Poor In Haiti Eating Dirt To Survive

[dgridley]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcJ474CjaJGOUznskl4ZgTHdpxUAD8UFQVR00


My sister in law is involved in working with the orphanages in Haiti (she just came back from a visit there).. terrible poverty and desparate need for outside help!

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[bricio]

thats really very very sad :td:

when i was a doctor in the army some people i know have been there as well and they told me povetry is beyond the imagination of those who have never been there

they do unbelievable things to eat and survive daily
haiti was a dictartoship and i see such contries are extremley poor and the government doesnt do anything useful to give its citzen a honorable life

hope there are more people like your sister in law are helping poor people there and giving them dignity