JUST over one week after Jamaica opened its doors to 59 Haitian orphans, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has voiced concern about the health and nutrition of Haitian children, following recent findings from analysis conducted by the Integrated Food Security Classification Framework (IPC).

The report points to a 19 per cent increase in the number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) so far this year in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) member state.

The analysis also shows that 1.64 million people face critical levels of acute food insecurity, increasing the risk of wasting and malnutrition among children, particularly in eight regions of the country.

It added that armed violence in the Artibonite and Ouest departments, which encompass the capital, Port-au-Prince, has hampered the delivery of aid and shaken an already fragile health system, posing a serious threat to the lives of more than 125,000 children at risk of SAM and related diseases.

“Violence and instability in Haiti have consequences that go far beyond the risks associated with the violence itself. The situation is creating a health and nutrition crisis that could cost the lives of countless children,” said UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell.

“Thousands of children are on the brink, with vital supplies ready to be delivered if the violence stops and roads and hospitals reopen. This nutritional crisis is entirely man-made. Basic security conditions are urgently needed for the people of Haiti, for the vital services on which they depend to function and for humanitarian workers to reach the children and families who desperately need them,” added Russell.

Since January, the deterioration of security in Haiti has continued to worsen, with UNICEF being unable to store, deliver and resupply much-needed aid to the population and earlier this month, one of 17 UNICEF containers was looted from the Caribbean Port Service in Port-au-Prince.

Based on the uncertain future facing Haitian children, the Mustard Seed Communities, HaitiChildren, and the Jamaican Government, with significant assistance from former United States Ambassador to Jamaica Luis Moreno; Jamaica’s former Chief of Defence Staff Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin; and Sentinel Foundation, a non-profit organisation in North Carolina, United States, that targets child traffickers, staged a “delicate” mission to rescue the 59 orphans.

Immediately after they arrived at the Errol Flynn Marina in Port Antonio, Portland, Susan Krabacher, founder of HaitiChildren, described the gangs wreaking havoc and exacting death in Haiti as “agents of Satan”.

Through her orphanage, Krabacher became legal guardian of the orphans and went through great pains to get them out of Haiti and to safety.

According to her, she is determined to evacuate another 34 children under her organisation’s care and protection who are still in Haiti so they can receive the necessary care as gangs have shut off access to hospitals and continue to make aggressive demands for money.

“They aren’t afraid to exact violence on people trying to access services,” Krabacher had told the
Jamaica Observer in an exclusive interview.

She added that the planned journey to Jamaica was delayed by six hours because gangsters refused to let the children board the ship until they received cash.

In the meantime Monsignor Gregory Ramkissoon, the founder of Mustard Seed Communities, told the
Observer that had Jamaica not “done the right thing” by accepting the 59 disabled orphans, it wouldn’t have been long before death came upon them.

“Some of these kids, the little girls, were being raped. Then they were taking some of the kids and pronouncing them clinically dead in order to sell their organs. One kidney was going for US$35,000, and it was going up the chain. People at a higher level knew about it. Hearing this, when the Lord puts it in front of you it would be a terrible misdeed to let them stay in Haiti.

“The gangs aren’t allowing medicine to come in, and neither are they allowing people to go out to visit hospitals. It is hard to find doctors and nurses, and the actual drugs are hard to get. The only future for these children was six feet under. We can’t take everybody in from Haiti but what we thought is that bringing in these children, it would set an example for other organisations or governments to help,” said Ramkissoon.

— Additional reporting by CMC