“Given the situation in the country, giving a child a play weapon is the last thing I would have considered,” a parent told AyiboPost, in an uncompromising tone.
Non-governmental organizations supply toy weapons to the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR) every year, according to employees of the state structure.
On Saturday March 9, 2024, members of the population, hastily fleeing the Marie Jeanne high school camp and other places to escape the terror raging in lower Port-au-Prince, invaded the premises of the IBESR.
View of the entrance to the Institute of Social Welfare and Research during the arrival of the displaced on March 9, 2024. | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
The Institution was also looted in this context. And members of the population took away several boxes of toy weapons which they unceremoniously destroyed.
This destruction reflects, according to specialists, a change in the relationship of parents to weapons in the country already under the weight of chronic insecurity for years.
Weapon-shaped toys were found destroyed in the courtyard of IBESR, which has become a camp for displaced people fleeing gang violence in lower Port-au-Prince.
“These boxes of toys, which also contain fake weapons and handcuffs, are provided to us by NGOs every December to be distributed to children’s institutions, orphanages, among others,” Théodore, an employee of the institution.
The crates, he said, sometimes contain small boxes of 50 to a hundred weapons.
“But we never give them to children,” continues Thédore, who insists on the use of his first name. “We tend to store them when we don’t destroy them,” he explains.
The general director of the institution, Ms. Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, was contacted by the newspaper. She did not answer.
On a chair in the IBESR courtyard, one of the toy weapons was discovered destroyed in the IBESR courtyard, which has become a camp for displaced people fleeing gang violence in the lower part of the city of Port-au-Prince.
Although the sudden rise in insecurity in recent days serves as motivation for this action, interviews conducted from December 2023 by AyiboPost in five supermarkets and with more than fifteen people in Port-au-Prince suggest that toy weapons are finding it increasingly difficult to sell and parents are breaking away from the usual practice of giving them as gifts to their children.
On December 22, 2023 at Belmart, a supermarket located in Delmas 31, Materazzi was browsing the shelves of fun items. On his arms are bundles of toys, including several small spring-loaded robots.
But one observation is obvious: no fake weapons, these little play accessories so appreciated by children.
“Given the situation in the country, giving a child a play weapon is the last thing I would have considered,” the man told AyiboPost, in an uncompromising tone.
Among other games, fake weapons were noticed on the shelves of Olympic Market in Port-au-Prince in December 2023. | © Rolph Louis Jeune/AyiboPost
The insecurity and endemic violence that the country has experienced in recent years are cited to explain this growing disinterest in these gaming accessories.
“Game weapons are there, but they don’t sell. Since the beginning of December, I have only registered two buyers,” lamented the head of the toy section.
“The last batch of toy guns I sold was purchased by a customer for the purposes of a television series,” she adds.
This observation is also shared by Petit Fadilien, the head of the toy section at “Piyay Store” in the commune of Pétion-ville, where “fake weapons with grain, barrels and firecrackers, or water guns, are of little interest to many. more and more customers.
Also read: Between fear and colorism, “black dolls” despised in stores in Haiti
Accompanied by his mother, a little boy of around ten years old was frolicking in the aisles when AyiboPost approached him in December last year. “My father forbids me from playing with toy guns of any kind,” he says.
Game weapons are there, but they don’t sell. Since the beginning of December, I have only registered two buyers.
Most toy guns can easily pass for real guns.
Some parents fear slip-ups in public spaces or with the police. Others fear the influence of these objects on their children’s lives.
“When the country wasn’t as heavily armed by gangs, a toy gun symbolized a prop of police power. But today, it can be associated with crime,” underlines Jean Romane who came to look for a gift for his goddaughter because of her excellent grades in end-of-year school assessments.
A reflection shared by Esther, a Pétion-villoise, mother of two children, met in the shelves of Piyay Store.
“I excluded toy guns from gift choices for my children. I prefer to give them much more informative accessories, like children’s books,” she concludes.
In December 2023, among the various entertainment items, water guns were spotted for sale on the shelves of Piyay Store in Pétion-Ville.
Képler Aurélien, doctor in sociology from the University of Paris in France and professor at the State University of Haiti (UEH), believes that a child who plays with a fake weapon will not necessarily be pushed towards crime.
“Where there may be danger is when that child resides in a neighborhood where guns are very prevalent and the person being worshiped is an armed gang leader.”
The child, according to the specialist, could make a link between “respect and carrying a weapon, thus adopting socially reproached behaviors subsequently”. But for the sociologist, even in this case, there is no inevitability, because socialization is always an incomplete process.
Read also: US weapons fuel insecurity in Haiti
This situation, where customers are losing interest in these gaming items, is forcing some supermarkets not to buy them at all or to considerably reduce their orders.
“There are only water guns here that have been ordered two or three years ago. We haven’t ordered any since. And the few fake weapons that are on the shelves see their labels erased due to being unsold,” says the manager of the toy section at Olympic Market, in Lalue. One of her colleagues says that some children, attracted by these toys, are forced by their parents to choose something else.
Supermarkets aren’t the only ones seeing this trend. The informal sector is also experiencing a considerable reduction in demands for toy weapons.
A merchant’s wheelbarrow filled with toys in Pétion-ville in December 2023.
Jean-Pierre Lomy, a small toy retailer who sells his merchandise in a wheelbarrow on the Pétion-ville market, explains to AyiboPost that despite the fact that he only sells small water guns and that he has abandoned the sale fake weapons since 2015, he has difficulty selling his merchandise.
“Even these water guns don’t find buyers,” he adds.
Edson Georges, another retailer met in Pétion-ville, claims to have never sold toy weapons in ten years of business. “I don’t even accept them for my children,” he says.
Read also: Gangs hack PNH communication radios
Irvika François, doctor of Educational Sciences, affirms that a child who plays with a toy weapon is not necessarily in danger, because he does not imagine violence or aggression, but rather sees the imitation weapon as a symbol of power.
However, according to François, it would be better to offer children very light play weapons rather than those that resemble real ones.
Par Junior Legrand
Cover image: Game weapons, among others, were noticed on the shelves of Olympic Market in Port-au-Prince in December 2023. | © Rolph Louis Jeune/AyiboPost
Keep in touch with AyiboPost via:
► Our channel Telegram : Click here
► Our Channel WhatsApp : Click here
► Our Community WhatsApp : Click here
