Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere where 70% of is 7 million people live on less than a dollar a day. It is a country without access to clean drinking water and where over 30% of all children born don’t make it to the age of 5 years. It is a land of instability and violence beginning the long road to recovery.

It is a nation with a proud history, laying claim as only the third independent republic established after France and the United States. It is a nation whose products of timber, sugar and spice made its ports some of the busiest in the New World. It is a nation whose citizen soldiers faced down and defeated Napoleon’s army ending slavery decades before the American Civil War. It is a welcoming country full of beauty and vitality.

Most important of all Haiti is our neighbor. A neighbor in need.