FARMLAND & DRINKING WATER EMERGENCY
Reforestation
The problem that exists today in Haiti is largely caused by decades of agricultural rape, and it's the children and adults in Haiti who are starving to death because of it.
The land originally had rich soil but after the forrests were destroyed by peasants who chopped down trees to make charcoal, a main source of fuel and a lucrative commodity at the marketplace, the land has ended up totally bare. Because of this the nutrient-rich topsoil has simply blown away and later it has washed to the sea with the rain. The result has been the desertification of the country once known as "the pearl of the Antilles."
The soulution to restoring the land both lies in the reforestation, irrigation and in the education of the people.
Irrigation
Given Haiti's fragile environment and rainfall fluctuations, irrigation has traditionally been an important factor in agricultural development. Although annual rainfall in over 80% of the country's territory surpasses 1 000 mm, the irregularity of rainfall leads to drought periods that prevent use of intensive agricultural practices.
Agricultural production in Haiti has also been declining in recent years because farmers cannot compete with lower-cost imported food. In the past year the price of 12 cups of imported rice skyrocketed by 60 per cent from $1.35 to $3.43 and locally grown rice by 31 per cent from $3.78 to $5.48. Although prices of locally grown food are not increasing as rapidly as imported food, the local prices are also increasing because fuel, fertilizers and other production costs are increasing. There has been an increase of commodity prices in almost every area here in Haiti this is not an issue isolated to food, but to the general cost of living. When prices for all staple commodities increase, farmers and small businesses need to charge more for their products in order to have enough income to purchase other products that their families need. The current rapid rises in food prices mean that food is now unaffordable to many more families. Demonstrations against rising food prices often turns into riots, and protesters blame the government for failing to create jobs and control soaring food price.
We need your donation today to help the people of Haiti recover from this disaster and rebuild their lives and their communities.
Drinking water
The lack of water for basic human needs is one of the most critical problems in the country. The lack of access to safe water supply contributes to poor health and hygiene. Infections and parasitic diseases, often spread through unsafe water, are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Haiti.
The Poorest Pay the Heaviest Price. Unsafe Water is a leading cause of Mortality in Haiti. Only 40% of Haitians Have Access to Potable Water.
The water situation in Haiti is rapidly deteriorating.
The lock on loans to Haiti and the subsequent inability to invest in the country's water treatment and distribution system have made it impossible to combat the effects of soil erosion and deforestation, or to respond to increased demands put on the current system. The result has been an overall decrease in the number of people with access to potable water. In a recent interview, the Planning Director for CAMEP reported that water production has decreased from 100,000 metric cubes daily to 61,410 metric cubes, with the need estimated at approximately 220,000 metric cubes daily.
In Haiti, many die everyday from contaminated sources of drinking water. We encourage you to help us provide them with life-giving, safe drinking water.
To afford this Haiti needs your support, and you need not jump on a plane to start making a big difference!
Please check out the following link to see how easy it is for you to "make a donation".
Education needed
Both the adults and the children of Haiti need to be taught even basic knowledge about the environment, such as how the sun plays a role in creating rain and how the birds' play a role in scattering seeds, as a result planting trees and that without trees the birds are destroyed. They need to become aware just how damaging that the charcoal industry is to Haiti's environment and that there are alternative fuels, such as paper briquettes made from recycled paper and other types of non-destructive fuel sources. Haitians also need to learn about various plants, seeds, trees, fertilization and irregation equipment and techniques.
Education is also needed on how to build wells, sewer systems and how to set up facilities for access of clean drinking water. The way you can help is to give generously, as your dollars can do so much to help us provide the much needed education for the Haitian people.
STARVATION & FATALITY EMERGENCY
Starvation
In Haiti, the majority of the urban adult population only consumes a full meal every other day. The children do eat a meal every day. People chew on clay during days they do not eat. The women get by eating any spoiled fruit and vegetables they are unable to sell for a pittance. In Haiti, the majority of the urban adult population only consumes a full meal every other day. The children do mostly eat a meal every day. People chew on clay during days they do not eat. The women get by eating any spoiled fruit and vegetables they are unable to sell for a pittance.
You cannot imagine starvation at these levels. A worker that cannot find any day labor for a week, typically loses one child to starvation. Families must make weekly decisions as to who lives (a family member that can work) and who dies (a family member that suffers from an illness curable in the U.S.).
