Hungry
in
Haiti
Words by Linda Nguyen
Design by Rose Pereira
Reading time: 5 minutes
Meet Lettycia, one of the millions of children in Haiti who are going hungry. Rising inflation has caused food prices to skyrocket in the Caribbean country, and households can’t afford to feed their families.
“Haiti cannot wait another day”
LEARN MORE
When food is scarce, girls and women eat least and last, and that’s not all. Find out about the five key challenges they face and why girls suffer the most during a hunger crisis.
Read more
Learn more
The situation is even more dire as the effects of the hunger crisis have been compounded by political instability, rising gang violence, human rights violations, school closures and a cholera epidemic across the country.
READ MORE
What is food insecurity?
We break down the five phases of food security.
For Lettycia, a 10-year-old girl living in the southeast of Haiti, the walk between home and school – an hour each way – has become increasingly difficult. She says that she feels sick, weak and on the verge of collapse while walking because she is so hungry, but by the time she gets home, she often finds there’s no food there.
Insight
The hunger crisis in Haiti is real, and it’s having a profound effect on children, especially girls, says Plan International Haiti’s acting country director, Daphne De Bordes.
“Haiti is facing one of the worst scenarios ever due to hunger, insecurity and social instability,” she says. “Armed gangs are now extending their influence beyond Port-au-Prince, forcing families to leave their homes, paralyzing basic services and depriving girls of their right to protection and education.”
Plan International is working with communities by providing life-saving assistance and raising awareness about nutrition, gender equality and child protection.
But the need is growing and urgent.
“We will continue with this effort, but as the situation continues, we need more support,” says De Bordes. “Haiti cannot wait another day."
According to the United Nations and its partners, Haiti needs US$720 million to help more than 3.2 million people this year – more than double the aid that was needed in 2022 and the highest amount since the 2010 earthquake.
The cost of living and food insecurity have been worsened by chronic instability and gang violence, which disrupt nationwide supply chains, access to basic services like markets, schools and hospitals and the livelihoods of Haitians. The violence is making it harder for people to access and afford food.
By the Numbers:
Hungry in Haiti
Nearly a third live in extreme poverty – on less than US$2.15 a day.
Haiti has been under a red alert for its hunger crisis since 2022.
Food prices are rising, making it difficult for families to afford nutritious food. The value of an average food basket in February 2023 was 5.497 Haitian gourdes (US$35.41) per person and 27.485 Haitian gourdes (US$177.06) per household – an increase of 88% from last year.
According to the World Bank, nearly 90% of Haitians live below the poverty line.
Lettycia, a 10-year-old girl living in southeast Haiti, often worries about how she’ll make it through the one-hour walk from school and home each day.
“On the road, sometimes I feel sick, weak and on the verge of collapse because I am so hungry,” she says. “When I get home, sometimes I find food there; sometimes I don’t.”
Stories like Lettycia’s are common in Haiti.
The Caribbean country, which shares an island with the Dominican Republic, is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and political crisis that has resulted in nearly half of its population going hungry.
“Not eating like I used to has affected my school work,” says Lettycia. “When I’m hungry, I can’t study, and I fall asleep.”
Schwall says grocery shelves are often bare.
“[In the grocery store], any day you would go and it would be a surprise. Sometimes the bread section would be completely empty, or the yogurt and cream cheese section… sometimes there would be fancy products from France or the U.S… you never knew,” she says.
“You just don’t know when it’s going to be refilled.”
1/4
4/4
3/4
2/4
Record inflation means Lettycia’s family often can’t afford to eat
The World Bank says Haiti is one of the top 10 countries most affected by food price inflation caused by multiple crises, including armed conflict between gangs, fuel shortages and widespread public unrest.
Inflation in Haiti has increased to 47% – up from 38% in December 2022.
This has caused the price of food to increase by up to 88%, leaving many families unable to make ends meet.
Lettycia’s family used to eat three meals a day, but now they can afford only one meal each day.
“There are many things that have changed,” she says. “We used to eat two or three meals a day, but now sometimes I go a day without eating; when that happens, my aunt borrows money [so that she can] feed us.”
