Haiti | ||||
The Issue Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. With 81% of the population earning less than one dollar a day, life is extremely harsh for the people of Haiti. Over half of Haiti's children suffer from malnutrition. Subsidized, imported food and food aid has eroded the profitability of local Haitian food production, driving many Haitian farmers out of business and leaving Haiti's population vulnerable to economic forces far beyond their control. This poverty is the result of, and continues to be exacerbated by, years of political unrest in the country. Environmental degradation, economic injustice, and political violence are compounded in Haiti. Women in Haiti bear the brunt of these problems. More than 70% of Haiti's households are headed by women, often with little or no support from men. At the same time, it is women in Haiti who are key to change in the country. Women are the backbone of the Haitian economy, through their entrepreneurial efforts within the domestic economy. An example of this is Fonkoze, Haiti's highly successful bank for the organized poor. Fonkoze provides both financial and non-financial services to the rural poor in Haiti. Today, Fonkoze has more than 50,000 depositors and more than 25,000 micro-loan clients, 96% of whom are women. These women, all of whom live below the poverty level, have deposited over $4 million in savings and over $2.6 million in loans. Haitian women are making a difference in their country's economy as they struggle to pull themselves out of poverty. IHMs in Action If you don't have Adobe Reader, you can download the latest version here. "Pennies for Progress, Change for Change in Haiti" The Oblate/Tri-IHM Haiti Outreach Project Prayer/Reflection Materials "A Prayer for the People of Haiti" - Pax Christi USA Resources Haiti Solidarity Packet - Resources for study, prayer and action for the people of Haiti (PDF, 222 KB) Learn More about Haiti - An annotated bibliography (PDF, 66 KB) Action
|