Compassion is lost in these situations. Life becomes a daily struggle for survival. Hungry people are like hungry wild animals sometimes, fighting over scraps thrown on a waste pile. Humanity is reduced to basic animal survival instincts.
A young high school graduate "Merisma Jean-Claudel" in Port-au-Prince told an international journalist ...people can't buy food. Gasoline prices are going up. It is very hard for us over here. The cost of living is the biggest worry for us, no peace in stomach means no peace in the mind. I wonder if others will be able to survive the days ahead because things are very, very hard.
The cause
The fact is that the U.S. and other international financial bodies have destroyed Haitian rice farmers to create a major market for the heavily subsidized rice from U.S. farmers. This is not the only cause of hunger in Haiti and other poor countries, but it is a major force. Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?
In 1986, after the expulsion of Haitian dictator Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loaned Haiti $24.6 million in desperately needed funds (Baby Doc had raided the treasury on the way out). But, in order to get the IMF loan, Haiti was required to reduce tariff protections for their Haitian rice and other agricultural products and some industries to open up the country's markets to competition from outside countries. The U.S. has by far the largest voice in decisions of the IMF. Within less than two years, it became impossible for Haitian farmers to compete with what they called 'Miami rice. The whole local rice market in Haiti fell apart as cheap, U.S. subsidized rice, some of it in the form of 'food aid,' flooded the market. There was violence, 'rice wars,' and lives were lost. By 1987 and 1988, there was so much rice coming into the country that many stopped working the land. In the 1980s, imported rice poured into Haiti, below the cost of what our farmers could produce it. Farmers lost their businesses. People from the countryside started losing their jobs and moving to the cities. After a few years of cheap imported rice, local production went way down. Still the international business community was not satisfied. In 1994, as a condition for U.S. assistance in returning to Haiti to resume his elected Presidency, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced by the U.S., the IMF, and the World Bank to open up the markets in Haiti even more, only making the problem more devestating.
The Cato Institute recently reported that rice is one of the most heavily supported commodities in the U.S. with three different subsidies together averaging over $1 billion a year since 1998 and projected to average over $700 million a year through 2015. The result? "Tens of millions of rice farmers in poor countries find it hard to lift their families out of poverty because of the lower, more volatile prices caused by the interventionist policies of other countries. In addition to three different subsidies for rice farmers in the U.S., there are also direct tariff barriers of 3 to 24 percent according to the Cato Institute the exact same type of protections, though much higher, that the U.S. and the IMF required Haiti to eliminate in the 1980s and 1990s.U.S. protection for rice farmers goes even further. A 2006 story in the Washington Post found that the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all; including $490,000 to a Houston surgeon who owned land near Houston that once grew rice. It's happened to the sugar growers as well. Haiti, once the world's largest exporter of sugar and other tropical produce to Europe, began importing even sugar - from U.S. controlled sugar production in the Dominican Republic and Florida. It was terrible to see Haitian farmers put out of work. All this sped up the downward spiral that led to more food riots.
After the riots and protests, President Rene Preval of Haiti agreed to reduce the price of rice, which was selling for $51 for a 110 pound bag, to $43 dollars for the next month. No one thinks a one month fix will do anything but delay the severe hunger pains a few weeks.Haiti is far from alone in this crisis. The Economist reports a billion people worldwide live on $1 a day. The US-backed Voice of America reports about 850 million people were suffering from hunger worldwide before the latest round of price increases. Thirty three countries are at risk of social upheaval because of rising food prices, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told the Wall Street Journal. When countries have many people who spend half to three-quarters of their daily income on food, "there is no margin of survival."
Solutions
What can be done in the medium term? The US provides much of the world's food aid, but does it in such a way that only half of the dollars spent actually reach hungry people. US law requires that food aid be purchased from US farmers, processed and bagged in the US and shipped on US vessels, which cost 50% of the money allocated. A simple change in US law to allow some local purchase of commodities would feed many more people and support local farm markets. Rich countries need to reduce farms subsidies and trade barriers to allow poor countries to generate income with food exports. Either the world solves the unfair trade system, or every time there's unrest like in Haiti we adopt emergency measures and send a little bit of food to temporarily ease hunger.
On an individual level, the prevention to the problems comes down to people, business owners and institutions in having the currage and confidence to fight this evil large scale curruption (caused by both local and international governments). If governments don't look after people, then let's through any means stop paying to, associating with or supporting such evil and currupt governments and anyone who supports them! The cure is to continue to assist people in need and to educate and motivate them to build meaningful lives.
