Haiti Info
Haiti is a very poor country located on the western one-third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. The over eight million people of Haiti share this island with the people who live on the bigger part in a country called the Dominican Republic. Port-au-Prince is the capital city. The official languages are French and Creole. The currency is called the gourde (HTG) and it takes 39 gourdes to buy one U.S. dollar. January 1 is the Haitian Independence Day.
Haiti is slightly smaller than the state of Maryland. It has a generally tropical climate, but is semiarid where the mountains cut off the trade winds. It lies in the middle of the hurricane belt and is subject to severe storms from June to October; occasional flooding and earthquakes; and periodic droughts. Twenty-eight per cent of the mostly rough and mountainous land can be cultivated with about 12% planted with permanent crops. There is extensive deforestation, considerable soil erosion and limited sources of drinking water.
Christopher Columbus discovered Hispaniola in 1492. At that time it was inhabited by the Arawak and Carib Indians who were soon replaced by Spanish settlers. In 1697, Spain gave Haiti to France. The French colony became very rich from forest products and sugar-related industries, but only by importing thousands of slaves from Africa and taking a terrible toll on the environment. Encouraged by the 1789 revolution in France, the slaves rose up against their French rulers to gain their own freedom. After a long and fierce struggle, Haiti became the first black republic in 1804. Sadly, the Haitian republic has been plagued by tyranny, political violence and abject poverty for most of its history.
Most of the people are black, only 5% are mulatto or white. While 80% of the population profess to be Roman Catholic, about half of the people practice some Voodoo rites as well as their Christian beliefs. Over half of the people over age 15 can read and write. Their life expectancy at birth is about 53 years with very few of them being aged 65 years and over.
There is widespread unemployment and underemployment with more than two-thirds of the workers not having formal jobs. The country has a shortage of skilled labor with 66% of the workers in agriculture, 9% in industry and 25% in services. The natural resources of Haiti include bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate, gold, marble and hydropower. Industries include sugar refining, flour milling, textiles, cement and light assembly industries based on imported parts. Agriculture products are coffee, mangoes, sugarcane, rice, corn, sorghum and wood. 81% of Haitian exports go to the United States.
Haiti is divided into nine departments and has an elected government. Every citizen over 18 years of age can vote. A president is the chief of state and a prime minister is the head of government. The legislature (National Assembly) consists of two parts: The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Supreme Court is the Judicial branch. Since 2004, about 8,000 United Nations peace keepers have been in Haiti to help maintain civil order.
The Church of the Incarnation is twinned with Congregation of Little Brothers and Sisters of Incarnation (CPFSI) in Pandiassou. Pandiassou is a locality of about 20,000 inhabitants, located three miles south of the city of Hinche, on the Central Plateau of Haiti. The Diocese of Richmond has been twinned with the Diocese of Hinche since 1984. Parishes, schools, hospitals, parish clinics, orphanages, religious communities and individuals can have twinning relationships.
The CPFSI religious order was founded in 1977 by Brother Franklin Armand and has 100 religious members and 200 lay associates. The order bought land in the Pandiassou area and persuaded the Haitian farmers to use it to build ponds to serve their community. Today there are many ponds, ranging from swimming pool to football field size, stocked with tens of thousands of fish. Rain water accumulates in these ponds which provide a means to irrigate the farmer's fields.
When Brother Armand settled here, the peasants faced chronic misery and poverty due to being at the mercy of the rains. Droughts caused the harvests to become poorer and poorer. The region became more and more a desert and the soil increasingly eroded. Even the smallest trees were cut down and burned to make charcoal. Unable to rely upon their crops, charcoal production was the most important subsistence resource for the peasants.
Brother Armand believes that the Gospel and misery cannot co-exist. The CPFSI developed a pragmatic philosophy to serve the physical and spiritual needs of the peasants, first to help the people get their daily bread and to later break with traditional practice of food aid. The CPFSI developed a cooperative agricultural system that improved production efficiency allowing the peasants to plow and harvest all year round. The fish breeding system has also prospered.
The CPFSI community also has a classic and vocational school where young girls and boys can achieve classical schooling while learning a skill.
While much has been achieved, our prayers and help are still greatly needed to continue raising the quality of life for the majority in Haiti.