Meet Caroline^*, a 15-year-old girl living in a camp for people forced to flee violence in their communities in Haiti. More than 1.2 million people in Haiti, half of them children, are internally displaced. Rising inflation has caused food prices to skyrocket in the Caribbean country, and many families can’t feed themselves.

Caroline can’t sleep when it rains.

Her mom tries to protect her and her three siblings by sleeping in the spot where the damage from water seeping in is the worst. But in Port-au-Prince, it rains from March to November. There is no escaping it. Almost every day and every night, water drenches their home – a small corner in a school building that has been converted into a camp. This is where they live now, after fleeing violence by armed groups in Haiti’s capital city.

A life left behind

“My mom is my rock,” shares Caroline. “She is the one supporting us.”

While they are doing their best to survive, Caroline’s memories of her old life linger. “When I was home, I used to live well with my mother and father,” she says. “I was happy. I used to play, joke and talk with my friends.”

Armed groups shattered that peace. Their home was burned down, and while the family was running away to escape the violence, her father was shot and killed.

“Every day I cry because I remember my dad,” recalls Caroline.

A dream of returning to school

Now she shelters in the school and dreams about the day she can go back to classes – and grow up to help her friends and family.

“When I see other children going to school, my eyes always tear up,” she says. “I want to go back to school so I can help my mom, brother, my sisters and everyone around me. I want to learn a lot so I can become a nurse.”

^*Name has been changed.

Violence in Haiti is fueling hunger

Lettycia doesn’t live in a camp like Caroline, but she knows what it feels like to go to school on an empty stomach. Some days, she can barely complete the one-hour walk to school and back home.

“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.

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 returned from a deployment to Haiti in 2023.

“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.

“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.”

“Haiti cannot wait another day”

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.