{"id":16706,"date":"2024-03-09T00:46:17","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T00:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/09\/four-children-in-haiti-describe-harrowing-stories-of-survival\/"},"modified":"2024-03-09T00:46:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-09T00:46:17","slug":"four-children-in-haiti-describe-harrowing-stories-of-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/09\/four-children-in-haiti-describe-harrowing-stories-of-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Four children in Haiti describe harrowing stories of survival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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They have the calm of people who have lived through terrible things. But they are just kids. <\/p>\n

Some are navigating life in neighborhoods ruled by gangs, doing their best to stay out of danger. Others work for the gangs,\u00a0tasked with dangerous jobs such as spying on rival groups or the gory work of disposing of bodies. All of them face the daily risk of deadly violence, with one gang leader even warning of civil war that could end in genocide. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, across\u00a0the country, many more children are going hungry, according to UNICEF, as food prices spike amid the insecurity. <\/p>\n

Here are four of their stories: <\/p>\n

Shot while playing<\/h2>\n

Woodjina Cadeau\u2019s family was forced to flee their home in Port-au-Prince two years ago, as gangs battled for control of the area, setting buildings on fire. They thought they would be safer setting up a temporary home on an abandoned airplane runway in the city, as many others had done. <\/p>\n

But on January 30, gunfire erupted down the street while the eight-year-old was playing outside, sending a stray bullet through Woodjina\u2019s stomach. Amid the screams of other children, Donald Saint Surin, an emergency responder for local children\u2019s organization OCCED\u2019H\u00a0(Organization of Hearts for the Assistance of Deprived Children)\u00a0found her on the ground, a pool of blood soaking into the packed dirt, he recalls. <\/p>\n

Saint Surin rushed her to a hospital; after surgery and two weeks of medical treatment, Woodjina was able to return to her family. But her father Jonel points out that the rough shelter of corrugated metal where she is now recovering is hardly a fit home. And he\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0know if they\u2019ll ever be able to go back. <\/p>\n

Afraid to go to school<\/h2>\n

In the coastal town of Jeremie,\u00a015-year-old Shiloh,\u00a0hasn\u2019t been to school since January, when violent protests exploded over Haiti\u2019s deteriorating living conditions. In one incident,\u00a0protesters\u00a0attacked the school itself. \u201cThey were trying to break down the school gate, the kids inside were screaming, eventually the school sent us home,\u201d she\u00a0says. <\/p>\n

Now it feels too dangerous to\u00a0go\u00a0back, she says, but that also means missing the free lunch that is the only meal of the day for many students. <\/p>\n

Raising the son of her rapist<\/h2>\n

It was late in the evening when this 16-year-old girl found a small banknote \u2013 25 Haitian gourdes, the equivalent of 20 US cents. She was hungry, and decided to venture outside\u00a0her home\u00a0in Port-au-Prince\u2019s gang-controlled area of Martissant to buy something to eat. <\/p>\n

She was attacked on the way and\u00a0raped.\u00a0She believes the perpetrator was a gang member. <\/p>\n

In January, she gave birth to a baby boy.\u00a0Caring for him is not easy, she says; \u201cWhen you\u2019re faced with a child, it\u2019s not a game.\u201d <\/p>\n

Working for the gangs<\/h2>\n

Now, when other members of the gang kill people, they make him burn the bodies,\u00a0says the teen,\u00a0who is now 14. <\/p>\n

He would like to get out \u2013 but he doesn\u2019t know how. His mother lives outside of Port-au-Prince; he\u2019s not sure how to reach her and\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0afford\u00a0such a trip anyway. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They have the calm of people who have lived through terrible things. But they are just kids. Some are navigating life in neighborhoods ruled by gangs, doing their best to stay out of danger. Others work for the gangs,\u00a0tasked with dangerous jobs such as spying on rival groups or the gory work of disposing of <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}