Poverty

Haiti’s investment in health has dropped from 16.6 percent in 2004 to 4.4 percent in 2017 despite everything its people have been through since then - unrest, cholera, natural disasters, the earthquake, COVID-19, gender-based violence, and grinding poverty.  Opportunities to consult formally trained mental health workers rmeain rare.  For a country of nearly 11 million, Haiti also only has 23 psychiatrists and 124 psychologists.  Some alternatives, such as hotlines, are beginning to emerge in response.  Linked and below is an article by Jessica Obert in the New Humanitarian about the mental health situation in Haiti.  

At the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Haitian government had agreed to cut government subsidies on fuel which would have caused prices to increase by over half.  Life is expensive enough in Haiti due to a lack of economic growth and dependency on imports.  To reduce subsidies would have made life even costly when many struggle just to get by.  The situation was very tense but has since calmed.  Still, the IMF has yet again hurt Haiti by failing to promote policies that are pro-poor.  The full article by Time journalist Billy Perrigo follows.  

When I was living in Haiti many years ago, a friend's father passed away.  My friend was scraping by on odd jobs and needed to take out a large loan in order to finance the burial.  He felt that to do otherwise would be disrepecting his father's memory.  The poor, who can least afford it, are charged exorbitant rates for burial services in Haiti. What could change this?  Cultural change, such as accepting cremation or simplified burials, will take time. William Mellon (founder of Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles) had himself buried in a cardboard box.  Government regulation and enforcement would help.  Below is an AP article on the hardships that burial costs place upon Haitian families.  

Two years ago, we posted a blog about a documentary under development entitled Strange Things (Bagay Dwol).  Directed by Alexandria Hammond, Strange Things follows the lives of three street children in Cap Haitian over three years.  The film has since been completed and screened at dozens of film festivals.  An abbreviated version of the documentary entitled “Children of Haiti” will have its national broadcast premier Tuesday, January 11th, at 10:00 PM as part of the PBS Independent Lens Series.  It will include updates on the main characters and address challenges facing homeless children in post earthquake Haiti.