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STORY: UN / UNICEF HAITI PRESSER
TRT: 02:17
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 14 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
14 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Roberto Benes on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Roberto Benes, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“Children in Haiti today wake up not knowing if they will be able to go to school safely, find food, or even survive the day without being hit by a stray bullet or be caught in the crossfire of armed groups. More than 3.3 million children now need humanitarian assistance. And this means that three out of every four Haitian children now depend on humanitarian aid.”
4. Wide shot, press room dais, Benes on screen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Roberto Benes, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“For children caught in the grip of armed groups, the situation is catastrophic. Recruitment of children has surged by 70 percent in just one year, and today up to half of armed group members in Haiti are children, some barely ten years old. Malnutrition is the greatest concern. More than 1.2 million children under five years of age and living in areas affected by acute food insecurity, putting them at heightened risk of acute malnutrition. In displacement sites, families rely on contaminated water, fuelling cholera and diarrhoeal disease.”
6. Wide shot, press room dais, Benes on screen
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Roberto Benes, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“Haiti is at a breaking point. The future of an entire generation is at stake. And this is why last week, UNICEF launched a child alert on Haiti. The child alert is not just another report. Not at all. It is an evidence-based call to action and a spotlight on one of the world's most urgent and overlooked crisis for children. Each Child alert brings together data, testimonies and field evidence from UNICEF teams on the ground and other partners, as well.”
8. Wide shot, press room dais, Benes on screen
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Roberto Benes, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“We are facing a problem of access because of insecurity and because of the growing control on the capital by armed groups. Today, up to 80 percent of the capital, port au Prince, is controlled by armed groups. And we have 1,600 schools that are either attacked, occupied or not accessible by children.”
10. Wide shot, end of briefing
Presenting a new UNICEF Child Alert report on Haiti, its Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Roberto Benes said “Children in Haiti today wake up not knowing if they will be able to go to school safely, find food, or even survive the day without being hit by a stray bullet or be caught in the crossfire of armed groups.”
Speaking via video teleconference, Benes told journalists in New York that more than 3.3 million children now need humanitarian assistance, meaning that “three out of every four Haitian children now depend on humanitarian aid.”
For children caught in the grip of armed groups, he said, “the situation is catastrophic.”
Benes said, recruitment of children has surged by 70 percent in just one year, and today up to half of armed group members in Haiti are children, some barely ten years old.”
Malnutrition, he stressed, “is the greatest concern” as more than 1.2 million children under five years of age are living in areas affected by acute food insecurity, “putting them at heightened risk of acute malnutrition,” while in displacement sites, “families rely on contaminated water, fuelling cholera and diarrhoeal disease.”
Haiti, Benes said, “is at a breaking point,” adding that “the future of an entire generation is at stake.”
The Child Alert report on Haiti, he said, “an evidence-based call to action and a spotlight on one of the world's most urgent and overlooked crisis for children,” and brings together data, testimonies and field evidence from UNICEF teams on the ground and other partners.
The humanitarian official said, “we are facing a problem of access because of insecurity because of the growing control on the capital by armed groups,” and “up to 80 percent of the capital, port au Prince, is controlled by armed groups.”
He said, “we have 1,600 schools that are either attacked, occupied or not accessible by children.”
