Cité-Soleil: grinding poverty, relentless violence

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28-06-2006 Photo Collection

Cité-Soleil: grinding poverty, relentless violence

Built in the 1960s to house a few thousand workers, Cité-Soleil is now one of the largest shantytowns in the northern hemisphere and a microcosm of all the ills that beset Haitian society: endemic unemployment, illiteracy, the collapse of public services, insalubrity, crime and violence.

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Haitian Red Cross volunteers rush a maternity case to a hospital run by Médecins sans Frontières – Given the worsening situation in Cité-Soleil, the ICRC decided in June 2004 to train and support Haitian Red Cross volunteers present on the spot. The purpose was to ensure that people wounded in armed clashes or needing emergency treatment could be brought to suitable medical facilities, in particular those run by Médecins sans Frontières, which perform war surgery. In 2005, nearly 700 people were transported in local taxis fitted out as makeshift ambulances.

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