File: 

grace-winter09.pdf

Thousands of Rural Haitians Get Medical Treatment - Thanks To You!
an article from the Grace! Winter 2009 newsletter.

• Grace Children’s Hospital
• Child Vaccination
• HIV/AIDS in Haiti
• Sanitation in Haiti
• Clean Water
• Literacy
• Poverty and Women
• Healthy Births

Illiteracy, poverty and poor health are inextricably linked together in the country of Haiti. In the crowded slums throughout Haiti's capital over 47% of adults cannot read or write. Illiteracy rates are even more staggering in the rural sections of Northern Haiti. Illiteracy is part of the problem that entrenches men and women in destitution. It denies them the opportunity to get better paying jobs, afford safe, clean homes, and purchase decent clothing and daily food. Without these basics, their children cannot stay healthy.

Water and sanitation have a critical impact on both health and disease throughout the world. In developing countries like Haiti up to 90% of diarrheal illness, a leading cause of death can be attributed to unsafe water and poor sanitation.

CC Vaccination Statistics:

• Age birth to 5 years
• October 2003 – September 2004
• BCG* 4,411
• Measles 10,092
• DTP* 5,519
• Polio 10,209
• *BCG = tuberculosis
• DTP = diphtheria, tetanus and whopping cough

Thousands of boys and girls, living on the island of Hispaniola, suffer from diseases that could easily be prevented. One out of every eight children will not live to see their fifth birthday because a preventable disease will claim their precious, young lives.

Population:

• 8.1 million
• 95% black, mulatto and white 5%

Official Languages:

• French
• Haitian Creole

Religion:

• 80% Roman Catholic
• Protestant denominations
• Roughly one-half of the population practices Voodoo

Area:

• 10,700 square miles, slightly smaller than Maryland
• Haiti occupies the Western one-third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic

Environmental Issues: