DAJABÓN, Dominican Republic — Kelvin Vensy sits for hours on end on a metal barricade that separates Haiti from the Dominican Republic, holding on to a cardboard box with wax candles.
“Two candles for 15 pesos,” Kelvin, 13, shouts in creole over and over, as people rush by.
Kelvin said he takes every cent he makes to his single mother in the border town of Ouanaminthe in Haiti. She and Kelvin’s 10-year-old brother and 14-year-old sister are also street vendors.
“I try to go to school Monday through Thursday,” he said. On Fridays, he works all day at the market.
The 13-year-old is one of many Haitian children working in this binational marketplace, selling items in order to support their families. Last year, before the violence escalated, UNICEF estimated that 4 million children needed humanitarian assistance in Haiti.
Between family needs and minimal safety to attend schools throughout Port-au-Prince, many parents are scrambling to ensure that their children not only stay out of direct harm, but also continue their education amid the ongoing strife caused by violent groups.
More than 500,000 children had lost access to education as of 2022, UNICEF said last year. Nearly 1,700 schools have been closed in Port-au-Prince since gang violence increased in April 2022, according to the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training.
“No child can go to school while bullets are flying in the air, it is dangerous and it should not be,” said Bruno Maes, a UNICEF representative in Haiti. Some schools have turned into shelters for the 377,000 people estimated to have been displaced across the country in recent years, including 15,000 more displaced since February.
Danielle Nesly, 41, and her husband, Pierre Nesly, 47, said they and their two daughters left their home in Port-au-Prince for the northern part of the country, in Cap-Haitien. But the fear of gang violence spreading and the deterioration of the country’s economy…
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