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Here are a few quick facts about the situation in Haiti:
- Population – 9.2 million
- Official language - Creole
- Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere
- 80% of Haitians languish in poverty and hopelessness.
- Average person lives on less than $2/day ($610/year)
- Over 50% unemployment rate.
- 50% of people over the age of 15 are illiterate
- 38,000 children under age 5 die every year (Malnutrition).
- 50% of children die by the age of 5
- 16,000 lives lost yearly due to Aids
- Life expectancy is a mere 47.6 years.
- 25% of people have access to clean water
- 50% of the population is under the age of 18
- 30% of Haiti’s income comes through foreign aid.
(information taken from CIA World Factbook)
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Reach Haiti
The average wage in Haiti is 2.00 a day. The country is being robbed of its natural resources due to deforestation. The population manufactures charcoal from trees to cook meals, as electricity in Haiti is rare. Men will work all day digging out the roots to use as the raw material to create the charcoal. As a result, the topsoil that was held in place by the roots of trees washes into the sea during rainstorms.
The Aids crisis is the worst in the western hemisphere and as a result children are living on streets eating mud cakes seasoned with herbs. Children are being sold into slavery because of the extreme poverty. Many people judge the parent of a child they are selling into slavery as unloving. However, it is because they love them that they sell them to avoid starvation, often with the false hope of their children being fed and schooled.
Please click on the following links for multimedia news articles on the Aids plight there.
http://www.sun-sentinel2.com/graphics/AIDSOrphans
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/caribbean/sfl-aidsintheislands,0,3025494.story
James 1:27 - Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
I feel compelled by the Lord to help in some way. Here are a few organizations I personally trust and have checked out.
http://www.foodforthepoor.org/site/c.dnJGKNNsFmG/b.3074717/k.BE96/Home.htm Food for the poor
http://www.crossinternational.org/index.php Cross International
http://www.restavecfreedom.org Rescuing child slaves and awareness
http://www.haiticomfort.org Aids orphanage
http://www.loveachild.com Medical and orphanages
I have been asked why Haiti? There are people here in America with such great need. Why not focus on our problems? Why don’t we support the people in Galveston, Texas or New Orleans whose lives have been devastated by hurricanes? Why not help with the homeless? What about the kids who are battered and abused in America? To that I ask you to consider that God may be speaking to you personally to help those less fortunate than you in those areas. I believe God has pressed upon each of us to step out in faith to do His will.
Jesus said in Matthew 25:40 - "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."
If in trying to help the people in Haiti ,makes you ask these things and God presses on your heart to do something to help those less fortunate in whatever area you feel compelled to, then I can rest in the fact that this has accomplished more than I initially set out to do.
I would personally ask you to pray for wisdom for each of us as we go forward attempting by God’s lead to help.
Glenn Morris
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