Haiti food aid lags, hunger deepens

No rations in the Artibonite Valley
In the Artibonite Valley, aid workers say not a single ration had arrived as of mid-July. Nor had any of the $150,000 in emergency seeds and tools promised to help 20,000 Haitian farmers nationwide plant basic food crops.

Hunger is a bitter irony in the valley known as "Haiti's rice bowl," where farms have been in decline for decades, unable to compete with subsidized U.S. food imported under low tariffs. Political instability has left the government without effective agricultural policies or ways to deal with nearly annual hurricanes and floods.

That meant there was no protection when the price of imported rice increased by more than 60 percent, and that of corn by 91 percent, over the first six months of the year, according to the World Food Program.

The U.N. agency and many countries' programs are focused largely in urban areas. Brazilian soldiers have distributed rice, beans and cooking oil donated by their country in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil, where sprawling shantytowns are home to thousands of refugees from the impoverished countryside.

In rural communities where USAID food is slated to be distributed by World Vision International, delivery has been hampered by logistical problems and high fuel prices — which topped $6 a gallon in Haiti in June.

Nearly everything that has been distributed has gone through Catholic Relief Services, which has been relying on pre-existing stocks, said country representative Bill Canny.

Food delivery delays
World Vision country director Wesley Charles blamed USAID for its delays in delivering food, saying U.S. funding was held up in Congress' emergency supplemental appropriations bill as lawmakers debated the portions that fund the Iraq War.

Ariana Cubillos / AP A woman holds a plastic dish with a corn stake on it in Deschapelles, Haiti, Tuesday, June 17.

"I think that at the USAID level they need to be more sensitive," Charles said. "You cannot manage an emergency situation like a normal procedure."

The U.S. Embassy said there were also delays during the handover of the food distribution and agricultural projects to World Vision from its previous operator, Save the Children. It referred questions about distribution to those agencies.

Canny said U.S. food aid is also often slowed because it consists of excess food from American producers that must be purchased, transported and shipped, rather than bought locally in Haiti.

World Food Program spokesman Alejandro Lopez-Chicheri said it's complicated to get food into Haiti, and that his agency is focusing on urban areas that are easiest to reach.

"We're trying to help as much as we can, but that doesn't mean we'll solve everything," he said.

Families eating corn and been seeds
When AP journalists visited the Artibonite Valley in June, farmers hacked at the soil using the same hand-planting methods employed centuries ago by their enslaved ancestors. Lemare Forrestal, a 60-year-old farmer in the mountains, said his family sometimes resorts to eating corn and bean seeds.

"We have kids we can't feed. We have to eat what we have," he said.

And even when there is food, mothers leave their children at home while they seek work in far-off markets with no one to ensure they eat properly.

Sylvieta Saintera, 38, said her 8-year-old daughter cooks for her six other children when she's gone.

Hunger victims filled the low-slung, tree-lined Schweitzer hospital complex in June. Flies buzzed from bed to bed as mothers spoon-fed vegetable mixtures prepared over charcoal fires in an outdoor kitchen.

A photo of Rivilade from months earlier showed a baby with fat arms and black hair. But his bald, naked body was covered with an old man's wrinkled skin. Diarrhea had shrunk his weight to 15 pounds, a quarter less than doctors say is healthy.

"He was fine, and then he got sick," said his mother, 22-year-old Nimose Jisesle. It costs 150 Haitian gourdes a week — $3.95 — to feed him, she said, but she earns just 100 gourdes, $2.63, selling knapsacks and firewood. His father went to the neighboring Dominican Republic to find work and does not support the child.

Suffering from diarrhea, pneumonia and mouth and skin infections, Rivilade was treated and fed with intravenous liquids and food. He was released a few days later with his weight up and diarrhea gone, said Dr. Erlantz Hyppolite.

Some of the children receive a super-high-protein mixture of peanut butter, oil, milk and vitamins known here as "Medika Mamba" that has also been used in African famines. But once they go home, mothers struggle to follow doctors' advice to thoroughly clean their homes and prepare more balanced meals for their children, Hyppolite said.

Some, he said, eat the peanut butter mixture themselves.

More from msnbc.com Racist webcam? TheGrio's test says no View an interactive, HD panorama of N.Y.'s 30 Rock Scoop: No Tiger cub on way for Rachel Uchitel Census workers wanted, local roots preferred Cosmic Log: Decades of future science Answer Desk: Gold may be riskier than it seems Send your holiday pictures to troops

MORE FROM AMERICAS

Americas Section Front

Brazil judge: Boy must be returned to U.S. dad Report says 225,000 Haiti children work as slaves Slaying of drug war hero's family shocks Mexico Mexico City lawmakers OK gay marriage Colombia to Chavez: Santa, not ‘spy plane’ World Blog: Finally, Cuba celebrates with Kool Stepfather says needles were meant to kill boy Bus drivers fall victim to brutal Guatemalan gangs Americas Section Front   Add Americas headlines to your news reader: