As many of you know, I work for a NGO called Free the Children and the associated social enterprise Me to We. A lot of the work I do stems around leadership, social activism and engaging youth in the social movement of moving from “me'” thinking to “we” thinking. We do this in various ways, through programs developed within the schools, through independent social justice camps, motivational speeches and global leadership seminars. As a staff we develop modules that engage our audience to start thinking about and challenging the various social issues going on domestically and internationally. I was recently asked to put together a issues modules on Haiti and its contributing issues. Although I cant share the entire piece with you (because it is very visual and not electronic) I would like to share some of the research I did, mainly through statistics and facts.
Haiti’s population wavers around 10 million people.
60% of those live in abject poverty.
70% of the 10 million people live on $2 a day.
GDP= $480.53 per person per year
Average life expectancy= 61 years
1 in 8 children will not reach their 5th birthday.
50% of people living in the cities HAVE access to clean drinking water. Only 30% of people in the rural regions do.
40% of Haitians DO NOT have access to basic health care.
The National Literacy Rate is 53%, less than 75% of school age children go to school. Why?
School tuition costs approximately $12 a month.
$12 + uniform + books/ pencils + lunch on $2 a day?
Haiti has experienced 7 severe natural disasters in 5 years.
The second most recent, an earthquake. That killed over 300,000 people.
Injuring thousands more.
$5.3 billion were pledged from the international community.
And here we are, a grim look at Haiti’s basic statistics. What are the solutions? I was asked this very question, and this is where I am stumped. WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?
In whose hands is Haiti’s future?
Yours, mine, theirs, ours?
No comments:
Post a Comment