Haiti: 15 years after catastrophic earthquake and children still need food, reports Mary’s Meals

Children eating Mary's Meals at Verena II School (Maïs Gâté) in Haiti. (Photo by Jeanne Will Victoria Onelein, courtesy of Mary's Meals Canada)

By Paloma Garcia Ovejero, International Media Manager, Mary’s Meals

In Haiti, the global charity Mary’s Meals feeds 175,000 children every day in 500 schools with the support of local volunteers, amid terror and escalating violence.

Food is the biggest incentive to prevent children joining a gang, says Emmline Toussaint, one of the coordinators of Mary’s Meals’ school feeding program in Haiti.

“To prevent children from joining a gang, we need to focus on poverty. It is the poverty that is killing them. They are living a nightmare. Mary’s Meals is needed now more than ever. We are doing our best to make sure that the children are eating every day because if we don’t have the school feeding program, the children won’t have anything.”

Gang violence disrupting food sources

On Jan. 12, 2010, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, killing 300,000 people. Fifteen years later, the key threat facing the country is not from nature but from extreme instability caused by lawless gangs.

Daily shootings and killings dominate life, with entire areas under gang rule, leaving residents powerless to ensure their safety. Schools suffer closures, businesses are paralyzed, and many essential services are inaccessible.

The territorial dominance of gangs has disrupted food imports and distribution. Ports are closed, roads are blocked, and alternative transport methods like boats or helicopters are both costly and risky.

The area around Verena II School (Maïs Gâté) in Haiti. (Photo by Jeanne Will Victoria Onelein, courtesy of Mary’s Meals Canada)

Precious locally grown produce rots because farmers can’t access markets, leaving producers and consumers struggling to afford food.

Meanwhile, the price of basic items such as rice has soared, exacerbating hunger among a population already devastated by unemployment and the frequent destruction of homes, which often contain families’ life savings.

Relief agencies working in the country face immense logistical challenges.

Storing food is risky because of looting. Importing is costly and dangerous, with deliveries being vulnerable to hijacking.

Despite efforts to provide aid, the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Haitians are still endangered by extreme food insecurity, escalating violence and a failed economy.

Children eating Mary’s Meals at Verena II School (Maïs Gâté) in Haiti. (Photo by Jeanne Will Victoria Onelein, courtesy of Mary’s Meals Canada)

 

Globally,, Mary’s Meals provides meals to more than 2.4 million children every day in some of the world’s poorest communities and first started working in Haiti in 2006. Since then, the promise of a nutritious meal at school has drawn hundreds of thousands of Haitian children into the classroom, where they can focus on their education and find stability and hope for a brighter future.

Mary’s Meals’ low-cost approach costs an average of just $31.70 CAD to feed a child every day for a school year. This is only possible because of thousands of dedicated volunteers across the globe – in more than 40 countries – playing their part in various ways, from those who raise awareness and carry out fundraising to those in partner communities who rise early to cook nutritious meals for their children.

Chantelle and Walker

Chantrelle and her son Walker, who receives Mary’s Meals at school. (Photos by Jeanne Will Victoria Onelein, courtesy of Mary’s Meals Canada)

Chantrelle has an 11-year-old son in 8th grade at Verdana II Primary School. She works as a shopkeeper, and the family lives in Maïs Gâté, an area near Tabarre mostly controlled by gangs.

“It is like the children are in jail, they don’t go out. In December, which traditionally is a time for Haitians to be out celebrating, everybody stayed home. The children would not go out because they fear what might happen,” she says.

“The fact that my child is eating every day at school is one of the biggest blessings. If Walker goes to school and I don’t have any money, I don’t have to think about what’s going to happen because I know he is going to eat a good meal at school, and even sometimes he comes home and says: ‘Mum, I’m not hungry because I ate, so I’m fine.’ The meals are one of the best things that Mary’s Meals could have ever done for me and my family. Thank you to everyone who makes it happen.”

 

(Photo by Jeanne Will Victoria Onelein, courtesy of Mary’s Meals Canada)

Impact of gang violence

Myrlande is a cook at Verena II Primary School, which serves Mary’s Meals. “When there are no meals at school, the children don’t come; when they have meals, they always come. This means they don’t have time to be outside on the streets and be tempted by what’s happening there. So, coming to school and having the food is the best way to keep them in education and out of the gangs,” she says.

Myrlande is a cook at Verena II Primary School in Haiti. (Photo by Jeanne Will Victoria Onelein, courtesy of Mary’s Meals Canada)

In September 2023, Verena II was attacked by rival gangs. This was at its old site in Delmas 2 area of Port-au-Prince, an area controlled by gangs. They weren’t attacking the school, but their fighting spread into the school grounds, with one of the gangs trying to hide in the grounds and there was fighting and shootings in the playground.

“The violence does impact the school, it is a real problem, because you are studying or working, and you hear shootings. And for those children, either they have to cope with it, or you don’t go to school. Many of them, they cope with it because it’s part of their daily routine now,” says Myrlande.

“When the children know there will be meals, they tell one another, and they all come. It really encourages them to be in class and stay there.”

About Mary’s Meals: A simple idea that works

The charity provides children with one daily meal in areas where hunger and poverty often stand in the way of education. Mary’s Meals works with communities to serve vital school meals to more than 2.4 million children in 16 countries: Malawi, Liberia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Kenya, Haiti, Mozambique, Ethiopia, India, South Sudan, Yemen, Benin, Lebanon, Syria, and Ecuador.

The work of Mary’s Meals increases school enrolment and improves school attendance. Local communities run Mary’s Meals in the countries where the program operates, and meals are made with locally-sourced food wherever possible, thereby supporting the local economy. Local communities own and run Mary ́s Meals in the countries where the program operates.

Please visit marysmeals.ca to find out more, including how to help.

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