‘Black Pearl of the Caribbean’ gets left behind

HAVING a house with a toilet is a big luxury in Haiti as is running water and electricity. Most sleep on dirty, dusty floors and many parents cannot afford to send their children to school.

This is a country located between one of the most luxurious places in the world but somehow it managed to get left behind while the Caribbean prospered.

Haiti is deeply impoverished, its people are extremely poor. Most are so poor they will do anything they can to feed their families. They will beg, rob, sell what they can to get food.

I arrived in Haiti along with 250 volunteers for a house building week last October in the Northern town of Ouanaminthe. The week was organised by Dublin charity, Haven, which was founded by Cork businessman Leslie Buckley.

The volunteers stayed onsite in the newly-built houses where bedrooms had just a bed, a mosquito net and a fan. Nothing more.

When our four buses passed through the villages on the way to the site from the airport locals would stop and point or wave. They were not used to seeing buses. This was a treat.

Most people live in two room huts, where children are constantly sick and crying because when it rains, the houses are flooded. These huts have no toilets, no doors, no electricity.

One day when a group of school children were invited to the housing site where we worked they were treated to chips and chicken nuggets but as soon as they were done they all headed to the bins to see what scraps were left from our meals that they could bring home to their families. It was such a saddening sight to see children as young as four fighting for a plate with leftover ketchup on it.

This is a country that is overcoming food riots, political unrest and massive tropical storm damage.

Known as the “Black Pearl of the Caribbean”, the former French colony feels more like Ethiopia than a Caribbean destination.

One day we were taken to a local market where children sat on the dirt selling things like rice and vegetables. We were accompanied by armed bodyguards and told it would not be safe to go alone.

One man tried to sell us hats and bracelets. As I had left my bag in the car I had just $1. When I told him that was all I had, he refused to sell me the bracelet for anything less than $2 but I wanted him to have the $1. He said the bracelet was either $2 or free. He, like many of his people was too proud to sell the bracelet for anything less than what he felt it was worth but he wanted me to have it and gave it to me for free.

The fact paints a picture of just how impoverished the country is. One child in 12 does not make it to their fifth birthday and 75% of the people are living below the poverty line on less than $2 per day.

Over half the adult population is unemployed and one in three has no access to basic healthcare.

Ireland and Haiti are strongly connected through charity work and business and yesterday Irish charities lined up to lend their support.

As well as Haven, charities such as Concern and Goal do work on the ground there. Businessman Denis O’Brien has invested millions there through his mobile phone company Digicell.

Recently a new organisation “The Soul of Haiti Foundation” was established in Dublin by more than 80 business people with the aim of improving the economic and social conditions in the country.

This latest tragedy for Haiti will destroy the country even further and it’s little wonder why families are content to live in poverty. They never know what’s going to hit next.