‘Life under the tent is not safe, especially for young women’: understanding intersectional violence among internally displaced youth in Leogane, Haiti

Abstract

Background: Haiti’s 2010 earthquake devastated social, health, and economic infrastructure and left 2 million persons homeless. Over 6 years later 61,000 people remain displaced, most lacking protection, services, and durable solutions. Structural contexts elevate risks of gender-based violence (GBV) targeting internally displaced (ID) girls and women. Objective: We used an intersectionality framework to explore lived experiences and understanding of violence among ID young men and women in Leogane, Haiti. Methods: We conducted six focus groups, three with ID young women (n = 30) and three with ID young men (n = 30) aged 18–24 years, and 11 in-depth individual interviews with frontline workers in Leogane. Focus groups and interviews were conducted in Kreyol, transcribed verbatim, translated into English, and analyzed using narrative thematic techniques. Results: Findings revealed violence experienced by ID youth was (re)produced at the intersection of gender, poverty, displacement, and age. Multi-level forms of violence included structural (e.g. poverty), community (e.g. gender norms, and interpersonal (e.g. family expectations) dimensions. Coping strategies spanned intrapersonal (hope), community (social support), and structural (employment/education) dimensions. Conclusions: Interventions to reduce violence should be tailored to address the social inequities that emerge at the intersection of youth, poverty, displacement, and hegemonic gender norms.

Social ecological factors associated with experiencing violence among urban refugee and displaced adolescent girls and young women in informal settlements in Kampala, Uganda: a cross-sectional study

“…We also found that food insecurity was associated with increased exposure to young adulthood polyvictimization among urban refugee and displaced AGYW. This corroborates research that identifies poverty and its sequelae—including men’s frustrations with attempting to realize financial security for themselves and their families—with increased violence towards women in post-conflict Sierra Leone [55], Liberia [55], Colombia [31] and post-earthquake Haiti [27]. The high violence targeting both refugee and non-refugee AGYW in Kampala’s informal settlements calls for slum specific interventions to foster economic stability, upgrade physical infrastructure, and health and educational programs [52, 56].…”

“…Economic insecurity exacerbates risks of violence among refugee and displaced AGYW in complex ways. Forcibly displaced AGYW may engage in transactional sex to support individual and family survival [27, 28], in turn, transactional sex may elevate exposure to violence [29, 30]. Economic insecurity may challenge men’s traditional expectations of gendered roles as the breadwinner, in turn contributing to IPV.…”

“…Economic insecurity may challenge men’s traditional expectations of gendered roles as the breadwinner, in turn contributing to IPV. For instance, young women in post-earthquake Haiti contextualized men’s violence in relationship to frustration regarding food and housing insecurity and a lack of employment options [27]. A qualitative study in post-conflict Colombia [31] applied a social ecological lens to understand the interconnections between community violence, violence against children, and IPV.…”

Transactional Sex among Young Women in Post-Earthquake Haiti: Prevalence and Vulnerability to HIV

“…The link between violence and economic dependence has been established in other studies with Haitian women (Fawzi et al, 2005, Gage andHutchinson, 2006;Hunter et.al, 2011;Logie et al, 2017). Research has demonstrated that interpersonal partner violence is very common (Logie and Daniel 2015).…”

Intersections between gender and other relevant social determinants of health inequalities

“…Especially interesting examples of papers that take an intra-categorical perspective are Logié’s paper exploring the experiences of violence among internally displaced youth in Haiti [15]; and Shannon et al’s analysis of gender, violence and health in the Amazon of Peru [16]. The first, because it focuses on a category of oppression that has not yet received much attention: displacement.…”