 Photo ©Allison Shelley, for LWR HaitiIt’s painful to recall the horrible earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince in January 2010. The poorest country in this hemisphere, Haiti was the country least able to handle such a shocking event.Even before the earthquake, the majority of Haitians faced decades of problems, most of which begin and end in extreme poverty. Poor health and malnutrition, an utter lack of work opportunities, government corruption and the devastation of Haiti’s natural resources have left few options. Through partner organizations, LWR has been working in Haiti since 1997 to attack the vicious cycle of poverty there: With limited resources for earning income, cooking food or farming, Haitians have cut down huge sections of the countries forests, making charcoal and clearing farmland. This clear-cutting disrupts rain cycles, so that the region oscillates between droughts and torrential rains. The resulting landslides and flooding destroy people’s livelihoods and infrastructure. As in so many place where there is little clean water to drink, people spend most of their lives sick or weakened from past illness; babies often die of dehydration from diarrhea. In addition, years of corruption and dictatorships, which arise more easily when a large part of a country is poor and uneducated, stunt opportunity for people who lack power or influence. With your support, LWR works to end this kind of human suffering in Haiti.
We are now committed to seeing Haiti through long-term rehabilitation.
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