Haiti is widely recognised as a poor country, with the overall incidence of poverty in the country at 77 per cent. In fact, in rural areas, which are home to 52 per cent of Haiti’s population, 88 per cent of people are poor and 67 per cent are extremely poor. Although agriculture is an important sector in the overall economy, Haiti does not produce enough food crops and livestock to feed its people. The country even has to import 60 per cent of the food it needs, including as much as 80 per cent of the rice it consumes.
That is why I have challenged myself to live the next five days (11-15 April 2016) below the poverty line. 5 days, £5. £1-a-day to buy all my food and drink for the week. I'm hungry just thinking about it!
I used to pride myself on being good with money, and whilst at uni I would have easily managed this. But I must admit there are days now (most of the time, in fact!) when I don't think about meal planning in advance and am left buying food last minute. This is especially true for little things like ‘I’m being good, I’ll have that healthy yoghurt at M&S’. There's also often a lot of food at work, and I can’t help feeling it would be cheating a bit (even though someone will have already paid for it!) so I will be avoiding all snacks in the office throughout the 5 days. That's a challenge in itself!
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Thanks for reading,
(Data source: http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/haiti)
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