child - Haiti Observer Blog

I guess growing up without a computer, internet, Iphone, Ipod, or you name it, actually has some value. A recent study has found that most Haitian teenagers, specially those living in the country side are very rich individuals, compared to the rich kids im more developed countries such as US, Canada, France, etc..

Sa se pa pou Ti Moun mal Apri nan Potoprins. Se ti "Payisan"

Now I know you are going to jump on me for saying something like this.

Here is what the University of Illinois study found:

1) Haitian kids are very rich in Family relationships. They have a strong sense of family obligation.

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A study recently conducted by the University of Illinois has highlighted a surprising trend among Haitian teens, and has also highlighted, in some aspects, how they differ from those in a much richer country.

While not having been directly impacted from a financial standpoint by the earthquake in 2010, Haitian teens are adapted to living in states of poverty not dreamt of by most American teens. According to the study, what has been found is that those Haitian teens living in mostly rural areas of Haiti, who suffer from the direst cases of poverty, have little knowledge of, or the desire to follow the more American lifestyle.

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Non-government agency, USAID, has been sponsoring the Multi-Year Assistance Program (MYAP) to hand out food to women, who are pregnant, and mothers of young children under two years of age. But it has run up against harsh criticism from agencies like Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW). The program is administered by World Vision (WV), and it is being charged with the noteworthy rise in pregnancies in girls as young as 12 years.

The town being focused on, in particular, is Savanette, where townspeople, agricultural specialists, and the recipients themselves think MYAP has caused the rise in pregnancies. The increased pregnancy rate is linked to high rates of food insufficiency among the population. FEWSNET states Savanette qualifies as a chronically-stressed community, where malnourishment rises almost to the level of a famine state. It is no surprise young girls are conceiving children--one after the other--to get staple items to stave off hunger. The repercussions of higher birth rates are families can't provide necessities like healthcare and an education for their children.

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What a parallel!

You give me more food and I will produce more babies

It has been reported that a food distribution program in the town of Savanette is suspected to be the principal reason for an increase in pregnancy among girls and women in the area.

A USAID-funded World Vision food assistance program that started in 2008 until September 2013 in several communities around the town of Savanette has been distributing food to pregnant women and mothers of children from six to 23 months old.

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Haiti, the first black-led republic in the world, gained independence in 1804 as part of a successful slave revolution. The slaves in Saint-Domingue revolted and fought against one of the most sophisticated army at the time because they believe that all man are equal and that slavery should be abolished.

Now how can you understand this today. An Australian Foundation came up with a report recently listing Haiti as the second country with the highest per capita globally engaging in modern day slavery after India.

According to the report, about two percent of the Haitian population are living as forced child labor known as "restavec"

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Matthew Andrew Carter, a man from Michigan, USA, who operated a home for poor children in Haiti as a guise through which he could sexually abuse the children, has been sentenced to 165 years in prison by a judge in Miami. The 68 year old man tried to discredit the witnesses who spoke against him, but, after an hour and a half of deliberations, the federal jury convicted Carter on five counts of leaving the United States for the specific purpose of sexually assaulting minors as well as one count of attempting child sex tourism.

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There is a propensity to blame the rise of the most vice-like aspects of Haiti's current culture on the January 12, 2010 earthquake. Prostitution is one such vice often named consequence of the earthquake. The truth is, prostitution had already been a problem in the country, but had been quickly exacerbated by the loss of life and livelihood that the catastrophe caused.

Many children were left without parents after the earthquake. Not only did this rob them of their main source of sustenance, but they also suffered the loss of much needed guidance and the hope and insouciance to be gained from having parents to fend for them.

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Haiti, which suffered a crushing and debilitating earthquake in 2010, needs health-care workers, particularly in maternal and neo-natal care. Statistics reveal mothers during child-birth and neonates suffer 50 times the rate of child-birth mortalities than women in the U.S. Haitian women experience difficult pregnancies with dangerous blood-pressure levels, anemia, and sometimes cholera.

U.S mid-wives have arrived on a mission to bring down the death toll. And what they have found is distressing. The ratio of mid-wives to maternity patients is two for every 33 in labor. Mid-wives often work 24-hour shifts, sometimes for a week. Exhausted, they fall asleep, abandoning their charges. Women, who have already delivered, die from hemorrhaging that does not receive attention because of mid-wives' sleep deprivation. And during early hours of the morning they fear for their security, vulnerable to rapists. As a result they leave their patients alone.

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Of 8 nations in world where half of the children don't attend school, Haiti is one of the countries. It is because of this reason that Laurent Lamothe - Prime Minister of Haiti and Vanneur Pierre - Minister of Education for Haiti attended a meeting with UNESCO in Washington D.C. along with the ministers of the 7 other nations. The other nations include South Sudan, Yemen, Nigeria, India, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bangladesh.

UNESCO called this meeting to discuss the challenges faced by these countries and the steps that can be taken to open doors for education for the children. International Monetary Fund and World Bank hosted a ministerial meeting on April 18 with a theme called 'Learning for All'. Michaëlle Jean, UNESCO Special Envoy for Haiti also attended the meeting. It was informed to the press by Michaëlle Jean that she participated in the round table that dedicated specifically for Haiti alongside Vanneur Pierre, Laurent Lamothe, Irina Bokova (Director General of UNESCO) and Gordon Brown (US Special Envoy for Global Education).

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Jean Dominique spent his early career first educating farmers on how to be self-sufficient under the thumb of wealthy land-owners. He then went on to making two notable firsts in the broadcasting world, opening the first film club in Haiti as well as Radio Haiti, the first station to broadcast in Creole. He went on to have multiple run-ins with the Duvalier regiments and was exiled in New York until his return in the mid 80's when he became a member of the Lavalas party which won the 1990 election.

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