Nawal Al-Maghafi

Yes, it is. I mean, just speaking to what Diana was talking about, when we were in Port-au-Prince, I went to the safe house for victims of sexual abuse. And the lady that runs the safe house took us to meet people at the balcony. And when we got there, it was all these very young girls.

I thought that these were the children of the victims that we were about to meet. And then I was actually told that these were the survivors of sexual violence. Everyone in Haiti is touched by this. So many of the women, if not the majority of the women I spoke to when we were in Port-au-Prince,

have experienced some sort of sexual violence living in the city. And their testimony is some of the most horrific I've ever heard covering the story. Talking about multiple assailants, talking about how they were raped in front of their husbands and children and then saw their partners killed in front of them.

One of the things that really caught my eye when we were in Port-au-Prince is whilst we were covering these horrific stories, it was amazing to see these young girls and young children coming out of school in the morning and in the afternoons, because it just reminds you of how life goes on and a bit of normalcy. So I started looking into it and then I found out that these were private schools and the majority of schools that are still running in Port-au-Prince are only private schools.

There are barely any state schools that are still functioning. Many of them have been turned into IDP camps to house people that have fled the neighborhoods that have been taken over by the gangs. And others are in gang-controlled territory being used by the gangs. And Diana, in terms of supporting children with psychological trauma as well, what kind of help is there out there for that in Haiti?

But there was a lot of planning involved, right? We went to a nice hotel that had generators to take the place of when the state electricity cuts off. We had clean water. But that's not what the average Haitian has in Port-au-Prince. We drove around in armoured vehicles.

To protect ourselves from any stray bullets. But just planning for this and thinking about all the kind of risks and mitigating them ahead of going to Haiti. You think, how do people survive this every single day? And they don't. They have to take risks because they have to feed their children. They have to bring home food.

And we saw it with our very own eyes. We were driving around Port-au-Prince in our armoured vehicles. And then some shooting broke out between gang members and police. And there was this bus full of people who were heading to work, which had to just kind of hide behind cover as people were shooting across from either side of it. And this is what day-to-day life is like for the average Haitian in Port-au-Prince.

are armed and agile and can you know run around and shoot at the tires of these armored vehicles you know in one instance we were with them they shot at our tires they went flat and we kind of had to limp in these armored vehicles out of gang hell territory and it just gives you an idea of how little they can do because they're terrified of stepping out of these vehicles during our trip i went to meet one of the gang leaders his name was vaj

I asked him if he was afraid of the Kenyans. He said no, because how are they going to differentiate between us and civilians? We're embedded in society here and they're not going to be able to kind of sift us out. He also gave me an idea of who they're going up against, these fanatics basically. We can hear a little bit from him now, can't we?

I'm really glad you asked that question, because I think we do always focus on talking about the gangs and the gang leaders and the fighting when we talk about Haiti. But what really struck me about Haiti is the people's resilience. And you spoke about the local men within neighborhoods that keep their neighborhoods secure. We went to Pakor and to Kemskoff and we spent time with the vigilantes, young men who, when we were filming with them, covered their faces with balaclavas because they didn't want the gangs to be able to...

Kiitos.

He take it in rotation to keep their neighbourhoods secure. Just behind these men there was a market that had women and children and families getting food, going shopping. They're trying because the government is unable to, trying to keep their neighbourhoods safe and to keep the gangs away. Also

When we were doing the story about sexual violence, we went to all these safe houses to meet these women. And a lot of these safe houses, one of them run by Neges Mawan actually, are run by Haitian women. And when we speak to them about, you know, they come every day, they do courses to give these women agencies to be able to take care of themselves when they leave these safe houses.

He tekevät koulutuksia, he tekevät koulutuksia, he tekevät koulutuksia, he tekevät koulutuksia, he tekevät koulutuksia, he tekevät koulutuksia.

It's incredible. I mean, it's terrifying, but also quite inspiring to see them come to work every day and to have that kind of resilience and want to make a change in Haiti. And also in the food distribution sites, we went to multiple food distribution sites where people would come to these kitchens to get food for the day, all run by local Haitian organizations, people coming together to provide for their communities. It was incredible to see.

Noelle, sinä et ole haitallinen, mutta olet nähnyt Haittaa viime aikoina. Sama kysymys sinulle. Mitä on muuttunut? Kun olimme siellä viime aikoina, yksi asia, joka minua todella yllätti, on se, miten maailmanlaajuisuus puolustaa investointeja haittalaisiin asioihin, jotka todella vaikuttavat Haittaan. Olimme käynnissä organisaatioita kuten Nages Mawan ja toisia organisaatioita, jotka tukevat naisia ja toisista asioista, jotka todella tarvitsevat apua ja investointeja.

In Haiti and the international funders are now cutting aid rather than increasing it and are not investing in the things that matter in Haiti. And so I would say that the international community needs to keep supporting those organizations.