Help Haiti - Contributions, Aid Aid Are Foundational To Lifelines for Lowest State in the American Hemisphere

Not simply one of the poorest countries in the world, Haiti seems to be one of the unluckiest too. The two tend to go hand-in-hand. The country's desperate need for help continues to grow, without any end in sight for the aftermath of the massive January earthquake. You'll find links to help by the end of this article.

Goal for Normal Disasters

The massive earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010 was the worst quake to hit the region in 200 years. The terrible event cost over 250,000 lives and around $7.2 to $13.2 billion. Much of the country's money, Port-au-Prince, was destroyed as hordes of Haiti's individuals were trapped in the ruins of shantytowns, government buildings, and foreign aid practices. The quake killed 17 % of the government's workforce and destroyed all but one government ministry building. More than 1.5 million Haitians were displaced from their homes or left homeless.

As a tropical island nation, Donate to Haiti faces an annual hurricane season that gives the prospect of human costs and significant physical damage. Rampant deforestation that has taken up to 98 per cent of Haiti's forest cover magnifies the effect of storm winds and flood waters. When four tropical storms - Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike - caused greater than $1 billion in damage. Haiti experienced one of its worst storm periods actually in 2008

October found the initial cholera outbreak in Haiti in 50 years, like hurricanes and earthquakes weren't enough. Storm Tomas raised the spectre of spreading the condition to the densely populated capital. The specially tenuous living and health conditions triggered by the January quake threaten to facilitate the transmission of the disease and make the united states much more susceptible to future health epidemics.

A Sobering Human Development Profile

By most any measure, Haiti is one of many world's poorest and least created countries.

Haiti is the poorest state in the Western Hemisphere. Its GDP was estimated just over $6.5 million in 2009. With a population of 9.65 million people, that translates to a GDP per capita of just about $1,300 (at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Eighty per cent of Haiti's populace struggles to survive while living below the poverty line.

Life expectancy at birth in Haiti is just 61.7 years. In contrast, life expectancies for Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Mexico range between 72.6 to 79.1 years.

Haiti ranks 145 out of 169 countries in the 2010 UNDP Human Devel-opment Index (HDI). HDI results for the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Mexico range from.604 to.750. Haiti's general HDI score of.404 is significantly less than half that of the top 35 countries within the index.

57 percent of Haiti's populace lives in 'multi-dimensional poverty,' meaning these individuals experience continuous, acute flaws within their health, education, and living standards, according to the latest 2010 UNDP Human Develop-ment Report (HDR ).

High Income and Sex Inequality

What little economic assets donate to Haiti has are extremely unevenly distributed. The 2010 UNDP HDR reckons that 'multidimensional inequality,' including significant income and gender inequities, lowers Haiti's already low HDI rating by about 41 percent. Haiti is one of ten countries where women get less than half as several years of training as men. reported by the UNDP

Bad Politics

Attempts have been hampered by a host of bad politics at devel-opment and hopes of achieving an improved standard of living. Haiti's political problems have hindered the country's efforts to mount a defense against and respond to the natural disasters that seem to have the nation so set in their sights.

More details are available on this site.

How to Help

Provided Haiti's domestic situation, among the best hopes for mitigating the effect of devastating natural disasters is outside assistance from more fortunate neighbors and friends. The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, co-chaired by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former President Clinton, was established to improve re-construction funds and restore Haiti in-the wake of the January earthquake.

Fortuitously, there is evidence that assistance efforts can make a big difference. Not exactly 9-0 % of cholera cases have been properly treated when Haitians have been able to achieve hospitals and get access to health services.