“His Future will not be Bright”: A qualitative analysis of mothers’ lived experiences raising peacekeeper-fathered children in Haiti

Abstract

• Children fathered by peacekeepers are one group of Children Born of War. • We explored the lived experience of raising UN peacekeeper-fathered children in Haiti. • The peacekeeper’s abandonment resulted in intergenerational cycles of poverty. • Single motherhood was navigated by the mothers, who leveraged strength/adaptability. • Novel policies should focus on mitigating the intergenerational poverty experienced. Military presence in fragile settings leads to complex and multifaceted interactions between local women and girls of the host country and foreign military personnel. Children Born of War are one consequence of sexual interactions, whether consensual or not, between foreign armies or peacekeeping forces and women and girls of the host country. One particular group of Children Born of War are children fathered by UN peacekeeping personnel and born to civilian women and girls who reside in countries that host peace operations. Using Haiti and The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) as a case study, this research explores the lived experience of raising children fathered by UN peacekeepers from the perspectives of Haitian mothers. Haitian research assistants conducted eighteen semi-structured interviews in Kreyol with Haitian women raising children fathered by MINUSTAH peacekeepers. We analyzed the interview transcripts using empirical phenomenology to explore major themes related to the mothers’ lived experiences. The lived experience of raising a child fathered by a MINUSTAH peacekeeper was defined by the absent father, single motherhood, intergenerational cycles of poverty, and strength and adaptability. However, the experience of being a mother to a peacekeeper-fathered child in Haiti was influenced by the use of social media to create a visual identity of the father, strategies employed to disclose the child’s identity, and the decision of whether or not to further engage in romantic and sexual relationships with other men. The present research advances the literature on children born of war and contributes new insights toward UN-related policy and program changes that support the life courses of the children and their mothers. Key considerations regarding new directions for policies and programs include employing the life course perspective to secure education as a pathway toward attaining meaningful and sustainable employment for both the mother and the child and supporting the mothers’ disclosures of paternal identity to the children. The UN’s existing trust fund may assist in the development, delivery, and evaluation of resources to support children born of war and their mothers, thereby providing mechanisms for transitional justice.