Haitians need aid and face ‘staggering levels’ of gender violence, UN children’s chief says

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the U.N. children’s agency says close to half of Haiti’s people need humanitarian aid. That is an estimated 5.2 million people, including 3 million children. UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell also said Thursday that thousands of young Haitians face “staggering levels” of gender-based violence, including the rape of young girls. Russell recounted an 11-year-old girl who was eight months pregnant telling how five men had grabbed her on the street and raped her. She said a woman told her how men barged into her home and raped her, and when her 20-year-old sister resisted they set her on fire and burned the house.