Haiti’s Poor Rely On Mud Pies To Survive

food aid is only a short term solution.

Food crisis worsening in Haiti - more than 3.8 million hungry people

FAO proposes farming and livestock projects in support of 500 000 people

31 July 2003, Rome -- A 'silent' food crisis is looming in Haiti, the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, FAO warned today.

Living conditions of the poor have deteriorated markedly, with over 3.8 million people suffering from hunger. The majority of the hungry lives in rural areas.

"Haitians somehow manage to survive from day-to-day, leaving many observers questioning whether there is really a humanitarian emergency," said Anne M. Bauer, Director, Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division. "The indicators, however, show that there is a crisis, albeit a 'silent' one, and one that risks becoming deeper."


http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/21165-en.html



Damaged agriculture

Increased social and political tensions have contributed to a vicious cycle of marginalization and increased vulnerability, eroding social, economic, infrastructural and environmental assets, FAO said.

Out of a labour force of 4.1 million only 110 000 are employed in the formal sector, of whom 35 000 are civil servants.

Agriculture, the main source of income, has been damaged by drought in the northwest over the last four years and by floods in the northeast over the last season. National food production is still decreasing due to insufficient investment, infrastructure and access to agricultural inputs.

Poor living conditions are exacerbated by inadequate or non-existent water and sanitation services.

Over 1.2 million children are affected or infected by HIV/AIDS or other diseases. Around 23 percent of the children under five are suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Reducing dependency on food aid

FAO launched an appeal for $6 million to finance five key relief activities in Haiti.

FAO projects will:
provide seeds and tools to 80 000 vulnerable farm families hit by drought and floods, so that they can resume agricultural production;

provide poor households with chickens, pigs and goats to generate income and reduce malnutrition;

improve access for 500 families to drinking water and water for vegetable gardening

vaccinate 675 000 farm animals against Anthrax to reduce loss of livestock.

"These activities will benefit more than half a million Haitians. FAO aims to increase the communities' dignity and self-reliance in food, thereby reducing dependency on costly and unsustainable external food aid," Bauer said.

FAO will soon distribute around 180 tonnes of seeds to around 60 000 people so that they can prepare for the next planting season which starts in September.


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yes, its a short term solution, but they can at least have something to eat while people are trying to figure out the problem.




of course the leaders failed them. Nothing new there. Happens all the time in certain parts of the world.

But the leaders are eating well and living comfortably right now. The regular people are not, hence the riots.

If anyone is going to starve in that country, it wont be the leaders or their families. So why deny assistance to the suffering masses because of their leaders' failure to plan?

werent you advocating for black countries in general to be left alone to starve or die due to the leaders' corruption and inefficiency? That the west should just ignore them and pull out?

before certain posts (including this one) get deleted, let me quote you here:

@ kobojunkie


and


I'm sorry, but i still have family and friends in Nigeria as well as other parts of the world. And even if i didnt, its still unsettling for me to hear someone advocating annihilation of blacks because of their leadership problems.

Well,  Like I said ,  I did say it in a different context than you did since you had to pull that out of the whole statement makes it seem like I am advocating for the annihilation of the black world to you. I have family in Africa as well. Infact my mother intends to move back out there soon. I still stand on the same, we have tried other means and still Africa is not self reliant. Each year BILLIONS in AIDS go to feed the people and that is unsettling to people like me. I would rather we suffer now and learn our lessons now. Get ourselves out of poverty at all cost. DO what we must to make sure all these bad leaders do not keep coming back and we keep using them as excuse to continue living the way we do. I guess we see things differently on that.

Maybe highlighting it all and having you focus on the statement as a whole will help you understand better,

Do I have to live in Africa NOW to be African or be concerned about Africa???

Sure. Do you have a problem with that too? Look, if what offends you is a person demanding that africa be allowed to go through it's own designed hell to learn the importance of self-efficiency not just in words but in action. Then I apologize that you are offended by such calls but what I posted remains. I stand on what I posted and I hope it happens soon cause I believe that it is time for things to change in that continent for all the people and until we learn what self reliance means, we may continue to be BEGGARS of the WORLD. Now, if you do not mind, I would rather move on to other things at this point.

It is time the black world take the bull by the horns,even if it means people dying,it takes sacrifices and dedications to live.The rest of the world sees us as destitutes,abled bodied people,it baffles me and the more i think about it,the more i want to go back there,i want to be a part of the game for real and play my role,do the right thing,even if it cost me my life,common mosquito can kill a man in africa,espcially when your body defence system has gotten use to something else,alot dangers but we got to change it,i feel so embarrased living in whiteman's land,under his unbrella,like sub-human.White people are fed of people bugging them,immigration is becoming a dicey issue in britain,alot of foreigners,and the indigenous people are feeling uncomfortable,it is a ticking time bomb,even the main stream press have started quoting a dead british fascist, racist,powell, who should be codemn for eternity for preaching hate against the migrating west indians in the fifties and sixthies to britain,he is been painted now as if he is another martin luther king,i have a dream coming true.

Sometimes you outgrow something,and you want to be in-charge,mastermind and this is the time for us to mastermind our destinyand take up the challenges.I was reading in the independent today saying another 21st century scramble for africa with impunity,as if we are just fucking tools,how the asians,the european and the americans are on the rat race for african abundant natural resources,about the only place that it is left in the world this days,that african goverments are bunch of gangs that can be bought,just like tony blair said,that africa is a sore in the eyes of the world,and nobody is saying nothing and you still have african professionals hiding in europe,asia,america,in the name of bad goverments at home,who are the goverment?who are the people?Some of them even show off that they live in the west,instead of resentment.One finger soil with oil,soils all,the shame of africa is for every blackman and the shame of every blackman is for Africa.Identity.

Cry blood Africa,cry blood.

it's not the job of the UN, UNICEF to save governments all the time.