The meeting was about to begin when I found my place at the back of the room on a rickety, plank bench next to an elderly Haitian man.  He flashed a warm, genuine smile at me, motioned hello with a tip of his hat and quietly said, “Bon jou.”  I extended my hand to him and he placed his weathered, calloused hand in mine.  He, like so many of the men in this village, had spent a life working the land, loving his family and serving in the community.  He pulled out a Bible, notepad and pencil from a tattered plastic bag and turned his attention towards the front of the room.

My Friend

Kendal had begun his introductory remarks and was passing out an outline that had been translated into Creole.  My back row friend and me both took our outlines and prepared to fill in the blanks and follow along with the teaching.  Kendal asked everyone to turn to a specific book in their Bibles and the other 15 Haitians in the room began flipping pages and locating the reference that had been assigned.  Kendal began to lead us through the outline, giving us the key words needed to fill in the blanks.  A few minutes passed and I glanced over at my friend and I realized that he was lost.  He still had a warm smile on his face, but it was mixed with a look of confusion, embarrassment and appeal.  He motioned to me for help in filling out his outline while his Bible lay open to a book that was not referenced in the teaching.  He could not read or write.

He was not unintelligent or unmotivated.  I am certain he had accomplished much in his life.  The sheer fact that he had lived well beyond the median age in Haiti (57 years) speaks of his determination and endurance.  The problem was that he was never given the opportunity to learn how to read or write.  Education in Haiti is for the privileged and this man was not among them.

Kendal continued his teaching, but I could not bring myself to focus.  I sat there imagining the opportunities and relationships that I would be excluded from if I could not read or write.  The world is filled with complex truths, beautiful realities, diverse streams of perspectives and opinions, inexhaustible topics and issues, logic, art, poetry, solutions, ideas and MOST of them are contained in the form of written communication.  This man had experienced a lifetime cut off from all of these because he could not read.  He reminded me why the CPI team is doggedly committed to providing opportunities for Haitians to learn basic skills that will enable them to access the world of possibilities around them.  Reading is one of those basic skills that I will never take for granted again.

• Eight hundred miles south of Miami by sea, Haiti shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
• There are more than 8 million people within its mountainous 10,000 square miles, making Haiti the most densely populated and poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. The population is projected to reach 13 million by 2050.
• Haiti is slightly smaller than Maryland in size
• 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.

HEALTH

• One of every five Haitian children dies of malnutrition, dehydration and diarrhea.
• Approximately 280,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Haiti.
• 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 basic medicine.
• Less than half of the population has access to clean drinking water, a rate that compares poorly even with other less-developed nations.
• 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.
• UN labeled Haiti the 3rd hungriest country in the world (62% undernourished)
• The median age is 18.4 years, and the life expectancy only 57.03 years

RELIGION

• According to recent estimates, Roman Catholics represent about 80% of the population. Most of the remainder belongs to various Protestant denominations, the largest being the Baptist (10%) and Pentecostal (4%) churches. Other significant denominations include Methodists, Episcopalians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Adventists, and Orthodox.
• Vodu/Voodoo, a traditional religion partially derived from West African beliefs, is still widely practiced, often in tandem with Christianity. Voodoo became an officially recognized church in 2001 with the establishment of the Eglise Voudou d’Ayiti (the Voodoo Church of Haiti) and has had a growing attendance since then.
• Voodoo is derived from a synthesis of African religious beliefs. The word voodoo comes from the Fon language of Benin (formerly Dahomey) in West Africa and means “spirit.” When Africans of various tribes were brought to Haiti as slaves, they brought with them their beliefs in spirits who acted as intermediaries with a single God Almighty; some of these spirits were ancestors of the living, while others represented human emotions and forces of nature. In time, a system of beliefs and spirits unique to the slaves in Haiti was formed. These spirits, or loas, are inherited or bought by families and can be called upon for protection and blessing.
• Although there are a number of protestant churches and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) in Haiti, they lack the training, education and resources needed to flourish and affect community-wide change. One obvious example of this is how common it is for some Haitians to profess faith in Christ while simultaneously practicing and believing many aspects of the Vodu/Voodoo religion. The overall affect of this syncretism is spiritual confusion, fear and compromise.

EDUCATION

• Of the world’s 104 poorest countries surveyed by Oxfam International in 1998, only 3 countries ranked lower than Haiti for the availability of basic education.
• Although education is technically compulsory, public schools are few and far between and terribly overcrowded, sometimes with over a hundred students in a single class. As a result, about 80% of all students attend private schools. These schools are financially out of reach for the majority of Haitian families.
• 50% of Haitians (age 15 and older) are illiterate. This number does not include the hundreds of thousands of children who are destined for illiteracy unless there is deliberate intervention.

“Illiteracy is a kind of prison. Illiterate people find their progress in life blocked in every direction they turn. They see literate people moving about unhindered, finding good jobs, reading and writing letters, working in offices, helping their children with homework, taking notes in meetings, signing contracts, reading in church and studying scripture, enjoying books. All the while they cannot even read the directions on medication for a sick child.” -excerpt from BeyondBorders.net

ECONOMY AND WELFARE

• The country’s minimum wage is US $1.70.
• 70% unemployment rate
• The annual per capita income is about US$450
• Only one out of every 400 Haitians is formally employed (wages, hours & place of employment)
• Haiti has had the highest rate of inflation among all Caribbean countries.

AGRICULTURE

• Haiti faces a severe deforestation problem. In 1923 forests covered nearly 60 percent of the country; today they cover less than 2 percent.
• By agronomic standards, the majority of Haiti’s land (63 percent) is too steep for agricultural production, and only about 28 percent is considered arable.
• Chickens are the most common livestock, but some cattle and goats are also raised. The country’s pig population was decimated when African swine fever swept through Haiti in the early 1980s.
• Most of Haiti’s farmers work subsistence plots of land that produce small amounts of cash crops. Soil erosion and overworked land are major agricultural problems, while hurricanes and drought have also taken their toll.