Is Haiti the poorest country in the world?

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and is listed among the top 20 poorest nations in the world. (It currently ranks as the 19th poorest.)

What is the best hope for Haiti?

The best hope for Haiti is a relief effort based on creating holistic, transformative change. This approach is intended to give Haitians a hand up rather than handouts. Efforts of this kind have proven most effective, in part because they allow poor families to lift themselves out the cycle of poverty. This is an empowering process that builds confidence, encourages self-reliance and restores hope.

Where did the 2010 Haiti earthquake occur?

On January 12, 2010, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake hit Haiti near Léogâne, about 16 miles west of the capital, Port-Au-Prince. With 250,000 lives lost and approximately 3 million people affected, this quake was the most devastating natural disaster ever experienced in the country. Ten years later, the effects are still being felt.

What do the people of Haiti eat?

Haitian cuisine is often lumped together with other regional islands as Caribbean cuisine, however it maintains an independently unique flavor. A typical dish would be a plate of rice with beans topped off with fish, tomatoes and onions. This It is often called the Riz National, considered to be the national rice of Haiti. Black beans are usually the beans of choice, followed by red beans, white beans, and even peas. Chicken is frequently eaten, the same goes for goat meat and beef. Starches commonly eaten include yam, potato and breadfruit. Spaghetti is most often served in Haiti as a breakfast dish and is cooked with hot dog, dried herring and spices and served with tomato sauce.

What is chronic hunger?

Chronic hunger is often contrasted with seasonal hunger. While seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting, chronic hunger is a consequence of diets being persistently inadequate in terms of quantity or quality.

Why is Haiti suffering?

Factors that make Haiti more vulnerable than other Caribbean nations (the Dominican Republic, for example) are its higher population density, extensive deforestation, extreme soil erosion, and high income-inequality.

What causes poverty in Haiti?

Haiti was once the wealthiest country in the Caribbean as a result of the African slave trade and a key player in the sugar trade. Today, extreme deforestation and the destruction of natural resources for export have left the country a scarred and troubled land. Haiti continues to experience political turmoil and extreme economic challenges. Poverty, corruption, vulnerability to natural disasters, unemployment and persistent illiteracy are among the most serious obstructions to Haiti’s stability and economic growth. Haiti is also plagued with strong voodoo practices, disease, unclean water, malnutrition and poor health care.

What is the poverty line in Haiti?

There is a new baseline of poverty in Haiti, based on consumption. The national poverty rate is 58.6 percent, based on the number of people living on less than $2.41 a day.

Kobonal Haiti Mission

Building a Community of Faith Through Housing, Water, & Service

With your generous help, Father Glenn Meaux’s Kobonal Haiti Mission and Cross Catholic Outreach are working together to bring poverty relief, economic empowerment, and spiritual transformation to the poor in Kobonal, Haiti. This campaign continually blesses the poor in Central Haiti with safe shelter, clean water, food, education, agriculture and the power of Christ. Through housing construction, the installation of community water stations, and other humanitarian aid efforts, we are dedicated to fighting poverty in Haiti while strengthening God’s presence among the poor.

Read on to learn more about Kobonal Haiti Mission's impact & how you can help!

The Tremendous Needs in Haiti

With yearly income per capita at $817, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. For many people living in Haiti, there is a choice that they must make for themselves: to either move to the urban center of Port-au-Prince or to stay in the rural parts of Haiti. Sadly, both choices pose dangers to Haitians in the form of hunger, sickness, and homelessness. Education is hard to come by, and so are the resources to create a better life for themselves. Rural Haitians’ needs, such as housing, can be transformed with your help and support.

"...At least 58.5 percent of the population in this nation lives below the poverty line..."

In Kobonal, deemed “the darkest corner of the Diocese of Hinche,” the humanitarian needs are dire. Families are living in dilapidated shacks with leaky rooves. People suffer from fevers, rashes, eye infections, and stomach ailments due to toxic water gathered from a nearby stream. Other families live under scrap tarps with walls made with mud and plywood. Without a latrine, electricity, or clean water for bathing and drinking, Haitians are prone to feelings of hopelessness.

When we first met the Laurent family of eight in Kobonal, these parents and children were living in a dilapidated shack with a leaky roof and suffering from fevers, rashes, eye infections, and stomach ailments due to toxic water gathered from a nearby stream. Meanwhile, the Desier family of five was living under scrap tarps, mud, and plywood with no latrine, electricity, or clean water for drinking or bathing.

