Poverty in Haiti

Haiti is an extremely poor country and is one of the poorest countries in the developing world. Haiti has a very short life expectancy which is only 57 years compared with Latin American average of 69 years. In this unfortunate country there is very poor health and unsanitary conditions. About one-fourth of the population has access to safe water. Moreover, the Haitian population is increasing at a high rate estimated at almost 200,000 people per year.
All this is happening because of political instability, corruption, and no private investments. Haiti is a highly welcomed development which has resulted in some progress. The most important problems of governance stay at the core of the country’s poverty.

Poverty trap is the interaction of some various factors as well as high population and growth. Some aspects of the trap are highlands, rampant, environmental degradation, especially in rural areas which increase the crime and violence, the systematic abuse of the human rights and the outward migration from this country. All this results in an increase in poverty and the associated human, physical, social, and environmental degradation.
The main reasons that Haiti is so poor are because of the long history of political oppression, lack of knowledge and literacy because most are too poor to pay for education, and it is large population in a small country.

To solve this big problem, Haiti needs to refocus the government’s role in different areas like public order, economic stability, securing property rights, and help increase conditions of health and education. These solutions will take years though and outside investment is the key, but it requires stability. The problem that needs urgently to be solved now is the access to food in Haiti. People are dying without the right amount of food and we need to quickly do whatever possible to solve this problem.

Poverty will not reduce in Haiti overnight though. It will take much effort and many problems to come to final progress which will be very slow. The result though, which will be a better life for the Haitians and their children will be a great result. The challenge that will be faced for all those concerned with the Haitian development is to identify a logical set of priorities in which efforts can be made for an effective result.

One start to help poverty in Haiti is an organization that has been made called Focopau- Haiti foundation against poverty. This foundation has been made since 1998 to improve standard of living in Haiti. It is a nonprofit organization which mostly serves in Port-au-Prince. They help the poor, widowed, orphaned, and needy. The foundation has currently 3,000 members and is working in the poorest areas of Haiti like Cite Soleil, Lilavios, Bon Repos, The Plaine, Gonaives, Titanyin, Artibonite, and Les Cayes. Some of the programs Focopau is working on are basic education, promotion of women, food distribution, orphanage, and health center.

I find poverty generally very upsetting but when I saw how bad it is in Haiti, I could never imagine what these poor Haitians go through in their life. Families are suffering so badly that they even have to use violence to get food for their starving children. It is so unfair for them to suffer like this with hardly any food and shelter. We really need to do something to stop this from happening anymore because more and more people are suffering and sadly dying.





Bibliography:
• www.youtube.com
• why is Haiti so poor- www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/misctopic/leftover/whypoor.htm
• Poverty in Haiti-The New York Times- www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/04/18/world/0418-HAITI_5.html
• PovertyNet Library- poverty2.forumone.com/library/view/8648
• Focopau- www.haitipoverty.org/index.html