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Located in the Caribbean Sea, on the island of Hispaniola, Haiti shares its border with the Dominican Republic. Haiti was the first black republic to gain independence on January 1, 1804, thanks to the only ever successful country-wide slave rebellion in the world.
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Haiti has two official languages, French and Creole, with about 90% of the people speaking Creole as their first language. Located on the Western shore, the capital of Haiti is Port-au-Prince. In terms of land area, Haiti is approximately the size of the state of Maryland.
Haiti has a very rugged, mountainous terrain. Due to the rough terrain, Haiti's 8.3 million inhabitants are forced to live in close proximity to one another in areas suitable for agriculture. Unfortunately, living in these close quarters magnifies the likelihood of disease spreading throughout the villages.
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Haiti is, and has been for many years, the least developed and poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. With an ever changing political environment, Haiti currently ranks as the third hungriest and fourth poorest nation in the World. On the United Nations Human Development Index, as measured by life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living, Haiti ranks 154th out of 177 countries.
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Photo by Dawn Leikness |
Nearly 90% of all schools in Haiti are private. Because of the extreme poverty, few families can afford to send their children to private schools. Only 10% of Haitians have more than four years of primary school education. It is estimated that 65% of people in Haiti have no form of education at all.
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With an unemployment rate around 60%, it is estimated that half of the population earns $60 or less per year. 80% of Haitian people live in abject poverty. Less than 45% of the population has access to clean/potable water. These are all contributing factors to the fact that life expectancy for Haitians is 53 years, compared to that of the United States which is 77 years.
For more information regarding Haiti check out these websites:
World InfoZone
Encarta
Wikepedia
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