Poor America
A hungry Balan boy relies on New Hope Haiti for food.
Poor America
By Eryn DeLille Cobb
Pundits, experts, economists, politicians and your next door neighbor are likely regularly reminding you that the United States is currently experiencing "the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."
It’s true; as of January, the current nation-wide unemployment rate is a whopping 7.6%. One year ago in January of 2008, the unemployment rate was a full 2.7% lower at 4.9%.
The statistics are alarming, and the nation is in a panic. The fear and self-pity in the air is almost tangible—but how many people in the U.S. will go without clean drinking water tomorrow? How many will eat dirt just to keep their bellies full? The answer is: not many.
Despite the U.S.'s current plight, it is still one of the most comfortable and affluent countries in the world. While laid-off workers in the U.S. need only to apply for unemployment benefits (and in the worst-case scenario, show up at the local soup kitchen), people all over the world, from India to Bulgaria to Ethiopia to our very own neighbor Haiti, are literally dying due to a lack of clean drinking water and food.
It can be easy to feel detached from the impoverished nations on the other side of the world, but the fact is that we Americans live prosperously in the midst of poverty.
In fact, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere lies only 750 miles from the Florida Keys.
While some states in the U.S. do have poverty levels of as much as 27%, the national average is 17%.
Haiti’s poverty rate is 80%.
The average Haitian lives on less than $2/day. Due to the recent increases in food costs, many Haitians are starving or eating dirt to survive.
Haiti is 97% deforested, which has caused the nation to take on a desert-like terrain. Access to clean drinking water is extremely limited.
Personally, I have never met a citizen of the United States who lived that poorly; Rick Maher recently calculated that the average street-corner beggar in the U.S. makes about $19,000/year (RickMaher.com).
While Americans are wallowing in self-pity over our current recession, or depression, whatever you want to call it, the average street-corner beggar makes in excess of $50/a day more than the average Haitian.
Thankfully there are some in the U.S. who have noticed this disparity, and thanks in part to New Hope Haiti Mission, awareness and charity are not yet dead in the United States.
New Hope Haiti Mission is a non-profit Christian organization; the organization runs an orphanage that houses 22 children and 12 staff, and runs a feeding program for Balan, one of the most desolate areas of Haiti.
The New Hope Haiti orphanage is an especially-needed facility. 50% of Haiti’s residents are children, and most of them live in desperate poverty. The orphanage takes in children and feeds, clothes, educates, and lovingly raises them.
The feeding program consists of delivering rice and beans to 2100 people in Balan twice a month and holding weekly services at Balan Christian Church. The residents of Balan are so poor and malnourished that many would die without this provision of food.
Citizens of the United States must realize that, despite our current economic crisis, we are still so very prosperous. Nowhere in the U.S. can poverty be found to the degree that it exists in Haiti.
Even in the face of an impending depression, Americans are still able to help, as evidenced by New Hope Haiti Mission and by the efforts of other organizations, even locally here in Richmond.
In fact, this past December Commonwealth Chapel, a local Richmond Church, in cooperation with New Hope Haiti Mission and Advent Conspiracy, raised $25,000 to provide clean drinking water and food to Balan, Haiti.
Let us, as citizens of one of the most prosperous nations in the world, not wallow in self-pity. Let us change the world.
Information provided by RickMaher.com, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and New Hope Haiti member/supporter April Salvant.
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