Haiti

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with more than two-thirds of Haitians living on less than a dollar a day. Occupying the western third of the island of Hispaniola, Haiti, which is slightly larger than the state of Maryland, is home to about 8 million people. Haiti's dire poverty is exacerbated by the needs of a large population and by political and socioeconomic instability.

Years of arbitrary rule and exploitation have left Haiti destitute of social, environmental and financial resources. Limited access to food and poor health and education services are only a few of Haiti's many challenges. Only a sliver of the country's land surface remains forested, rendering Haiti, which is in the middle of the "hurricane belt," vulnerable to devastating hurricanes, landslides and flooding.

With more than 50 years of experience in Haiti, Catholic Relief Services is now one of the largest U.S. humanitarian organizations working in the country. Our annual budget of about $20 million makes the Haiti program CRS' largest country program in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Serving some 200,000 of the poorest and most marginalized Haitians, our projects provide assistance with health and nutrition, education, water and sanitation, HIV and AIDS, agriculture, peacebuilding and migration.

CRS works with a wide variety of local and international partners, including Caritas, Catholic dioceses throughout Haiti, the Haitian Episcopal Conference, the U.S. Agency for International Development, UNICEF, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank, the Haitian government, and a number of well-organized local associations, schools and health institutions.

CRS staff works out of two offices: in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and in Les Cayes, a port city in the country's southern peninsula. The country representative in Haiti is William Canny.