Housing needed
Although housing projects have been constructed in Port-au-Prince and in Cap-Haïtien, there is an increasing shortage of low-cost housing. Migration to the major cities has compounded the urban housing problem. Natural disaster including cyclones, floods, droughts, and earthquake have had serious effects on the housing situation as well. Outside the capital and some other cities, housing facilities are generally primitive and almost universally without sanitation. Wooden huts are the prevalent standard for the countryside.
By presidential decree, the National Housing Office was established in 1966. Housing built in the 1970s in Port-au-Prince for about 18,000 people merely replaced demolished units. The population of Haiti is approximately 8.3 million with a total numberof housing units of 890,000 with 6.1 people per dwelling and many who don't have any dwelling at all. Families throughout the country is in dire need of more housing, as poor living conditions bring along many other health and sanitary problems. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. It is estimated that 80% of the population lives in abject poverty and for many, disease, hunger, unemployment and suffering are a way of life.
The poor live in tents or dilapidated shacks made of cardboard, plastic, tin, or whatever materials can be scavenged from the garbage. These structures barely provide protection against the elements and children frequently fall ill from the appalling conditions. Each generous donation enables Food For The Poor to build a cement house with solid walls, zinc-sheet roofs that don't leak, doors that lock, and floors that don't turn to mud every time it rains.
DISEASES AND MEDICAL HELP NEEDED
Childrens diseases
More than 50% of all Haitian preschoolers are malnourished which in turn causes them to have weakened immune system, which means these children easily contract other diseases. However reducing deaths from diarrhea among under-fives is Haiti's number one health problem. The most common conditions seen apart from malnutrition are: anemia, hypertension, malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, intestinal parasites, pneumonia to congestive heart failure and a variety of other infections. Haiti's poor children, which is the vast majority of it's pediatric population, do well to receive the "first generation vaccinations". Very few obtain pneumococcal vaccine or Hemophilus influenza (Hib) vaccine. Both of these vaccines, when given to children in resource rich countries, dramatically decrease the incidence of invasive disease due to these organisms.
Various dieases
The most common health problems in Haiti are often also the most easily solved. High incidence of Malnutrition, HIV,Tuberculosis, diabetes, anemia, Typhoid, hypertension, malaria, Parasites, dengue fever and illness from waterborne bacteria are common, and hookworm runs rampant, entering through the bare feet of villagers too poor to afford shoes. Haitian beliefs about health and illness may also be strongly influenced by life in Haiti where there is limited access to the most basic health care (clean water, immunizations, prenatal/ obstetric care, antibiotics, and so on). Thus, a reliance on folk and/or spiritual explanations and treatments for illness may simply be the only option a person has ever had. Health care providers should also be open to (and respectful of) the likelihood of patients simultaneously using multiple sources of care for an illness: herbalist or docte fey, primary care clinic, and sorcerer.
In seeking health care, the primary focus among most Haitians is on solving a specific problem. In many cases, a Haitian who presents at a primary care or other source of cosmopolitan health care will already have tried home or traditional remedies. Use of modern health resources for prevention of illness and health promotion is uncommon. However, use of traditional or magic-religious measures to prevent illness or harm is almost universal among Haitians.
Eliminating Malaria: Malaria is a vectorborne disease (meaning that it is transmitted by mosquitoes). In developed countries we are, in general, able to provide ourselves with an enclosed area to sleep in at night; thereby we are able to protect ourselves from flying insects. We have the luxury to afford back-yard sprays, deterrent candles and bug zappers to help contain our mosquitoes in the summer months. In the Caribbean it is summer all year round. Children, pregnant women, the already sick and elderly are especially susceptible to the troublesome mosquitoes.
The solution
As every problem covered within this web site is somehow connected, then a major step to improving the overall situation in Haiti is to also heavily educate the population on how to be realistic, solution orientated, self-deciplined, responsible, productive, effective and entreprenurial. Pearents need education on birth control and contraception to realize that "if you can't afford 2-8 children - then don't have them!". If every family chose to have less children and instead provided them more food and a better diet for those children then less health problems or fatalities woul plaque Haiti. Coaching is also heavily needed to teach the people about the abandonment by their own and forreign governments and what they can individually do to help change things around again. Responsibility: People also need coaching on how to prioritize what they spend their meger incomes on, as if they chose to have children, then they should always put their health and nutricion in front of other maybe less urgent purchases.
