So, I'm an intern for CNN American Morning, and today as I was reading through some of the days news stories on our news feed I came across the article about people in Haiti. We all say we know how poor it is, but the images I thought of when reading this really made me wonder if people knew it was that bad. I don't know if this has been posted before, but thought it'd be interesting
By STEVENSON JACOBS
Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Life has always been a struggle for
Haiti's poor. These days, death isn't much easier.
The city morgue is under-refrigerated, jammed to capacity with
unclaimed corpses and so short of funds that workers don't have
paper masks to ward off the stench.
Deforestation has inflated the price of coffin wood, and
hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of deaths in street violence are
pushing up the price of funerals. Robbers plunder graves for
coffins to resell, and families try to thwart them by smashing the
coffin before it is covered with earth.
Some bereaved families are taking out high-interest "funeral
loans," falling deep into debt to send off relatives with the
dignity many were deprived of in life. Others have to abandon their
dead on a dusty field known as Titanyen, a Creole word meaning
"less than nothing," on the edge of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
A funeral now costs around $540 -- what most Haitians earn in
four months. Cremation is only for the wealthy.
Haiti's largest public morgue, built to hold 390 cadavers, often
has nearly 500, many strewn on the cement floor for lack of space.
The dead include shooting victims, AIDS victims and babies who
never saw their first birthday.
It costs a relative $27 just to pick up a body if it was dropped
off at the morgue, and $47 if the morgue had to collect it off the
street. As a result, few bodies are ever claimed by relatives. They
end up in a common grave outside the capital, along with those
dumped at the Titanyen field.
"If the families don't have money to claim the bodies, they
simply never show up," said morgue director Sergo Castor.
Marie Nicola's son was found dead in the street, his skull
bashed in by unknown assailants in the taxi he was driving. The
62-year-old unemployed mother said she does not know if she will be
able to afford a decent burial.
"After you pay the morgue, you have to buy clothes for the
body, a coffin and pay the church and the cemetery. We don't have
anything so it's very hard," Nicola said outside the morgue as
relatives consoled her.
Outside the morgue, freelance undertakers with beaten-up old
hearses stand ready to haggle over a funeral price. It's an
entirely uncontrolled market.
"Sometimes you can see the economic situation of the person and
you can negotiate a lower price. I'm human too so it affects me
when people want to bury a relative but can't pay," said Carl
Fanfan, an undertaker.
The Rev. Rick Frechette is a Catholic priest with the
Illinois-based charity Friends of the Orphans, which runs an
orphanage and a children's hospital in Haiti.
Trying "to do something a little more human for those that have
died," the group makes coffins from papier-mache instead of wood
and provides free burials for about 40 people a month, Frechette
said.
Nicola said she'll ask relatives to chip in for her son's
burial.
"If it's not enough then we will sell what we can," she said
softly. "I will give him a good funeral if I'm able to."
------
On the Net:
http://www.friendsoftheorphans.org
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 04-02-07 1339EDT
By STEVENSON JACOBS
Associated Press Writer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Life has always been a struggle for
Haiti's poor. These days, death isn't much easier.
The city morgue is under-refrigerated, jammed to capacity with
unclaimed corpses and so short of funds that workers don't have
paper masks to ward off the stench.
Deforestation has inflated the price of coffin wood, and
hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of deaths in street violence are
pushing up the price of funerals. Robbers plunder graves for
coffins to resell, and families try to thwart them by smashing the
coffin before it is covered with earth.
Some bereaved families are taking out high-interest "funeral
loans," falling deep into debt to send off relatives with the
dignity many were deprived of in life. Others have to abandon their
dead on a dusty field known as Titanyen, a Creole word meaning
"less than nothing," on the edge of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
A funeral now costs around $540 -- what most Haitians earn in
four months. Cremation is only for the wealthy.
Haiti's largest public morgue, built to hold 390 cadavers, often
has nearly 500, many strewn on the cement floor for lack of space.
The dead include shooting victims, AIDS victims and babies who
never saw their first birthday.
It costs a relative $27 just to pick up a body if it was dropped
off at the morgue, and $47 if the morgue had to collect it off the
street. As a result, few bodies are ever claimed by relatives. They
end up in a common grave outside the capital, along with those
dumped at the Titanyen field.
"If the families don't have money to claim the bodies, they
simply never show up," said morgue director Sergo Castor.
Marie Nicola's son was found dead in the street, his skull
bashed in by unknown assailants in the taxi he was driving. The
62-year-old unemployed mother said she does not know if she will be
able to afford a decent burial.
"After you pay the morgue, you have to buy clothes for the
body, a coffin and pay the church and the cemetery. We don't have
anything so it's very hard," Nicola said outside the morgue as
relatives consoled her.
Outside the morgue, freelance undertakers with beaten-up old
hearses stand ready to haggle over a funeral price. It's an
entirely uncontrolled market.
"Sometimes you can see the economic situation of the person and
you can negotiate a lower price. I'm human too so it affects me
when people want to bury a relative but can't pay," said Carl
Fanfan, an undertaker.
The Rev. Rick Frechette is a Catholic priest with the
Illinois-based charity Friends of the Orphans, which runs an
orphanage and a children's hospital in Haiti.
Trying "to do something a little more human for those that have
died," the group makes coffins from papier-mache instead of wood
and provides free burials for about 40 people a month, Frechette
said.
Nicola said she'll ask relatives to chip in for her son's
burial.
"If it's not enough then we will sell what we can," she said
softly. "I will give him a good funeral if I'm able to."
------
On the Net:
http://www.friendsoftheorphans.org
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
APTV 04-02-07 1339EDT
And Besides The Coffin Had A Lock Which Means If They Break it To Get The Body Out The Funeral Homes Wont Buy It Back. But Besides That i Had The Greatest Time In My Life Me And My Fam Were Out Til About 4 -5am Everyday, We Were Out Even With No Lights In Some Parts Riding Around in Pitch Black Darkness. Port o Prince Is A Lil Ruff Ill Admit But Still Not What They Reporting .... Am i Wrong Anybody Else Been Down There recently ... Shoot My father Just left For Haiti 2 Days Ago And im Planning on Following Suit In A Week ???/ 
) coming on?