Her mother lives in the Dominican Republic and sends money to help provide for the family. “It’s difficult for us because whenever my mother sends us money, my aunt has to use it to pay off our debts for the food we have already bought and eaten,” Lettycia explains.
In addition to her long journey between home and school each day, Lettycia has to walk for an hour to collect water for the family.
Girls on their own are at heightened risk of violence or rape, which is something Lettycia is well aware of. “I believe that girls are the most vulnerable during this crisis,” she says.
Lettycia walks an hour a day to fetch water and an hour a day to get to school. Young girls who travel alone in Haiti are at increased risk of violence and kidnapping, but it’s a risk she must take for her family.
Lettycia, 10, often goes hungry because her family cannot afford the rising food prices in Haiti. She used to eat three meals a day, but now she gets only one.
Rising food prices have made it difficult for Lettycia’s family to buy food, let alone nutritious food. Inflation in Haiti has increased to 47% – up from 38% in December 2022. This has caused the price of food to increase by up to 88%, leaving many families unable to make ends meet.
Lettycia reads with her aunt and cousin in their small house in southeast Haiti. Food prices have risen so much that her family is no longer able to afford food.
Cash transfers are saving lives
Like many other families living amid the hunger crisis in Haiti, Lettycia’s family has received cash transfers from Plan International to help them survive.
“I received a cash transfer from Plan International in August 2022, when the country was in the middle of social unrest and COVID-19,” explains Lettycia’s cousin, Claire, who works as a market trader. “The situation was really difficult for us, and things were extremely expensive. We bought food with the money, which supported us for about 15 days.”
Gave out kits to
1,021 households,
in response to the cholera outbreak.
The kits included laundry soap, bath soap, menstrual products, deodorant, chlorine, purification tablets and a bucket with a tap.
4/4
3/4
Repaired eight water hand pumps in four communities in northeast Haiti.
2/4
Used radio broadcasts to promote nutritional awareness across 18 villages.
1/4
Distributed cash transfers to 24,819 people, who at the same time participated in awareness training on nutrition and child protection. The value of the cash transfers delivered to each family was US$100.65.
What We Have
Done So Far
Claire has also taken part in workshops run by Plan International to learn about sexual and reproductive health rights and was accepted into a six-month training program to learn how to support pregnant girls and children in her region.
“Plan International’s assistance has put a smile on the faces of those who have been affected by this crisis; this enables them to keep going and not give up," says Claire, who wants to become a doctor so she can take care of her family if they get sick.
De Bordes says that the growing dangers facing children, especially girls, are “unimaginable.”
“Girls have told us that they live in fear of [being kidnapped] or [experiencing] gender-based violence,” she says. “Countless children are going to bed hungry each night, as a direct consequence of this crisis.”
It’s estimated that nearly five million people are facing acute hunger or starvation. Of these, 1.8 million people are classified as having emergency levels of hunger.
The situation is even more dire as the effects of the hunger crisis have been compounded by political instability, rising gang violence, human rights violations, school closures and a cholera epidemic across the country.
For Lettycia, who lives in a small house with her aunt, her uncle and two cousins, being hungry affects her life every day.
“It’s extremely common for young children in Haiti to live with their grandma, cousin, a sister or whomever, because their parents go to the Dominican Republic to seek a better situation,” says Valériane Schwall, a program manager at Plan International Canada, who recently returned from a deployment to Haiti in March.
“Sometimes they don’t come back. Kids don’t really know if they’re ever going to see their parents again.”
Lettycia’s family can’t afford to pay for food, let alone nutritious food, as prices continue to skyrocket across the country due to inflation.
From June 2022 to April 2023, Plan International:
watch:
Haiti
Crisis
Donate now
Sponsor
a child
3 Ways Your Donation Can Help Fight Hunger in Haiti and Around the World
Able to donate more?
Donate now
filled with staples like beans, cooking oil, fortified cereal blends and sugar. This gift of food is a critical step to prevent a slide into a life-and-death situation and it’s matched 7x.
from Haiti and support their right to be healthy,
go to school and enjoy equal opportunities for a better future.
Buy this
Gift of Hope for $2,500, and it will be matched 7x.
Purchase a food basket
Donate now
1
Hunger crisis in Haiti
Donate
Donate
2
3
2
3
Hungry
in Haiti