Poverty

Most of the time when we think of aid, we only think of the good that comes from it. By all means, aid is great, it has been so helpful to many people and really provided great short-term results for developing countries. Like I said these results were short term.  One of the biggest long term problems in Haiti has been underemployment and unemployment. The United States has been the number one aid giving country to Haiti, they give around $460 million.  So we can ask ourselves that even though Haiti has receive so much why is it still an impoverished country? The country continues to have a terrible economy and is one of the worst governed countries in the world. Isn’t all the aid meant to help them get out of the poverty, and help the country grow?  Haiti is thought of as a fragile state, the government has been corrupt in how they use the money that was given by the aid services.

So how can we solve the problem of poverty in Haiti? Is the answer to stop giving aid, or to stop any trade so that the government will have no money to use for the wrong reasons? No, we must try to get to the people, the uneducated. Although there are laws that education is mandatory for all Haitian’s it has never been executed and this is where we seen another issue rise from the lack of education. No matter how much money is given to a country if the people don’t know how to use it, or save it then they will get nowhere. This is why education is so important in the development of a country.

This is my idea, first of we have to target the younger children, those who are at the age where school is vital and a necessity. Once we teach the children how to be responsible and how to maintain themselves, we are setting out the path for the future. A second idea is to start projects, ones that are completely funded by the aid. This is where the combination of the aid that is still required and the projects could change the future economy and turn Haiti to start on a path to becoming a developed country. The projects involve training the “workers” but paying them, there would be different fields of work to accommodate for all the people. The workers will be trained not just on how to work, but how to spend money wisely. Once they have ‘graduated’ from the training they are set to lead in the training, or given the opportunity to join another business, which has joined with the program. When they work in the business they will get paid a good salary and opportunities for promotion, eventually they may be able to start their own business creating jobs for many more people. Through educating the people, we can help Haiti become a developed country, and leave their current state of poverty.

The Vicious Circle

We all learn about the 'circles of life', the food chain, rain cycle the list can go on and on. Ultimately in every circle the end will be at the beginning, it just keeps on going on forever and ever. That is until something stops it, something big and worthy of change must occur. This is my dream, I want to be able to change the circle of illiteracy. From previous blog entries you might know that I have a passion for Haiti, to help you get an idea of the size of Haiti, picture Maryland. Although the same size Haiti and Maryland are very different. A worrying fact that I have come across is the illiteracy rate in Haiti, but with the same amount of schools as in Maryland the question comes racing through my mind. Why are 52% of Haitians still illiterate? In the small country of Haiti, there are over 15,000 schools! If there are so many schools then why is the percentage so high? This is where the vicious circle comes around and man, it really is a vicious one. So we'll begin from the very bottom of this circle, the baby. A baby girl, lets call her Lucy. Lucy is born into a family that is below the poverty line, meaning her family is expected to survive on less than $2 a day. Lucy's family already has 3 children she is the fourth child, and probably not the last. A few years have passed and it's time for Lucy to go to school, except the average cost for a student to go to school is $350. This is almost half of her families income, so Lucy will not go to school. Instead Lucy is sent to the streets, these streets will become her school, where she will be educated. The people who work on the streets are the ones who didn't go to school, the people who just learnt what they needed to survive. Lucy learns the art of trade, cheating, violence, and the life of the uneducated. Another few years later, Lucy meets a man, they fall in love, get married, and have children, none of which can go to school. Then the circle starts all over again. Except there is even another circle in this education mystery. Teachers. Government teachers are some of the worst paid in Haiti, they have been known to go without pay for long periods as long as 6 months. So here's the problem, why work hard when you don't even get a penny for it? The teachers are not committed to work, they don't want to push themselves when they know they won't get a decent salary. The average teachers salary is $150 per month, this is a good salary in Haiti, but only when it comes through. Some teachers aren't even qualified, and the majority of teachers are the few students who graduate from high school. So the teacher gets under paid, or not paid at all, she is lazy in her work doesn't try at all. The students don't learn, they leave school knowing next to nothing, but are qualified to do almost any job they desire. They go to become political leaders, but most of what they have learnt has been from the streets, where corruption is the only culture that is known. That leader exploits another teacher and leaves them without pay, with no motivation the teacher does not help the students and so on, so on. What if? What if is the question that I ask myself. What if there was a way to crack this circle, to change the future? Why are we leaving the children of Haiti to the street for their education? Unless we break this circle, the illiteracy rate, and Haiti as a country will not advance.