Haiti hospital cares for kids amid gang violence,

Marie Michelle Joseph’s 9-month-old daughter is weak and has a persistent fever. After being turned away from Haiti’s only general hospital, her daughter Myleisha was finally accepted at Fontaine Hospital, a UNICEF-sponsored facility in the capital Port au Prince – in an area the rest of her family considers too unsafe to visit. “I’m the only one by her side,” the 27-year-old mother said. Myleisha’s twin brother died just a week after he was born and Joseph is miles away from her relatively well-to-do area of the capital. Large parts of Haiti are under the control of heavily armed gangs, whose frequent turf wars put the livelihoods of its residents and aid workers at risk. Food producers are unable to move their produce to the places where they are sorely needed. The Fontaine Hospital is located in the Cite Soleil neighborhood, where the G9 and G-Pep gangs have been fighting a vicious turf war. Many patients cannot pay even basic fees and the hospital struggles to afford equ
ipment and pay their staff.