When Kafou Fèy was forced to move

In August 2023, violence struck Carrefour-Feuilles (Kafou Fèy), a community within Port-au-Prince and the historic home of Bisou Bisou Haiti’s educational efforts. Families were forced to leave familiar streets, homes and community institutions. IOM documented thousands of people displaced during the first days of the emergency.

What the reporting tells us

When a community is displaced, learning is disrupted in ways that are not always visible. A student may leave behind notebooks, a quiet place to study, a reliable route to school and the neighbors who used to help with homework. Many families suddenly must prioritize shelter, food and safety.

For Bisou Bisou Haiti, the destruction of our physical learning center and the disruption to in-person operations have made this crisis painfully personal. Our historic center was in Kafou Fèy, Port-au-Prince—not Cap-Haïtien. This reflection does not claim a precise date or cause for the building’s destruction beyond the information our organization has confirmed.

The disruption starts at home

The first educational loss in displacement is often predictability. Families who have left their homes may no longer know which school is reachable, whether a teacher will be present, or where a child can keep books dry and safe. That uncertainty is difficult to represent on a school calendar, yet it shapes every decision about returning to learning.

What can help

For families and community groups, the most useful assistance is reliable, specific and locally informed. That may involve contact with a trusted educator, practical study supplies, access to a safe learning space or a way to connect with a suitable service. Any plan should be guided by current conditions rather than promises that cannot be kept.

A displaced family’s journey rarely ends with finding a roof. In the later chapters of this journal, we follow the harder questions: how students restart learning, how travel changes and which local supports help families regain a routine.