As the two countries continued to grow and change, the French began to take a greater toll on the Haitian side of the island through farming and finances. They exploited the Haitian coffee and sugar farmers, taking their valuable crops without exchanging a fair wage. As the land of modern day Haiti continued to struggle, the Eastern side of the Island became more light skinned as they intermingled with white settlers, causing them to look down on their darker skinned neighbors and employ them as common field hands and hard laborers.
Finally, the country of Haiti has more people and less food in fact Haiti is one of the most food impoverished nations in the world and cannot produce enough food to sustain its people.
As the weather patterns and natural disasters continue to wreak havoc on the Haitian landscape, the larger numbers and decreased crop potential make it almost impossible for Haiti to get ahead.
The poverty in Haiti causes many families to send their children away to wealthier homes for a better chance of survival. Sadly, rather than receive love and care, these children are often forced into slavery for their new families, skipping school for a schedule of back-breaking work and meager rations. This is what is known as the Restavek System of child slavery , an appalling and all too common practice throughout Haiti.
The Restavek Freedom is one of the top charities at work in Haiti and we are committed to putting an end to this system of slavery. You can help by spreading the word about our important work and through child sponsorship. We would love you to partner with us to end slavery in our lifetime and give every kid in a Haiti a chance to thrive and enjoy their childhood. While the former is a popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Palm trees, sandy beaches stretching for miles, a brilliant blue sea — at first glance, the Dominican Republic seems like a real paradise. Several million tourists visit the country each year. But the stunning landscape and the luxurious hotels mask the fact that the Dominican Republic actually belongs to the less wealthy countries in Latin America, and that it shares a border with Haiti, the poorest country in the western world.
Though Haiti and the Dominican Republic share an island, they remain worlds apart. That's seen, for instance, in the infrastructure. In Haiti, on the other hand, "you often need an hour just to travel a few kilometers," he adds.
It's a similar picture in other areas too. According to the United Nations, only about 50 percent of Haitians can read and write as opposed to nearly 90 percent in neighboring Dominican Republic and child mortality rates in Haiti are three times higher than in the Dominican Republic.
Climate change hits Haiti hard The huge differences between the two countries play a direct role in how far they are affected by climate change and how they're dealing with the consequences. Haiti's huge coastline makes it especially vulnerable to hurricanes.
Since all the country's big cities are located on the coast, floods often have dramatic repercussions. The weak infrastructure hampers quick delivery of aid and emergency help during natural catastrophes. As a result, some , people were killed during an earthquake in early Since no Haitian city has a regular electricity supply, for many residents wood remains the most important source of energy.
That's one reason why the island's forest cover has largely disappeared. The bare mountains lead to strong rains washing away the soil cover. That in turn makes life worse for the local residents since Haiti is densely populated and heavily rural. Thick vegetation is needed to keep the soil intact, Heinz Oelers says. To do that "you could for instance combine forestry and food crop cultivation," he says.
The main reasons lie in the region's history. The entire island of Hispaniola was long under Spanish rule until , when the Spanish rulers handed over the western third of the island to France. Hundreds of thousands of African slaves were brought there to help in the production of sugar, coffee, coco and cotton. In , the region witnessed a slave rebellion. Soon after, slavery was abolished and, following a brutal war of liberation, the region finally gained independence in Saint-Domingue was renamed Haiti.
But the former colony faced a mountain of challenges. The big estates were divided among the population and soon, almost every Haitian owned some land. And it shows up in existing amendments to the Dominican constitution that strip citizenship from those of Haitian descent. This video documents my journey along this troubled border, on an island smaller than South Carolina where two countries live worlds apart:.
Borders All Chapters Close. Back to Introduction.
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