Written by Krutarth Trivedi
Imagine waking up every morning and not knowing if you will have enough food to eat that day. For many Haitians, this is their reality as they face food insecurity daily.
Food insecurity is a significant challenge in Haiti, with approximately 3.7 million people, or one-third of the population, lacking access to adequate food. In Haiti, many children walk 2 miles one way to their nearest schools often in rugged terrains, without shoes, in bad weather, and amongst hostile gang members. All this and they walk to school without food. This directly affects their studies and overall physical and mental development, which often results in illnesses and diseases.
Pause for a second. Think about it – if children don’t get enough meals, how are they going to survive? If they can’t survive, how are they going to educate themselves and contribute to developing their country? Will Haiti ever become self-sufficient?
While leading organizations like World Food Program have taken large initiatives of supplying nutritional food to many Haitians, nevertheless, due to the fragile economy, constant threat from gang members, and unstable government, makes it much more challenging to address this issue holistically and at all levels. Additionally, when natural disasters like earthquakes affect millions of Haitians, the hope to have a nutritious meal a day becomes grimmer. Rural Haitians are suffering worse.
Due to below-average rainfall since 2021, the crops do not get cultivated at a rate to match the rising demand. The United Nations recently released a report in October 2022 and declared Haiti to be in a “Catastrophic” risk or phase 5. Per the report, 19,000 Haitians are suffering from food insecurity. Situations like these become tough to bring under control because it takes massive proactive measures that need to be addressed at an individual level, social level, and national level – all of which require unique ideas,execution, and strong leadership. And as fate would have it, time isn’t on the side of many Haitians.
Despite these obstacles, however, there is hope for the future. Organizations like ITIAH Angels for Learning are working to provide resources and support for Haitian children, helping them to overcome the barriers to education that they face daily. By addressing educational & other associated challenges, ITIAH Angels for Learning envisions not only providing quality education to Haitian children, but also with nutritional food, water purifiers, proper shoes and clothing, and equipping them with many educational tools to make children of Haiti self-sufficient day by day.
You can donate or join ITIAH Angels for Learning and see the difference it is making in Haiti.
Sources:
https://www.wfp.org/countries/haiti
https://www.wfp.org/stories/haiti-cant-wait-people-brink-hunger-levels-rise-warns-food-
security-report
https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-
0000148451/download/?_ga=2.23375411.846120039.1682536825-
270631424.1682367204
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