On Monday, I went to see a film screening of Poverty Inc. The film focused on poverty in the west, with one of the primary focuses being Haiti. Throughout middle school and high school, I thought I had learned a lot about the culture of Haiti. When the earthquake hit, a Haitian boy came to my area for a year to stay with a family while his country was rebuilding. He spoke English fairly well, and was also fluent in French. While the earthquake was an emotional topic for him, he loved speaking telling everyone about the beauty of Haiti. He made Haiti seem like a beautiful vacation hotspot, with beaches and wildlife. Later on, in my high school French courses, we focused at the happy aspects of Haiti, and never on the poverty and suffering of the people. The film showed the opposite side of Haiti that I was not used to hearing about.

A large focus of the film was how America’s efforts to help the countries such as Haiti in poverty, especially in times of natural disasters, actually hurt these countries. After the earthquake in Haiti, I remember donating my old clothes and shoes to the children of Haiti who were left with nothing. While these donations were most likely helpful in the short term, in the long term they destroyed the economy of Haiti. If Haitians are getting all of these free clothing from America, there is no need for clothing manufacturers, putting a large group of citizens out of a job.

While our donations of goods hurts the country, there are ways we can help them. In the film, an American couple traveled to Haiti planning to start an orphanage. They quickly realized that starting an orphanage would encourage parents to give up their children so that they could have a better environment to grow up in. In addition, the orphanage would use up the funds they had and help children for a short period of time, but when the funds ran out, there was nothing they could do to help. Instead, they started a jewelry making business, allowing Haitian citizens to have a job so they could earn the money themselves to care for their children. This method of creating and encouraging jobs helps the people of Haiti far more than any donation of goods, which was something I never considered before seeing the film.