Since the end of April 2024, many people with disabilities, including children, have been forced to leave the Saint-Vincent reception center on rue de l’enterrement, due to violent attacks carried out by armed groups in downtown Port-au-Prince.
Among these people, there are about 35 to 40 who, following these attacks, had to take refuge at the Office of the State Secretariat for the Integration of Disabled People (BSEIPH) in Nazon. But this displacement does not seem to improve their condition according to them. Loop Haiti interviewed several of these displaced people to understand their daily lives in this new environment.
“I have been sleeping in a car in the BSEIPH courtyard for some time,” said a blind man who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“I struggle to find sanitary towels when I have my period,” says one woman in the space.
Food is also a source of discontent. “Meals are often insufficient and arrive late, sometimes between 4 and 5 hours,” another reported. Access to drinking water is also a problem. “Drinking water is not accessible, we often have to go to the street to buy sachets of water,” he added.
Faced with this situation, the displaced people who are in the BSEIPH premises are calling for urgent intervention from the authorities and humanitarian organisations.
“We are asking IOM, OFATMA to keep an eye on us because we are tired” they declared.
They hope for rapid measures to improve their living conditions and guarantee their safety in an environment better adapted to their needs.
“They promised to give us houses, which never happened,” one of them said.
Following the attack by armed gangs in April 2024 which led to the displacement of people with disabilities, the BSEIPH announced a collaboration with the General Directorate of Taxes (DGI) to accommodate these people who had to leave the Foyer Saint-Vincent in a former building belonging to the Haitian state, previously used as an orphanage in Pétion-Ville.
Recall that in March 2024, 59 Haitian children with disabilities left their country due to violence by armed gangs. They were welcomed by Mustard Seed Communities International in Jamaica, along with 13 chaperones. They now reside in the village of Ephesus in Jacob’s Ladder, Moneague, St Ann.
Mustard Seed Communities (MSC) Jamaica and Haiti Children have signed an agreement for the accommodation of children and their carers, funded by established donors of Haiti Children.
The Loop Haiti editorial team tried to contact Gérard Joseph, head of the Office of the State Secretariat for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities (BSEIPH), without success.
