Officials have no formal explanation for the increase in the number of abandoned babies in the metropolitan area
The Hôpital universitaire La Paix, in Delmas 33, recorded an average of one to two abandoned newborns per year before 2024. Since then, the phenomenon has intensified significantly: around a dozen cases were recorded in 2025, and again in 2026.
Photo of the “La Paix” University Hospital in Delmas 33, taken on October 8 by Casimir Philicien.
Employees at three other hospitals in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area told AyiboPost that they are facing the same phenomenon of newborn abandonment. They say they lack the resources needed to meet the children’s needs, particularly in terms of housing, food and care.
Most of the babies have disabilities, according to Dr. Pascale Gassant, director of Saint-Damien Hospital in Tabarre. Autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome are among the most common conditions.
Abandoned child at Saint-Damien Hospital in Tabarre. Photo by Wilson Saintelus
The causes of the recent increase have not been clearly established. However, healthcare professionals believe it may be linked to a combination of factors, including worsening poverty, an increase in sexual violence, forced displacement caused by insecurity, lack of access to abortion, and the difficulties some families face in caring for a child with a disability or special medical needs.
According to Dr. Paul Junior Fontilus, executive director of Hôpital universitaire La Paix, the resurgence observed since 2024 has occurred in a context marked by the destruction of the Hôpital de l’Université d’État d’Haïti (HUEH), as well as difficulties accessing the Isaïe Jeanty maternity hospital in Cité Soleil because of insecurity.
Abandoned children arrive at hospitals under a variety of circumstances. At Hôpital La Paix, some newborns found in garbage bins are brought in by police officers or municipal authorities. Others are abandoned after birth.
Abandoned child at Saint-Damien Hospital in Tabarre. Photo by Wilson Saintelus
“We do not necessarily know the reasons behind these abandonments, but they often involve young women who come to give birth and nevertheless decide to abandon their child afterward,” explains Dr. Fontilus.
In Tabarre, Saint-Damien Hospital cares for about ten children between the ages of three and fifteen who have disabilities and were abandoned at birth within the facility. Some are brought to the hospital in medical emergencies and their parents never return to claim them. Most have autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, the hospital’s director, Dr. Pascale Gassant, told AyiboPost.
The hospital has been caring for abandoned children since 2003, according to Dr. Gassant, who has worked at the institution for 23 years. To meet their needs, the facility established a room known as “Poisson” in 2006, equipped with ten beds and toys.
The director stressed, however, that the space is not a suitable long-term solution. “Even though we visit them and play with them, a hospital is not a place designed to raise children,” Dr. Gassant says.
Abandoned child at Saint-Damien Hospital in Tabarre. Photo by Wilson Saintelus
The Institut du Bien-Être social et de Recherches (IBESR), the public agency responsible, among other duties, for child protection, is supposed to intervene when a child is abandoned in a hospital.
In principle, hospital administrators must report the situation to the IBESR. Social workers then assess the child’s family situation and seek care options. When parents cannot be located or are unable to care for the child, the IBESR considers placing the child with a foster family or in a licensed children’s home.
In practice, however, the efforts undertaken by hospitals, particularly for children with disabilities, generally do not result in a solution.
According to the director of Saint-Damien Hospital, children with malformations or disabilities are not systematically accepted by the IBESR. She says agency officials cite a lack of resources and a shortage of available placements for such children.
Abandoned child at Saint-Damien Hospital in Tabarre. Photo by Wilson Saintelus
Saint-Damien has made several unsuccessful attempts to obtain intervention from the IBESR. “We were told that abandoned children aged two or three months would be taken and placed with families. No one seems truly interested in taking them in,” Dr. Gassant told AyiboPost.
The IBESR did not respond to AyiboPost’s requests for comment.
Some abandoned children receiving care at Hôpital universitaire La Paix were referred there by the IBESR or by other healthcare institutions, according to Salming Dieujuste, a social worker who has worked at the hospital for more than a year.
Abandoned children with disabilities remain under hospital care even after their medical treatment is completed. At Hôpital La Paix, staff members contribute their own money to care for the babies during their stay at the facility, according to Dr. Fontilus.
Abandoned child at Saint-Damien Hospital in Tabarre. Photo by Wilson Saintelus
The Fontaine Hospital in Cité Soleil, confronted with the same reality, was forced to open a nursery to accommodate children abandoned or left at the hospital.
The hospital’s executive director, José Ulysse, also created the Fondation Fontaine four years ago. The organization operates a shelter in Vivy Mitchell, a neighborhood of Pétion-Ville.
The hospital recorded about ten cases of children abandoned by their mothers after childbirth between 2023 and 2024. More than 25 children between one month and three years old are currently being cared for by the foundation, Ulysse says. “Previously, we kept them at the hospital, but we realized it is not the best place for them to grow up,” José Ulysse told AyiboPost.
Saint-Damien Hospital has had to allocate part of its operating budget to expenses related to feeding and clothing the children. The institution operates thanks to donations from abroad, Dr. Gassant explains. “But locally, no state institution provides us with anything,” she adds. “It is also thanks to these funds that the hospital can continue caring for these children with disabilities.”
By : Fenel Pélissier
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