Last week I returned from a photographic assignment in Cap Haitien, Haiti.  My impressions of the geographic locations where I photographed were that Haiti is one of the poorest countries I have visited.

The people are friendly, but have many needs. In observing the women, I found that they are hard working and take on the role of selling goods to make a meager living for their families. One observes how close knit families are to each other and to their local communities.

When I returned home, I was curious to research the human rights issues for women in Haiti. According to my observations it appeared that women have lesser roles than men.

Here are some of the facts about human rights for women and children in Haiti.

*Violence against women is a longstanding problem in Haiti.

*Violence and sexual exploitation against women and girls is accentuated by poverty.

*Women suffer the most from Haiti’s chronic political and economic instability.

*Women suffer from discrimination and violence in the work place based on the social beliefs that they are inferior to men.

*Poverty has forced at least 225,000 Haitian children to work as unpaid household servants; the United Nations considers this to be a    modern-day form of slavery.

To learn more about the abuse of women and children, visit my website and listen to President Carter’s talk on this subject.        http://oursisterskeep.wpengine.com/president-carter/

Here are some street scenes from around the Cap Haitien area.