MUSKEGO, WI — Of all the countries in the Western Hemisphere Haiti is most stricken by poverty. Haiti’s Human Development Index is at 170 out of 189 nations. Children born in Haiti today have a 55% chance of not reaching their full potential. More than 6 million of Haiti’s citizens live in poverty. Almost 42% of the six million who live in poverty live in extreme poverty defined as living on less than $1.12 per day. COVID-19 has posed an even greater challenge for providing help to Haitians living in poverty. While COVID-19 cases have been low in Haiti, the impact it has had and will continue to have on the economy is troubling. The Gross Domestic Product of Haiti was expected to be negatively impacted by more than 3.1%.
Haiti’s susceptibility to natural disasters makes it additionally vulnerable to poverty. Haiti has a long history of earthquakes and hurricanes. With such natural disasters come flooding and landslides. These conditions make it especially hard for Haiti’s economy to improve. In 2004, Haiti experienced massive rainstorms. Communities were forced to evacuate and leave their homes, which were washed away in the flooding. Around 2,400 people died in this tragedy.
Haiti’s landscape is susceptible to erosion, which makes flooding especially dangerous. In 2008, three hurricanes and one tropical storm caused more than $8 billion in damage and killed 800 people. In 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti killing 300,000 people. That year Haiti also was forced to deal with another hurricane and a cholera outbreak. The complications of the earthquake made dealing with the additional issues even more difficult since so many individuals were displaced. In 2016, the country was hit again with another massive hurricane, costing an additional $1.9 billion in damage. It left 600 people dead and tens of thousands of people displaced.
Living Conditions for Some in Haiti
The Borgen Project spoke with Dr. Anita Frew, the executive director of Transformation Ministries regarding how she brings help to Haiti and how she was able to modify things considering COVID-19. While the World Bank has illustrated Haiti’s unemployment rate as 14% for 2020, Dr. Frew has seen the suffering of the people of Haiti firsthand and identifies the unemployment rate as much higher at 90%. In order to find work, many must leave the country. Single mothers are left with children they cannot feed.
Some families abandon their children because they do not know how they can take care of them. She has seen mothers make cookies out of mud and contaminated water, which they leave out in the sun to dry so that they have something to feed their children so that they do not feel hungry. Women lack transportation to hospitals during childbirth and are left to give birth at home in unsanitary conditions.
After witnessing the suffering of the people in Haiti Dr. Frew started Hope Song. Hope Song is a refuge that consists of a bible school, a technical training facility and an orphanage for abandoned children and where mothers who are struggling to take care of their children find help. Dr. Frew was able to purchase a van in Haiti and provide transport to mothers to hospitals, but the travel is difficult. To get there, they must drive through a river. Currently, their van is in need of repairs or replacement, and costs are high for this service in Haiti.
COVID-19 in Haiti
COVID-19 poses its own unique challenges to Dr. Frew’s mission to provide help to Haiti. She normally visits Haiti six months out of the year for three months at a time. After three months, she returns to raise funds for the people of Haiti. She said that 100% of what Transformation Ministries raises benefits the people directly. This year, that was not possible due to travel restrictions and her flight being canceled.
Inflation due to COVID-19 has caused an increase in already high food prices. The cost of staples such as beans and rice have doubled since 2018. Haiti had its own pandemic before COVID-19: food insecurity. Additionally, the people of Haiti suffer from many diseases, such as cholera and malaria.
After the onset of COVID-19, the attendance at Dr. Frew’s school went from more than 200 children to 32 students. School attendance was a primary way that the mission provided aid to the children. Despite the low attendance, she did not allow this to stop help from getting to Haiti. While children remained home because their families feared the virus, the mission continued to operate. It distributed food to the children’s homes increased the number of people the organization was able to feed.
Improving Lives Through Donations
Donations continued to come in during COVID-19. Dr. Frew was able to connect with others who provided aid to Haiti. She procured two shipping containers of supplies to send over instead of the two suitcases she would typically take. She purchased land in Haiti and is working to expand Hope Song to help provide the care that is desperately needed. Wells have been built to bring clean water to Hope Song, and a third well is currently being built on the land that was purchased. Through donations, work has also been done on the roofs of homes that are made of banana leaves. These leaves are insufficient in the heavy rain of Haiti, and donations have helped provide tin roofs.
The costs of helping are high. However, through donations received from people in the United States, Dr. Frew will continue to bring much-needed help to Haiti in the years to come.
– Carolyn Lancour
Photo: Flickr