糖心传媒

Catalia Guerrier's pregnant mother died several months ago, burned alive in their home set on fire by armed gangs that have taken control of nearly all of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Homeless and destitute, the 12-year-old girl lived on the streets for weeks, one of about one million Haitians, many of them children, forced to flee their homes because of gang violence.

For almost five years, Sumaya's work as a psychologist at a charity-run clinic in northwest Syria offered a lifeline to the many people scarred by the country's 14-year civil war.

She counselled patients depressed and suicidal after years in displacement camps, or traumatised by the conflict.

Eveline Janvier's teenage son died when he was swept away by floods in Haiti last year and her grief is shot through with the knowledge that this year's hurricane season will likely cause more tragedy in a nation brought to its knees by gang violence.

Janvier 40, lives in the coastal town of Léogâne, about 30 km (19 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince, where thousands of people have been killed and displaced by fighting between heavily armed gangs.

Haitian high school teacher Miguel Jacquet used to be able to provide for his family, but a dire humanitarian and economic crisis has seen him join the swelling ranks of the poor.

Jacquet, 45, is increasingly reliant on money sent from relatives abroad as surging inflation and fuel shortages put basics such as food and medicine out of reach for many.