The fire of an orphanage in Haiti caused the death of 15 children, said Friday the judge of the commune of Kenscoff, Raymonde Jean Antoine. Two children died in the orphanage and 13 from suffocation at the Fermathe hospital, said the magistrate. The fire started shortly after 9 p.m. local Thursday.
"According to the statements of one of the children, the origin of the fire would come from candles that they had lit to light their rooms because the electrical system (had) a problem," said judge Raymonde Jean Antoine, specifying that 'An investigation was opened to determine the cause of the disaster and to identify the persons responsible for the establishment. Friday morning, the magistrate proceeded in the building to the death of the two victims at undetermined ages, while identifying the damage caused by the fire by browsing through all the rooms.
" Like animals "
The orphanage which, according to her, no longer had legal authorization to operate since 2013, was located in an unsanitary two-story building, with bunk beds - some in deplorable condition - crammed into small rooms, with a cramped staircase and only an exit door open. "The conditions in which the children lived are really, really neglected: we see that the children lived like animals", deplored the judge Jean Antoine, adding to having "not noticed the presence of fire extinguishers".
The orphanage of the Church of understanding of the Bible, located in Kenscoff, commune on the heights of the agglomeration of Port-au-Prince sheltered approximately 66 children, according to Raymonde Jean Antoine. Only three adults were present at the time of the tragedy.
No operating authorization
"This center has no authorization to operate," confirmed Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, director of the Haitian administration for child protection (IBESR). "It is a center which, I believe, receives money from the religious sector, from foreign missionaries, I do not know exactly, but therefore without any legality," laments Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin. At the start of 2019, the administration had noted that only 35 of the 756 accommodation centers for minors identified across the country had operating authorization.
On the sidelines of the ongoing judicial investigations, the public administration is working to "recover the surviving children, who are traumatized after having experienced this tragedy, and place them at the IBESR transition center where they will have psychosocial support", said Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin.
In 2017, Lumos, an organization created by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, revealed that at least $ 70 million has reached only one-third of Haitian orphanages annually. An amount estimated after the sole analysis of the budget reports of foreign NGOs, the accounts of religious missions not being made available.
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