People in Haiti, La Gonâve Island fight for survival because of COVID-19
In Haiti, La Gonâve Island, it’s extremely difficult for people to live. All resources are scarce. Food, drinking water, land, paved roads, schools, and hospitals; everything that is essential to people’s well being is scarce. When it used to be a France colony it was called the “Queen’s Pearl Necklace” because of its beauty but now it has turned into a desert, a wilderness where 120,000 people live in extreme poverty.
People chop rough trees all day to get charcoal to sell and get food. They sell mangos all day under the scorching sun to get one bowl of rice. They fight with the waves all day to get only a few fish to eat. They dig the ground all day under the scorching sun but they only get a bowl of corn powder.
The kids fill their stomachs with water to overcome hunger and fall asleep while grabbing their bellies. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, their despair and their hunger don’t change. They wait for their father and mother who went far away to earn a living. They dream about having an abundance of food for dinner or sleep in a tent where the water doesn’t leak.
Because of COVID-19 transportation through the sky, the sea, the ground has all been blocked so the people in La Gonâve Island can’t work and the situation is getting worse. They’ve been living in extreme poverty even before COVID-19 and it’s getting even harder for them to survive. Their land can’t grow any crops to eat so they’ve been barely sustaining their lives by making and selling charcoal but even that they’re no longer able to do. The elderly and the kids are getting thinner and frail and dying because of malnutrition. As the COVID-19 crisis lasts longer their lives will be threatened.
The staff at Oak Tree Ministry has stopped all other work and is fully focused on providing food for the poor in La Gonâve Island. There are about 2,000 households and about 10,000 people living in the slums. They are mostly single moms, kids, and the elderly. We desperately need bags of rice ($23) and cans of cooking oil ($5) to feed them.
Your generosity will bring so much joy and hope to the people in Haiti, La Gonâve Island. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. May God bless you.
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