tying them up. I was so afraid for my life and that of my children. I was so worried for them.
16. Various shots, Honise Antoine’s house and family
17. SOUNDBITE (Creole), Honise Antoine, displaced person:
I ran; I didn't have time for anything but to save our lives. They took everything, my business, everything I owned. This situation has had a huge impact on my children's mental health as well as my own. I've lost weight because of the stress, and my children are so afraid of Port-au-Prince.”
22 SEPTEMBER, JEREMIE, HAITI
18. Wide shot, Honrise Antoine clutches the hands of her children as they walk home
23 SEPTEMBER, JEREMIE, HAITI
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Martin Bauer, Haiti Country Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“The numbers here are staggering. There are already 200,000 IDPs in Port-au-Prince, and in just the past few weeks, we’ve had at least 40,000 more. Haiti is already one of the most severe food crises worldwide, with 1.4 million in IPC4, on the doorstep of famine. However, we just don’t have the resources to mount the response, and this new displacement crisis on top of the situation is putting a lot of strain on our ability to respond.”
28 SEPTEMBER, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
20. Various shots, kids eating WFP school meals, national School Argentine Bellegarde
21. Various shots, Sandy Castor, teacher:
“We are teachers; we work with children. The cooks can’t come because of the violence in some areas. Because we love the children, the teachers are taking over the cooks for at least two days so that the children can have something to eat.”
22. Close up, kids eating school meals
An uptick in violence in Port-au-Prince since mid-August 2023 has driven approximately 40,000 people from their homes in several neighborhoods of the capital, exacerbating an already complex humanitarian crisis where almost half of the country faces acute levels of food insecurity.
Women, children, older people, and other vulnerable groups are bearing the brunt of a brutal conflict in which dozens of armed groups battle over territory.
In the last two-and-a-half months alone, hundreds of civilians have been killed in the crossfire, and tens of thousands have been chased from their homes in the neighborhoods of Carrefour-Feuilles, Savane Pistache, Mirebalais, Saut d’Eau, and Tabarre, often fleeing with just the clothes they are wearing.
These recent movements bring the total number of displaced people across the country to over 200,000.
Many of the affected people report their homes have been burned and businesses destroyed, leaving them with few possessions and no source of income.
Displaced people have taken shelter in over 90 locations around Port-au-Prince, including schools, churches, and abandoned buildings.
WFP and its partners have supported the government in distributing 550,000 hot meals to the latest victims of the crisis in Haiti since mid-August, but funding cuts mean WFP has been unable to deliver continuous assistance to all those in need, often only providing one meal a day instead of the usual two meals.
“Even before this most recent wave of displacement, Haiti was already in the midst of its worst humanitarian crisis since the 2010 earthquake. Economic woes and climate-related stressors are important factors, but the main driver of hunger in Haiti is violence and insecurity. At this moment of almost unprecedented need, funding has just not kept apace, and we urgently need US$ 136 million to meet the needs of the most vulnerable Haitians over the next six months,” said Jean-Martin Bauer, Haiti Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP).
In the face of the crisis, WFP set up three central kitchens in Port-au-Prince, where each day, as many as 22,000 meals are prepared and then transported to various sites where displaced people are staying.
Central kitchens use existing WFP stocks of dry rations, including rice and dried beans, in combination with fresh vegetables and meat or fish.
WFP is in the process of shifting from serving hot meals to providing cash assistance to displaced people. This allows families to choose which foods are best suited to their individual needs while also boosting the local economy.
The effect of displacement is also being felt in towns and cities around the country, where schools report an increase in enrollment due to families fleeing the capital for relative safety in rural areas.
Recently displaced children who attend schools that are already part of WFP’s country-wide school meals programme can also benefit from this support.
The programme provides daily hot meals for 460,000 students across Haiti.
The latest IPC food security analysis indicates that 4.35 million Haitians face acute food insecurity from August 2023 to February 2024. This accounts for 44 percent of the total population.
So far this year, WFP has assisted nearly 1.7 million people in Haiti with over US$ 47 million in cash-based transfers and 7,500 MT of dry food rations essential to meeting their basic food needs.
In addition to emergency response, WFP also works to address the root causes of hunger through several channels, including by establishing a social safety net in collaboration with the government, assisting communities in building or rehabilitating infrastructure such as water management and irrigation systems, and helping Haitians to mitigate climate-related challenges through anticipatory actions.
Each month, WFP purchases over a million dollars worth of local produce, empowering farmers and supporting local markets.
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