Clean water: Ultimately, it is the responsibility of each person to provide clean water for themselves and their families. Water, therefore is a very personal issue. People need a way to be able to know they are drinking clean water even if public systems fall into disrepair or are unavailable at certain times. In Haiti, the sun is something that people can count on more than they can count on governments or development organizations. The sun shines nearly every day. Simple Solar Cookers can be easily built from cardboard, aluminum foil, white school glue, a clear plastic bag, some sticks, and a glass or plastic container painted black. They use no fuel except for sunshine. The sun can easily heat the water to temperatures above 71°C, enough to kill off any disease causing organisms. A WAPI, a small, reusable thermometer made from soy fat enclosed in a plastic tube, can be used to indicate when water has reached pasteurization temperature.
Donate
We strongly believe that providing help to Haitian children dying of TB and many other diseases will give Haiti a better chance of building a better tomorrow. Join us in this quest today by making a donation, as together we can make a difference! Click here to Donate.
EDUCATION & SCHOOLING NEEDED
The problem at hand
Less than half of Haiti's school age children attend classes, primarily because in most areas public education is not readily available, and the cost of private education ($125 a year) is far more than their parents can afford. The base need for our country is education, after this most other development will naturally come. As most children never get to go to school due to their parents financial situation, then this becomes very cripling for the future of Haiti as they might instead become small time criminals or big gangsters.
Establishing new schools
To prevent our Haitian youngsters going off track due to neglect, then our goals is to open numerous schools (elementary schools and high-schools) to help the poor people to prepare their lives for the future and to be able to participate in the development of their country and maybe even else ware in the world.
Education is the key to the future but food is the key to the present. Food security and educational reform are both urgently needed for Haiti to make progress. At MOSEPEPAU, we believe the old Chinese proverb that says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day - Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Through contributions and monies raised from a variety of projects, MOSEPEPAU can offer more Haitian children the chance to receive an elementary education, and take that first big step towards improving their lives. MOSEPEPAU currently maintains an active education program and always needs sponsors for a child - Won't you please sponsor a child's education?
Evangelization
Even though the situation in Haiti is currently at an all time low point, then for the past 200 years, the Haitian population has basicly experienced living under very bad circumstances. The great intellectuals of Haiti tried to resolve the problem, they couldn't do anything. International powers ( government, organizations) claim to have made efforts to resolve the problems, yet they have only made them worse.
We believe the only ones who can change the situation in Haiti is people who dare to take positive action with a strong faith in themselves and God as then nothing is impossible. This is also why we have the program of evangelization to teach the people the word of God. In the countryside people die every day because they think the devil will fix their situation. And when they are sick, they often go to the voodoo man who gives them some toxic drink, resulting in internal contaminations which spreads and often cost people their lives. So our job is to educate that the voodoo man's cures will only make their situation lethal resulting in hospitalization or death. Instead we wish to educate and preach to these people the word of God and the importance of using modern medical treatment instead.
Donate
Please make a generous donation and help us "re-educate" the future generations of Haiti - many thanks! Donate here.
SPORT FACILITIES & LEADERSHIP NEEDED
The lack of sport facilities
Haitians do not generally have access to the types of organized recreational activities prevalent in other countries, and sporting facilities are limited. There is a big need for more both better club resources and more varieties of sports clubs, to ensure the youth is given a sense of belonging as well as a place for them to come and share ideas and encouragement. With ongoing donations, we are working on improving existing clubs and establishing new ones, and therefore your assistance is also highly needed.
Our plans for sports
In this time, sport is very important for the future of the young people. That is why that we want to have a sport center for our poor children to show them how to play football, baseball, basketball as well as many other types of sports, to help prepare them for the national and international competitions.
Our dream is to have people playing in the world sport like Brasil and Argentine.
The positive impact
In 1974 Haiti became the first Caribbean nation to qualify for the World Cup finals, and some Haitian footballers, such as Joe Gaetjens, have played for teams in the United States and Europe. Haiti's elite class has produced a handful of international-level tennis players, and cycling is popular among those who can afford bicycles. There is a lot of talented sports people in haiti, and with the right support and coaching, many more can be developed into champions.
Donate
With ongoing donations, we are working on improving existing clubs and establishing new ones, and therefore your assistance is also highly needed. Donate here.
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