Poverty Without Dignity--February 2015

This lady has been living in this tent with five of her relatives for five years. Her house crumbled during the earthquake on January 12, 2010. Eighty thousand other Haitians in Port-au-Prince still live the same way she does.

It is hot and dark inside. The floor is dirt and baby chicks roam around. American rice helps her and her relatives but undermines the Haitian farmer in the countryside.

She buys her cigarettes one at a time…possibly the only good thing about being desperately poor.

Maybe President Aristide knew what he was talking about two decades ago when he spoke of poverty without dignity.

John A. Carroll, MD
www.haitianhearts.org