Haiti Plans Psychosocial Support for Students Ahead of School Year
Health and Education ministries are deploying trained facilitators to help students traumatized by armed-group violence, Le Nouvelliste reports.
A few days before the start of the school year, Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population and the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) are strengthening their collaboration to support students who have suffered psychological trauma linked to armed-group violence, according to Le Nouvelliste. The initiative falls under the national strategy for mental health in schools. According to the MENFP, 150 facilitators have already been trained and will soon be deployed in schools to provide close-range psychosocial support. The ministry also plans to make psychologists, doctors and nurses available to students. The measure comes amid persistent insecurity that has disrupted education across parts of the country and displaced many families. Le Nouvelliste did not specify a start date for the deployment or the number of schools that will be covered. The reported effort builds on the previously launched national mental health strategy for schools. Officials have framed the accompaniment as an attempt to address the emotional toll of gang violence on children as classes resume. Further details on funding, geographic scope and timing were not immediately available from the source reporting.