To begin with, we will talk neither about numbers nor statistics to count the internally displaced across the country: let us rather focus on what the numbers do not reveal about this population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To begin with, we will not talk about numbers or statistics to count the internally displaced across the country: let us rather focus on what the numbers do not reveal about this population. Today, let us talk about Mesye Dyef\u00e8t, Antwan\u00e8t, Janwob\u00e8, those whose names will not appear in NGO reports, whose faces will not make the headlines. Yet, there are thousands of them crammed into abandoned schools, public institutions, and even at the Port-au-Prince cemetery. These children, these young people were students, university students. These men, these women were teachers, small merchants, carpenters, and welders who earned their living with dignity and freedom. But the State decided otherwise. They are not refugees, they have not crossed a border. They just fled from the chaos sown by their own brothers from the political class and the bourgeoisie. Port-au-Princeis no longer a capital, but a network of informal checkpoints: at every intersection, armed young people, with whom one avoids making eye contact at all costs, collect their loot, weapons of war in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every morning, in the courtyard of the Abandon middle school transformed into a displaced persons camp, men, boys, women, and girls line up to take a shower, because there is only one. It should be noted that verbal abuses related to sex are common during this time.In a room that could accommodate a family, fifteen of them are surviving. It is in this same space that they prepare their meals and carry out their daily activities. A few years ago, these people had never imagined living in such pitiful conditions. Some testify that they would prefer to live in prison rather than remain in this situationChildren are the primary victims of this reality. They are recruited under pressure or to meet their basic needs, and find themselves on the front lines during clashes. These child soldiers are the products of a system riddled with all sorts of evils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There, a young girl named Marie-Antoinette, with a baby of a few months whom she gave birth to in the camp, cleans him with non-potable water, while he struggles to receive basic care. Elsewhere, a teenage girl in secondary school is lying on a mat, forced to stay home due to delays related to school fees. In a corner, a person with reduced mobility, barely saved during the attacks. In addition to that, rats, cockroaches, and bedbugs coexist with these survivors..What remains of a father when he can neither feed nor protect his loved ones? In the displaced persons camps, there are also these silent adults, broken, whom bitterness slowly destroys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here, every day looks the same. Time has no rhythm anymore. There is only waiting. Waiting for an NGO truck that may never come. Waiting for a promise of relocation made by local leaders six months ago. And above all, waiting for lost dignity.The issue of internally displaced people in Port-au-Prince is not a question of humanitarian aid or statistics, but the capitulation of the State before its responsibilities, which has allowed violence to dictate its course. Before 2021, Port-au-Prince was not an open-air refugee camp. This reality is the result of political abandonment that affects the most vulnerable. While speeches talk about stability and economic recovery from the air-conditioned salons of P\u00e9tion-Ville, “anba lavil,” children do not go to school, people struggle to eat their fill, and when it rains, it is a true disaster. The children of Port-au-Prince and provincial areas where violence prevails should learn to read and write, not to distinguish the sound of a Galil, a drone, or a Kalashnikov. Adults deserve to go about their activities and live in peace. Young people have a future to prepare for, not to think about their next meal.It is time to look beyond the numbers, because behind every internally displaced person, there is someone who has contributed, at their level, to the country’s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is time for the State and the international community to stop treating this situation as a mere emergency and to develop sustainable solutions: fight against corruption, combat impunity and the interests of third parties over gangs, strengthen institutions, and improve access to education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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