Haiti is the fist black independent country and the second oldest republic in the western hemisphere after the US. But since our independence in 1804, it was very difficult for the country to become a developed and prosperous, thus has become the poorest and the least developed country in the western hemisphere. You can notice the seriousness of Haiti’s problem in the literacy, the unemployment rate and the level of health.

Education: Since the government is incapable of providing the resources to educate the children, it has to depend on the private and parochial schools account for approximately 90% of primary schools and only 65% of primary school-aged children are actually enrolled. The number of children who take advantage of free school provided by the government which represents about 10% sometimes face up difficulties because the price is still high for many families who must pay for uniforms, textbooks, supplies and other inputs. At the secondary level, the figure drops to around 20%. Less than 35% of those who enter will complete primary school. Though many Haitians place a high value on education, few can afford to send their children to secondary school and primary school enrollment is dropping due to economic factors. Also, because of lack of funds the education system faces all kinds of problems as lack of competence and qualification of the teachers which lead to poor quality of education for the most part in a country where over 46% of the people is illiterate.

Health: 1 out of 8 children dies before the age of five and according to Nation Master Statistics, in 1998, we had 0.25 physician per 1,000 people, which means that over 40% does not have access to primary health care. Life expectancy for women is 56 and for men 52. No running water in most places, so you find many people do not have access to potable water and eating out of garbage which is very hostile to their health.

Unemployment: Haiti has been plagued for decades by extremely high unemployment and underemployment. The precipitous decline in urban assembly sector jobs, from a high of over 100000 in 1986 to fewer than 20000 in 2006, exacerbated the security of jobs. These factors  and others have led the unemployment rate to over 80% with a GDP per capita of  713US Dollars.

Besides these indicators mentioned above, Haiti faces problems like no electricity in most places, few paved roads sometimes wholly, AIDS, few hospitals, minimal utilities, no reliable justice system, lack of infrastructure, 60% of the people living in abject poverty, migration, high mortality rate, high birth rate, deforestation, etc.

Spite of this is a very dark picture of the country,  the team of CLM Int. is still optimistic in  the future Haiti. The leaders still believe that spite of the situation, Haiti can become great  & a prosperous nation.