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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 24 November 2022

U.N.: Children in Haiti hit by cholera as malnutrition rises

By EVENS SANON and ring gangs set her house on
DÁNICA COTO fire. They temporarily lived
Associated Press in a public park and then
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti moved in with her sister as
(AP) — A cholera outbreak she continues to struggle to
sweeping through Haiti is find food for her children.
claiming a growing number A social worker who spot-
of children amid a surge in ted her emaciated 5-year-
malnutrition, UNICEF an- old daughter at the park
nounced Wednesday. urged David to take her to
The deadly combination the clinic.
means that about 40% of “They told me she was suf-
cholera cases in the impov- fering from malnutrition,”
erished country of more David said in a quiet voice,
than 11 million inhabitants embarrassed to confide
now involve children, with her family’s problems in the
9 out of 10 cases reported clinic packed with patients.
in areas where people are Nearby, a 15-year-old
starving, according to the teenage boy was sleeping,
United Nations agency. an IV in his thin arm.
“We have to plan for the A patient suffering cholera symptoms is treated at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in the His friend, Island Meus, said
worst,” Manuel Fontaine, Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. she was taking turns with his
director of UNICEF’s Office Associated Press mother to care for him.
of Emergency Programs, “He sometimes goes with-
told The Associated Press $28 million to help feed, hy- On a recent morning at tion cases have increased out food,” she confided,
on Tuesday during a visit to drate and care for 1.4 mil- the Gheskio medical clinic by at least 40% in recent adding that he occasion-
Haiti. lion people affected by the in Port-au-Prince, nurses, weeks, with nurses feeding ally eats a bowl of rice with
Cholera has killed more crisis, with that number ex- doctors and social workers children soup in the morn- plantains when his family
than 200 people since pected to increase as mal- tended to malnourished ing and rice, beans, meat can afford it.
the first deaths were an- nutrition worsens, especially children who also were and vegetables in the af- Haiti’s government recent-
nounced in early October, in urban areas such as the fighting cholera. ternoon to help them gain ly requested cholera vac-
and another 9,300 are hos- Cite Soleil slum in the capi- “This is a challenge for us,” weight. It’s food that not cines, but there’s a world-
pitalized, according to the tal of Port-au-Prince, some- said Dr. Karine Sévère, who many parents can afford in wide shortage of them and
Haitian Health Ministry, but thing that hasn’t been seen runs the clinic’s cholera de- a country where about 60% 31 countries are reporting
experts believe the number before. partment. “When the chil- of the population earns less outbreaks, so it’s unclear
is much higher due to un- “Cholera and malnutrition dren are malnourished, it than $2 a day. if and when they will ar-
derreporting. are a lethal combination, takes more time for them to Roselord David, 40, says she rive. However, Fontaine
UNICEF and Haiti’s govern- one leading to the other,” recover.” and her five children had said Haiti would be given
ment are seeking at least Fontaine said. She estimates that malnutri- to flee Cite Soleil after war- priority.q

Dominican sugar imports tied to forced labor rejected by U.S.

By DÁNICA COTO these inhumane practices The Associated Press that it dollars to improve the work- and work on sprawling
Associated Press from U.S. supply chains,” received the news about ing and living conditions of sugarcane fields, many of
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) said AnnMarie Highsmith the import ban with “great our employees in agricultur- them Haitian migrants or
— The U.S. government an- with the CBP’s Office of astonishment.” al areas, guaranteeing de- descendants of them.
nounced Wednesday that Trade. Central Romana “In recent decades we cent wages and increased “This is needed to improve
it will detain all imports of said in a written response to have invested millions of benefits, training and edu- their situation,” Roudy Jo-
sugar and related products cation workshops, as well seph, a labor rights activist
made in the Dominican Re- as training in human rights in the Dominican Republic,
public by Central Romana and duties of our workers,” said in a phone interview.
Corporation, Ltd. amid al- it said. “We’ve been asking for im-
legations that it uses forced Central Romana, which provements for decades.”
labor. has long faced those types The Associated Press last
A U.S. Customs and Border of accusations, is the Do- year visited several sugar-
Protection investigation minican Republic’s largest cane fields owned by Cen-
found that the company sugar producer in an indus- tral Romana where workers
allegedly isolated workers, try that exports more than complained about a lack
withheld wages, fostered $100 million worth of prod- of wages, being forced to
abusive working and liv- ucts to the U.S. every year. live in cramped housing
ing conditions and pushed One of Central Romana’s that lacked water and re-
for excessive overtime, the owners is the Florida-based strictive rules including not
agency said in a news re- Fanjul Corp. being allowed to grow a
lease. A youth plays near the machine where the sugar cane is The announcement was garden to feed their fami-
“Manufacturers like Central weighed in the Lima batey, or neighborhood, in La Romana, cheered by activists who lies since transportation
Romana, who fail to abide where Central Romana Corporation, Ltd. operates its sugar have long decried the to the nearest grocery
by our laws, will face con- operations in Dominican Republic, Nov. 17, 2021. treatment of tens of thou- store miles away was too
sequences as we root out Associated Press sands of workers who live costly.q