![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/haiti-1.jpg?resize=624%2C351&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHaiti’s ability to respond is confounded by its economic\nstraits. Around 60% of Haitians live below the poverty line and many face a\nstark choice: either go about your daily business and run the risk of\ncontracting COVID-19, or stay indoors, as the government advises, and be unable\nto put food on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is little wonder that so many are taking their chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is the dilemma facing Jean Raymond and his family. He\nlives in Furcy, a mountainous village outside of Port-au-Prince where most families\nscratch a meagre living from land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jean Raymond, however, isn’t a farmer but a motorbike taxi\ndriver, part of Haiti’s vast informal economy. Rremaining indoors is not an\noption if he is to feed his wife and two young children, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s impossible for me to not leave the house,”\nhe said. “If I’m obligated to stay in my home, what would we eat?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jean Raymond’s wife, Lucienne, criticised the government for\nfailing to show enough support in the village. “We want to respect the\nrules but we can’t,” she said. “I see what governments are doing in\nother countries, but here they aren’t doing anything.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the absence of the state, it has fallen to local\ngrassroots organisations to carry out basic but vital tasks. Clean water is a\nprecious commodity in Furcy – indeed it is a scarce resource across Haiti – and\none environmentalist group called Ekoloji pou Ayiti has prepared dozens of\nwater canisters to make handwashing stations in some of the neediest\ncommunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the deep distrust of NGOs in Haiti, it was crucial to\n“make sure the community leaders were part of the project,” said Max\nFaublas, co-founder of Ekoloji pou Ayiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As well as building 88 water stations, the group showed\npeople how to make their own hand-sanitiser using vinegar. They have also tried\nto tackle widespread misinformation with a public education campaign on the\nimportance of wearing a facemask, avoiding handshakes and disinfecting shoes\nand clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, although members of the community appreciate the rules\nin theory, putting them into practice can be hard. For example, Jean Raymond\nand his family live with his parents – six people in a tiny home, all living on\ntop of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if social distancing is difficult in rural Furcy, it is\nalmost out of the question for many in Haiti’s sprawling, densely-populated\nshantytowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Port-au-Prince, market days have been cut back, creating\nfurther demand for basic food supplies. Some are growing desperate. There have\nbeen chaotic scenes outside food distribution points and trucks selling bread.\nThe government has been distributing food parcels to the most vulnerable\nhouseholds but many are angry at having to jostle and compete in a crowd for\nfood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The way they are distributing food is\nhumiliating,” one resident, Mesmin Louigene, told the Reuters news agency.\n“People do not respect social distancing. The government should organise\nit better. I’m very concerned at the sanitary conditions, it’s very\nworrying.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n That the looming healthcare crisis is a great threat to\nHaiti is of little surprise – that is true of most of Latin America and the\nCaribbean. What’s especially deadly in the region’s poorest country though is\nthe combination of the pandemic and a crippling economic crisis. In a bid to\nstave off further economic ruin, the Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe said this\nweek the country’s textile factories would re-open later this month, but the\nmove runs contrary to advice from the Pan American Health Organisation to keep\nlockdown restrictions in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Furcy, Jean Raymond was under no illusions about what a\nmajor COVID-19 outbreak would mean to his village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If Coronavirus comes into my community, it would be a\ndisaster. We don’t have a hospital or even a good road. The conditions we live\nin\u2026” his voice trailed off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There’s no way. We will all die if coronavirus comes\nhere.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Will Grant (BBC) With barely 60 ventilators for 11 million people, Haiti is the most vulnerable nation in the Americas to the coronavirus. While many countries would struggle to cope with a serious spread…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[275,301],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-international","tag-covid-19","tag-haiti"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/haiti-2.jpg?resize=624%2C351&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/haiti-3.jpg?resize=624%2C351&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/haiti-4.jpg?resize=624%2C351&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n