“A point of no return”: An urgent call to support women and girls in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – “I gave birth on the ground at the camp with the help of a woman. She is still asking me for money because I couldn't pay her,” 18-year-old Jeanette* told UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency.  

During a flare-up of violence in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, the home she shared with her aunt Esther* and her three children was attacked by an armed gang. “Our house was hit by bullets, like many others. It was looted. My aunt, the children and I had to flee. That’s how we ended up in this camp.” 

While trying to escape, Jeanette was caught and raped by the attackers. She fell pregnant from the assault, and is now living in a camp for displaced people with her two-year-old son and young baby – who she delivered alone, without any skilled health assistance. 

With the support of UNFPA Jeanette received postpartum care at the Eliazar Germain hospital, including a complete assessment of her newborn and a series of regular follow-up appointments and family planning options. 

But amid a spiralling crisis of insecurity, violence, hunger and sexual violence, Jeanette’s chances to thrive in the future – along with those of many other women and girls in Haiti – are dwindling. “My children have health problems and I no longer go to school,” she told UNFPA. 

Struggling to ensure services

A record 1.3 million people have now been displaced since the crisis in Haiti erupted in late 2024. Organized gangs are waging a relentless campaign to seize control of the capital and sexual violence has reached terrifying levels. The health system is all but depleted after years of crisis, conflict, looting and financial collapse, and as severe hunger rises to catastrophic levels, the UN has warned the crisis risks “reaching a point of no return.”

With an estimated 1.2 million women and girls in urgent need of protection against gender-based violence in Haiti, UNFPA is supporting four safe spaces in the Port-au-Prince area for survivors or those at risk of rape, abuse, extorsion or trafficking. However, due to the violence three of these spaces were recently forced to close and relocate. 

Minouche*, 40, was raped and beaten by four armed men while living in a camp for displaced people in Port-au-Prince. She was six months pregnant at the time. 

“The next day, I was brought to hospital,” she told UNFPA, which together with its partner organization FOSREF provided prenatal healthcare and treated her injuries, including a sexually transmitted infection. “They gave me health, medical and psychosocial support. They saved my life.” 

Minouche also suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney stones – which can all be fatal complications for pregnant women. When it came time for her to give birth she returned to the hospital, where doctors performed a Caesarean section.

Both mother and baby have recovered well, but the crisis is making ordinary life impossible. “I beg on the streets to survive. I’m always scared,” said Minouche, who has hearing difficulties and is a mother to three other children. “My children don’t go to school and one of them is sick. They are afraid for the future.

“People sometimes taunt me because I was raped,” she continued. “I managed to hold on thanks to the help and support I have received. I feel alive thanks to the hospital and mobile clinics – they raise awareness and give us advice on how to cope.”

An impossible situation

UNFPA-supported mobile health teams are being deployed to displacement sites to deliver sexual and reproductive healthcare as well as essential sanitary kits, although in reduced areas. Hotline services for psychosocial support, reproductive health services, and gender-based violence response are still operating. 

Yet a recent delivery of medical supplies intended for the State University Hospital in Port-au-Prince had to be suspended due to the presence of armed gangs. As access to emergency services remains extremely limited, just one quarter of rape survivors receive care within the critical 72-hour period.

UNFPA has also begun screening for tuberculosis and HIV through mobile clinics at displacement sites. Although many of these temporary accommodation sites are closing as violence overtakes them, the mobile teams are adapting and visiting new areas with people in need, even as cholera outbreaks are also reported to be growing.

Violence, displacement and spiralling needs

UNFPA’s humanitarian response in some of the world’s neglected crises is facing a staggering 90 per cent funding gap, severely compromising the agency’s ability to meet the sexual and reproductive health and protection needs of women and girls already facing the worst circumstances. 

Without sufficient funding, humanitarian assistance in Haiti could become unsustainable, jeopardizing the lives of millions of people. More than half the population – some 5.7 million people – are facing acute hunger, with pregnant women and new mothers at severe risk of malnutrition. Moreover, reports of pregnant women and new mothers being deported back into Haiti from neighbouring Dominican Republic are a grave cause for concern, with UNFPA recording 80 childbirths per week near the border, including Caesarean sections.

In 2025, UNFPA is appealing for almost $29 million to strengthen and expand its services in Haiti, part of its call to shine a spotlight on the urgency of this and multiple other emergencies. But so far just 8 per cent of the request for Haiti has been received, meaning that every month more than 50,000 women will have no access to sexual and reproductive health services and over 19,000 will be left without support against gender-based violence. 

*Names changed for privacy and protection