December 19, 2024

The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Haiti, driven by widespread armed violence, has led to a significant increase in internal displacement, with dire consequences for access to education. Informal shelters, often improvised with sheet metal and plastic tarpaulins, now serve as the only educational environment for thousands of children.
In these makeshift spaces, teaching resources are virtually nonexistent: no blackboards, no desks, and in many cases, no qualified teachers. Children sit on buckets or on the ground, attempting to follow lessons led by volunteers. Education, under such circumstances, has become a luxury inaccessible to the most vulnerable.
Since the latest waves of displacement, several thousand children have experienced prolonged interruptions in their schooling, with no clear pathway to reintegration into formal education systems. Insecurity and gang control of neighborhoods prevent families from sending their children to school, while the state’s capacity to offer alternatives remains extremely limited.
"My daughter was in third grade. Ever since we fled Martissant, she has not been able to attend school," said one father interviewed in Delmas.
This interruption in educational continuity not only jeopardizes the intellectual and social development of a whole generation but also undermines one of the most essential rights enshrined in the Haitian Constitution: the right to free and universal education.
Any comprehensive humanitarian strategy must include robust educational interventions, including mobile learning centers, emergency teacher training programs, and the distribution of school supplies. In the absence of such measures, thousands of children risk being permanently excluded from one of the only sustainable pathways to recovery: knowledge.