Back to school in Haiti: ‘Madame, can you stop what the gangs are doing to us?’

When UNICEF’s Representative in Haiti Geetanjali Narayan stepped into a classroom in Port-au-Prince at the start of the new school year, she asked the children a simple question: What did they most need from the UN children’s agency?“Madame, please, can you stop the armed groups? Can you stop what the gangs are doing to us?”Her plea captured the reality confronting children across Haiti, where violence has disrupted schools, upended families, and made even the simple act of going to class an act of courage.As children around the world head back to school, the start of the year in Haiti unfolds once again under the shadow of insecurity, displacement, and hardship. Children must cross gang-controlled zones to reach school, risking crossfire and forced recruitment. Yet in a country battered by gang violence, school also remains a space of hope – where children can learn, reunite with their classmates and, despite everything, begin to imagine their future.For Etzer, a father of four, internally displaced and an advocate for the rights of displaced people, returning to class means far more than simply going back to school. After fleeing their neighborhood because of gang violence, many ...