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COHH emerges from these adverse conditions as a beacon of encouragement and hope. The basic needs for shelter, education, nutrition, emotional security, and medical care will be met. A bridge to the future will be built, as opportunities for developing life skills through education will be offered. COHH fosters self-sufficiency and empowers the current generation to improve life for the next generation. To see hope in a child's eyes is COHH's greatest reward.

Children of Haiti

A major obstacle to education in Haiti is the financial burden placed upon parents. In theory, public schools from primary to university levels are free, but parents are nevertheless required to pay 26-30% of the school costs for uniforms and school material. Since 85% of schools in Haiti are private, parents must struggle to pay tuition costs.

In Haiti there are so few public schools that only about half of school-aged children ever attend school. Although education is compulsory for children from the ages of seven to fourteen, the lack of classroom space and trained teachers makes it difficult to enforce this law.

Less than half of 6-year-olds attend primary school, and a child entering primary school can expect to stay there for 3.9 years. The majority of students must drop out before completing elementary school, and many Haitians do not see the value in education. Schools are clustered in cities, so children living in remote areas do not receive even a basic education. These factors combined result in a literacy rate of about 45%.

Haiti's health statistics are alarming. Although the country has the highest birthrate in the Caribbean, its infant mortality rate is also among the highest in the Americas, 74 deaths per 1000 live births. One in sixteen women faces a lifetime chance of dying during childbirth, as compared to one in 10,000 in the U.S.

About 130 of every 1000 children die before reaching their fifth birthday. Average life expectance at birth is only fifty years.

More than half the population, including two-thirds of the children, suffers from malnutrition. Nearly a quarter of the country's rural families have no land at all. Tens of thousands of people die each year solely from diseases related to a lack of clean water.

Haiti has been particularly vulnerable to the AIDS epidemic, with HIV rates approaching ten percent of the total population, the highest rate in the Western Hemisphere. Women account for fifty percent of the AIDS cases in Haiti. The number of children orphaned by AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic is 200,000.