Haiti: Struggles and Resilience Amidst Adversity

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Haiti is a Caribbean country with a population of about 10.32 million people. This low- income country is the poorest in the western hemisphere. This country is handicapped by problems such as deforestation and only bearing 3% of its land forested. In the midst of natural disasters many portions of the environment and population become compromised. In Haiti almost 97% of the “working class” make up the agricultural and informal sector. In August of 2008 Haiti was impacted by four hurricanes, greatly damaging the countries heath, well-being, infrastructure and economic production. The hurricanes took the gross domestic product from a 3.7% to 1.3%.
Haiti collected more than one billion dollars in debt from 1970 until about 2004. In response to the debt crisis, weakened terms of trade and economic calm in the early 1980s, the World Back and the International Monetary Fund grew structural arrangement orders of business in developing counties. Short-term measures in …show more content…

The magnitude was measured at a 7.3. There were about 220,000 casualties and 300,000 injured. The economic infliction generated about eight billion dollars worth of loss and destruction, estimated to be greater than 120% of the countries 2009 gross domestic product. Many were forced to sleep in harsh living condition leaving them open for more problems. Haiti had problems surrounding Tuberculosis and HIV before the earthquake. After many damaged hospitals, loss of medical staff, and loss of proper heath instruments, heath problems began to worsen.
On January 21, 2010 after the earthquake the World Bank stated that “ due to crisis caused by the earthquake, we are waving any payments on this debt for the next five years and at the same time we are working to find a way forward to cancel the remaining debt. It is against this historical, political and social-economic backdrop that Haiti has struggled with health and

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