15 August 2017

PICHON/BELLE-ANSE, Haiti – Delicate and petite, Nélia is 25 but looks like a teenager. She has already been pregnant three times, and has endured more than her share of tragedy.

She lives in Pichon, a remote community in Belle-Anse, where the nearest health centre is a three-hour walk away. Like most women in Haiti, Nélia gave birth at home.

The first time, she went into labour prematurely. Her grandmother delivered the baby, who did not survive.

Monique Clesca

UNFPA | Former Representative

July 26, 2017

This piece was originally published in French in Le National.

They are 14-, 16-, and 17-year-old children in Haiti. Their adolescent lives fell apart when they got pregnant—putting their education, their future, and their lives in danger.

Jessica

Port-au-Prince, May 9, 2017 --- The Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) honors midwife Marie Lirette Casimir for her professionalism and dedication to saving lives.

On the night of the hurricane, October 3 to 4, 2017, Miss Casimir, who was on duty at Saint-Antoine's Hospital of Jeremie (South West of Haiti), risked her own life to help six women to give birth safely.

Port-au-Prince, January 23, 2017 --- The Ministry of Public Health, through the Health Directorate of South, organized with the support of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, a training on the emergency minimum system (MISP) and the clinic management of rape (CMR), in Les Cayes (south of Haiti), from 16 to 20 January 2016.

Some 20 health professionals from institutions in the south (including doctors, midwives and nurses) took part in this training, also organized in collaboration with OCHA, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Beaumont (Grand´Anse), November 17, 2016 --- "I was twisting in pain this Friday, November 11. Fortunate coincidence: Miss Lizaire visited me that day. She took care of me. I gave birth to a baby named Sonaldo, a boy. I encourage young people of the commune of Beaumont who are pregnant to visit Miss Lizaire¨.

JEREMIE, Haiti – The night Hurricane Matthew struck Haiti, Marie-Lyrette Casimir, 46, was the only midwife on duty at the maternity unit of St. Antoine Hospital in Jérémie. It would be the only building at the hospital not reduced to rubble.

The storm gathered strength around midnight, Ms. Casimir recounted. Winds over 200 kilometres per hour buffeted the hospital, ripping open parts of the roof. Torrential rain shattered windows, and the electricity supply was cut.