Providing Healthcare In Haiti Still Under Threat Of Gang Violence, Survey Shows Urgency To Act In Favor Of Humanity
Rachel V. Belt, one of the researchers and authors of the report
By Joseph Guyler C. Delva
Haitian-Caribbean News Network
Thur, Sept. 26, 2024
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (HCNN)-- Violent gangs in Haiti continue to kill, rape, kidnap, torture and terrorize innocent people, including healthcare workers, whose lives are constantly threatened as they try to protect and save lives in the troubled Caribbean country, facing an acute humanitarian crisis and where criminal gangs continue to call the shots, as emphasized in a recently released report.
“Providing healthcare under the threat of gang violence: a survey of Haitian healthcare providers,” is the title of of an article based on a research collaboration between Oxford University, the Center for Haitian Studies and the University of Miami.
"It (the study) provides evidence of the kidnapping risk healthcare workers face and shares the perspective of a medical community operating in a challenging context to provide a continuity of care under the threat of violence," reads the report prepared by a team of researchers.
"The survey of Haitian health workers and students show a significant risk of kidnapping with 44% of respondents reporting that they had a colleague kidnapped in the previous 2 years," wrote the authors of the study published on August 23, 2024.
During the past months, there has been an increase in homicides and kidnappings in the capital Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, but many more people today live with hope that gang violence could significantly reduce, given the presence of a foreign multinational security force that is being built.
In addition to having some of the worst health outcomes in the region, Haiti currently faces a disastrous political and economic crisis.
The report says "5 of the 249 respondents had been kidnapped and all were young, female health workers. 74% of health workers and students surveyed reported they plan to continue their profession abroad."
Several experts bank on teletraning to help fill the void when it comes to making badly needed upgrade available to the working professionals, even from a distance.
"Although teletraining was viewed as a positive opportunity to continue training cadres of medical professionals, health workers shared numerous limitations present for the expansion of telemedicine in the Haitian context," researchers say.
The study is a cross-sectional, mixed methods online survey of health workers and medical students in Port-au-Prince from May 20 – September 15, 2023.
The report also "describes the experience of the Haitian healthcare professionals during this crisis and documenting barriers to teletraining and telemedicine, this survey documents design considerations for mobile phone surveys with healthcare providers working in areas affected by conflict."
The report was prepared by Rachel Victoria Belt, Nadege Jacques and Kazem Rahimi, among others.
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This article is written by
Joseph Guyler C. Delva for
Haitian-Caribbean News Network (HCNN)
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