JOHN YANG: In Haiti, years of chaos and instability have brought the country to the brink of collapse.

More than a million people, that's nearly 10 percent of the population, have been displaced.

Now, as the Trump Administration eliminates most U.S. foreign aid contracts, access to life saving health services in Haiti are in jeopardy.

Ali Rogin spoke with James Elder of UNICEF who recently visited Haiti.

ALI ROGIN: Thank you so much for joining us.

James.

Can you tell us about what things are like on the ground in Haiti right now?

JAMES ELDER, Spokesperson, UNICEF: There's not many historic examples, certainly present ones where you've got a capital city, Port-au-Prince, where 85 percent of that capital city is controlled by armed groups.

85 percent, and it changes even when I was there.

There areas that are deemed safe, where there are still incursions by these armed groups.

So what that means for everyday people is that huge numbers of them have been displaced.

So a lot of people have lost their homes, a lot of people have lost their livelihoods, a lot of children out of school, a lot of hospitals have closed.

And then there are those people who have not been able to flee those areas.

So they live in those areas.

And there is the constant threat of violence, the constant threat of sexual violence.

In a lot of ways it's almost lawless.

So it's a remarkably difficult place and it is not on the right trajectory for those everyday Haitians.

ALI ROGIN: You mentioned the children are out of school.

But let's talk a little bit more about how the children of Haiti are being affected by all of this unrest right now.

JAMES ELDER: Look, it's hard not to share indicators that speak to a downward spiral.

I could give also many examples of those Haitians who are on those front lines who are trying to look after those children, who are the teachers, the health workers, the social workers.

But yeah, the reality is you've got hundreds of thousands of children out of school.

We see sexual violence from 2023 to last year with a tenfold increase.

Tenfold.

That's 1000 percent.

That is mind boggling when the stories of what that sexual violence means against children.

I've met social workers who are extraordinary in the way that they will care for these children and look after these children.

And UNICEF has safe houses.

But again, the security forces are struggling to hold on to the limited areas of Port au Prince that they currently do.

So for children, it means that they're being pushed out of their homes.

And I think we constantly hear this whether we're talking about Haiti or Sudan or Gaza.

Ali, we hear this idea of being displaced.

And I think there's a worrying sense that people have -- a passive sense to that almost of this being moved from one place to another.

What it actually means is a violent upheaval.

So if I just take a single case of a mum and her children, this is a mother who had worked pretty much seven days a week for the last 10 years to buy small business, to own her own home, and then in the flash of one afternoon as the armed groups came through, she fled all of that.

She fled her business, she lost everything that she'd been saving for.

She left her home, she took her children, and they're in a camp.

They're in a camp for displaced people in the capital, where there are water shortages, where children don't have the same access to school, that sort of scenario of everyday people who've done everything right, if you will, everything they possibly can in terms of their work ethic, in terms of keeping their children in school.

But there are forces just way outside of their control, which is why there's that urgent need for international support, not to be leaving Haiti, but to be very much there at this absolute time of need.

ALI ROGIN: Right now in the United States, there is tremendous upheaval when it comes to foreign aid.

UNICEF, of course, is a global organization administered by the United Nations.

But how is UNICEF navigating these conversations and events that are taking place in Washington that seem to be potentially impacting the access to aid on the ground in places like Haiti, in the clearest.

JAMES ELDER: In a sense, you know, behind closed doors, you know, sitting with those leaders.

I have colleagues who, as I say, are on those front lines in the Gaza, if we talk about Sudan and Ukraine.

But we also have great context in the halls of power, and it's very important to sit with them.

And the United States has, of course, been a very generous donor to UNICEF, to the children of Haiti, for a long, long time.

Now, it's not entirely clear as we work through those executive orders, but I think what we do know is that any prolonged suspension on those activities is going to have a negative impact on those children, on those workers, on those people who stayed in Haiti, on the pediatrician I met who, you know, does 15 hours a day and who's added a malnutrition ward to her hospital and is now essentially running the largest functioning hospital in Haiti and is massively overcrowded, given the need, given the malnutrition or the childbirth or the vaccination or the gunshot wounds.

These are the people that require support.

People who are very much staying in Haiti and wanting to turn things around.

And when we talk of, you know, sort of education, it's one of those messages we share.

There's not a greater investment you can make in terms of development or in a war zone.

You educate a girl, you know, she has children later, she understands nutrition, she has a higher income.

There is such a clear argument in terms of a practical sense, not even principled, a practical sense in terms of some of these services.

So, you know, there's a lot to still unpack in terms of what these decisions will mean.

But we do know that if they are prolonged, we are going to see a negative impact.

So we just hope that level of generosity we've seen from such a big donor like the United States stays on those programs that have such a clear benefit for those people.

Bigger benefit, of course, for the security and stability of the region.

ALI ROGIN: James Elder, spokesman for UNICEF, thank you so much for your time.