Dajabón, Dominican Republic, and Les Cayes, Haiti (CNN)When Pauline Philippe found out she was pregnant with twins, she felt a flash of happiness. Then she burst into tears in front of the ultrasound technician.
"Why are you crying?" she remembers him asking. Trying to cheer her up, he added: "You're having twins, Preval and Aristide!" -- referring to two former Haitian presidents.
Haiti at the time was still badly shaken by a deadly earthquake that struck the capital Port-au-Prince two years prior in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The disaster spurred a massive influx of relief workers and aid groups, including a contingent of United Nations peacekeepers who brought a deadly cholera epidemic with them to the small Caribbean nation, resulting in another nearly 10,000 deaths.
The man who fathered Philippe's twins was part of the international assistance effort, a UN policeman on temporary assignment in Port-au-Prince. Married with a family back home in Niger, she says, he did not stick around.
"I thought about everything that could happen," Phillippe told CNN. "I called the father and told him I was pregnant with twins. He said, 'How can that be? From me? I'm going to leave the country, you'll have bastards. You can't raise kids without a father."
But in November 2012, the then-26-year-old gave birth to a girl and boy. Their father left the country two months later.Philippe is one of untold numbers of women and girls around the world raising children fathered by UN peacekeepers and staffers. From 2010 to February of this year, the UN has recorded 463 paternity claims against its personnel, of which 55 have been verified. In 298 cases, action remains "pending." Those are only the people who have come forward.
"Why are you crying?" she remembers him asking. Trying to cheer her up, he added: "You're having twins, Preval and Aristide!" -- referring to two former Haitian presidents.
Haiti at the time was still badly shaken by a deadly earthquake that struck the capital Port-au-Prince two years prior in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of people. The disaster spurred a massive influx of relief workers and aid groups, including a contingent of United Nations peacekeepers who brought a deadly cholera epidemic with them to the small Caribbean nation, resulting in another nearly 10,000 deaths.
The man who fathered Philippe's twins was part of the international assistance effort, a UN policeman on temporary assignment in Port-au-Prince. Married with a family back home in Niger, she says, he did not stick around.
"I thought about everything that could happen," Phillippe told CNN. "I called the father and told him I was pregnant with twins. He said, 'How can that be? From me? I'm going to leave the country, you'll have bastards. You can't raise kids without a father."
But in November 2012, the then-26-year-old gave birth to a girl and boy. Their father left the country two months later.Philippe is one of untold numbers of women and girls around the world raising children fathered by UN peacekeepers and staffers. From 2010 to February of this year, the UN has recorded 463 paternity claims against its personnel, of which 55 have been verified. In 298 cases, action remains "pending." Those are only the people who have come forward.
Fathered by a UN peacekeepers and left behind
