Haiti Will Be A Challenging Place

There are extensive background materials available on the country through the Background Information on Haiti in the Report Sections above.  However, a few quick facts will highlight the social, economic and political situation in Haiti.  UNICEF (link) describes the situation in harsh terms:

"Haiti has been plagued by violence and lawlessness since 2004, when President Aristide fled into exile. The chaos has hampered basic services and prevented humanitarian assistance from reaching the vulnerable.

Because of Haiti’s high population density and its decaying infrastructure, the country is particularly vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters such as floods, mudslides and hurricanes."

An estimated 60% of the population lacks access to basic health care.  Less than 50% of all children attend school with under 2% completing secondary school.  It is the poorest country in the Americas.

The World Health Organization estimates that the healthy life expectancy is 43-44 years.  Haiti is a physically demanding country because of the extreme poverty.   Many poor people have been forced to use any resource in their environment to survive.  The result is a countryside with about 2% forest cover.  Confronting a hurricane in the housing pictured above with no trees is a destructive proposition.  The resulting floods and environmental damage have a profound affect on the land nearly everybody depends upon to feed themselves.