Covid-crisis exacerbates conditions of poverty in Haiti

By Vatican News staff reporter

The non-profit organization “Fondazione Rava” provides emergency aid for those in most need, but also promotes long-term programs to support poor people in building livelihoods.

Father Richard Frechette, a priest and medical doctor whose work in Haiti is supported by the Foundation, spoke with Vatican News about the effects of the pandemic in one of the poorest countries in the world.

“The main way that coronavirus has negatively impacted the condition of people at least in our experience in Haiti, is because of the collapsed global economy,” said Father Frechette.

He highlighted the fact that funds received from abroad are not “charity". He pointed out that they are more like subsidies used by the organisation “to do something that’s really good and noble for the people, which is the creation of work, or different kinds of small businesses which help people to live.”

Noting the “enormous” decrease in donations due to the global economic collapse, Fr Frechette said, “It’s our experience — our experience is not small, and I’m sure it’s compounded across the country — but this has been [the cause of] the increase in poverty and hardship in living because of Covid-19 around the world, which has caused the collapse of the global economy.”