However, the families we’ve met in Kobonal are certainly not alone in their continuous struggles in Haiti. At least 58.5 percent of the population in this nation lives below the poverty line, 7.4 million people here live without electricity, and the average life expectancy is just 64.6 years old. The outcome for Haitian children is especially bleak, considering that 39.3 percent of Haitians over the age of 15 cannot read or write and 40.6 percent are unemployed.

Kobonal Haiti Mission has helped several families by building them new sturdy homes that are safe and resilient. The mission has provided local impoverished families with latrines to improve sanitation and agricultural assistance to make the families more sustainable for the future. Animal husbandry is a vital self-help program at Kobonal Haiti Mission, and many families have received goats and cows through the mission to provide milk, meat, nutrition, and future income. For poor rural families like these, owning a goat, pig, or cow is like having access to a “walking savings account” because livestock can lift a family out of severe poverty.

Background of Kobonal Haiti Mission

Cross Catholic Outreach has partnered with Father Glenn Meaux, founder of Kobonal Haiti Mission, since 2004. Father Meaux was the first of God’s servants to become involved here after witnessing the devastating conditions of families in and around Kobonal. He told us how families here were living in crumbling living conditions and forced to rely on streams contaminated with sewage for their water needs.

"...Father Meaux initially founded Kobonal Haiti Mission in 1989 to bring this rural community out of poverty and spiritual darkness..."

Father Meaux initially founded Kobonal Haiti Mission in 1989 to bring this rural community out of poverty and spiritual darkness with the help of the Society of Our Most Holy Trinity. Since that time, the mission has helped build 699 homes, provided three community water wells to serve 90 families, and is in the process of building a new chapel to serve as a spiritual home for Kobonal’s poor. In their culture, the Haitian people believe that everything comes from God, and these dramatic life improvements are certainly miracles straight from Heaven.

Year In a Life In Kobonal

Join Cross Catholic Outreach on a year-long social media journey as we follow two families living in poverty in Haiti, the Laurents and the Desiers, and how the Kobonal Haiti Mission helps them achieve a better life. The Mission will work to meet the immediate needs of these families by providing food, shelter, water and medical assistance; and help them achieve self-sufficiency through initiatives like education, animal husbandry, agriculture and microloans. On each step of the journey, the Mission will proclaim the Gospel and share Christ’s love. Are you ready to watch the transformation?

How Kobonal Haiti Mission Helps Impoverished Families

Kobonal Haiti Mission aids the poor in several important ways. It provides safe housing by building hurricane-proof concrete houses to replace makeshift shacks that leak and crumble under strong winds. It also provides community water wells to serve the clean water needs of families to prevent the spread of disease and promote better health. The mission is becoming an even more vibrant Catholic community through the construction of a new chapel, and now Father Meaux is looking to expand his vision beyond the boundaries of the village of Kobonal to support nearby impoverished Haitian communities too.

"...now Father Meaux is looking to expand his vision beyond the boundaries of the village of Kobonal to support nearby impoverished Haitian communities too..."

Through Kobonal Haiti Mission, we are helping to build a community of faith through housing, water, and service. We work alongside Kobonal construction teams to build new homes and drill new boreholes for wells. Meanwhile, these programs are deepening the faith of recipient families, like the Laurents and the Desiers. Without all-consuming shelter and water concerns, Kobonal parents can focus on building an income to sustain their families and also send their children to school.

How You Can Help in Kobonal

Although many amazing projects have already been completed in Kobonal, there is still much work to be done for the impoverished rural families here and in the surrounding communities. We need your help to cover the costs of housing construction, the installation of community water stations, and to enhance the mission’s outreach to improve even more lives in this region both materially and spiritually.

If the stories of these impoverished Haitian families have touched your heart, please consider donating to the ongoing work of Kobonal Haiti Mission. We are excited to deepen our partnership with the mission and Father Glenn Meaux, and with help from generous supporters like you, we can ensure the mission’s financial stability and continue the Lord’s work. No gift is too small or insignificant for families in need. On behalf of the Laurents, Desiers, and all the villagers who are benefiting from Kobonal Haiti Mission, thank you for your support and please keep us in your prayers.

If you’d like to donate monthly, those donations are directed to where the funding is needed most and impacts the work we do for families in Kobonal. Together, we can transform the lives of people like the Laurents and the Desiers.

Proceeds from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred through June 30, 2020, the close of our ministry’s fiscal year. In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs of the ministry.