Living condition

LIFE CONDITIONS OF THE HAITIAN ADULTS LIVING IN RURAL OF HAITI

The factor the most affected who are living in the rural / country sides of Haiti are the senior adults. Most of them are feeble they do not have any access to public or private services and also common resources, they live with certain vulnerable conditions, like inability of the facilitation, insufficiency of personal care or aid assistance to live at least a basic life style, lack of basic service facility, such as room accommodations, etc.

As a matter of fact, the people in the country sides of Haiti are on their own. The central government is more focused on the towns and cities, so they ignore most of the time the people in the rural zones. That means no drinking water system, no visibility of the government staff, no nutrition system to help them, no cleanliness of the area, lack of hygiene, no electricity, etc. One of the most common in the rural zone, an adult usually walks for more than 5 kilometers to fetch water or to find a clinic.

Most of the elders in those rural areas die of petty diseases which could be cured by a doctor. That is due to the lack of transportation to the nearest clinic or hospital which may be as far as 10 kilometers away. Too far for a seventy-year-old adult to walk to, which leads to unnecessary death in the families.

HOW ADULTS OVER 70 ARE LIVING IN THE RURAL ZONES OF HAITI

Farming is no longer a vital way to make a leaving, because most of the fertile or arable lands are gone due to too much lumbering or deforestation. In fact, in most of those rural zones the main source of income is charcoal. Many people would stop farming to engage in the charcoal business (charcoal is the main cooking energy for the 90% of Haitian families in the entire country). As consequence, we suffer of earth devastation and erosion when it rains. Many of the farmers found themselves with no cultivable land to provide for their family. Meanwhile, mostly often they end up moving to the main cities especially Port-Au-Prince and some even immigrate to the Dominican Republic to work in farming and agriculture production which is also what they could have done in their home country.

Therefore, the ones who mostly suffer from the consequences of these kinds of situation are the senior adults. Because when the areas are devastated by either natural disasters or any other related devastation, they are the first to be affected. They can barely survive living in the harsh conditions of the country side which is walking long distances to fetch water, or woods to cook. Some elders are left living with a kid just to facilitate the procurement of things they need to survive. In one way that is not bad, however in the other way it becomes hard for the kid to live a kid’s life. Such as, going to school.

The main purpose of our program is designed to take care of those senior adults living in the vulnerable conditions in the rural zones. Creating a social program, maintaining sustainable action to ease the needs of those senior adults, supporting and provision assistance and financial support to them.