The Haiti Crisis
By Nicole Glasnapp
In Haiti many people are struggling from lack of food and water which is violating their human rights. Human rights are the rights that you have simply because you are human. The right being violated in Haiti is the right to have food and shelter. This is a HUGE problem that everyone needs to work together to try and fix.
The Problem in Action
In Haiti, lack of food and water has always been a huge problem because of how poor they were. After the storms and hurricanes hit in August and September, 2008, though, Haiti became the poorest island nation in the Western Hemisphere. It has now become such a struggle to find safe water that street vendors sell it in plastic baggies for a few pennies. As you can see, things in Haiti are only going down hill.
(Richard, 2012)
Start of the Problem
Since Haiti has always been poor, it never really had a starting date. Now that they have problems like cholera, though, it seems as though the end date to all their problems will never come. Cholera in Haiti has killed 7,000, and sickened 530,000 more since 2010. Now, you might ask yourself where do they get this disease? The answer lies within the water. That's right, the people in Haiti are getting it from the water they drink. Even the Artibunite River (which is a major source of water, and has been for thousands of years in Haiti) is contaminated. Because of Cholera, safe water has become the most urgent problem in Haiti.
(Richard, 2012)
The Reason Why
This is purely happening because, again, of the fact that Haiti is so poor. Worst of all is that the 4 storms that hit Haiti flooded many rice fields. Soon after the hurrican hit, though, Gustav, which is another storm was expected to hit with 111 mile winds. After hearing this, panicked people started trying to swim to a town 45 miles south. Overall, Haiti was in a very bad position.
(Chelsea, 2009)
Where this is Occcuring
The main issue is occuring in Haiti, but more specifically in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In this city, only about 50 percent of children go to primary school. Another 2 percent of the 50 percent that went to primary schools go to secondary school. Even worse is that many people had to hide in classrooms, they had to hide in classrooms for protection. Port-au-Prince is definently not exactly the hot spot for vacations.
(Chelsea, 2009
How YOU can help!
- Donate to The Water Project:
- Donate to the American Red Cross Assosiation:
- Donate monthly to UNICEF:
Works Cited
- "NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR." NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. Richard Knox. Web. 20 Apr. 2013. <http://www.npr.com/>.
- Verloren, Ada. The United Nations Children's Fund. New York: Chelsea House, 2009. Print.