Haiti Adoption

Haiti History

Eight hundred miles south of Miami by sea, Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic .  The more than 7 million people within its mountainous 10,000 square miles make Haiti the most densely populated and poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

The average Haitian earns less than $300 ( US ) per year.  Many babies do not live to see their third birthday.  Drinking water usually comes from a polluted river, a ditch or open pond.  Food is so scarce and expensive that most Haitian children receive less nutrition than the average American house pet.

A recent report from the United Nations Development Program described health care in Haiti as nearly catastrophic.  One of every three deaths in Haiti is that of a child.  With most people earning less than $1 a day, many do without medicine.  Death during childbirth is the second leading cause of death among women, HIV rates are climbing, and tuberculosis is common, the report said.

The people of Haiti are descendants of slaves brought over from Africa centuries ago.  In 1804, Haiti became the first Black Republic in the world, gaining its independence by driving out the French colonists.

The decades of self-rule since then have not been easy ones, especially for the rural Haitian.  Today, he struggles for a different kind of independence and freedom - freedom from poverty, illiteracy, and lack of education - from malnutrition and disease - and freedom from the dark fear of the Voodoo religion.

Haiti is a country of great beauty.  But even the beautiful sunsets and green mountains cannot hide the poverty.  On the right side of the page, you can see the striking contrasts between the beauty of the country and the harsh realities of the day to day lives of its people.  The pictures of Cite Soleil - the poorest section of the capital, where raw sewage runs through the streets and safe drinking water is difficult to find - speak for themselves.  The infant mortality rate is extremely high in this area.