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Reflection by Andrew F. Rabal

The document discusses the difficult situation in Haiti where extreme poverty has led many citizens to eat "dirt cookies" in order to survive. Due to lack of support from the government and scarce food resources, Haitians will eat mud to keep their stomachs full, despite the cookies having no nutritional value and posing health risks like disease. The author expresses pity for the Haitians forced into this situation and hopes that countries and charities can help improve lives there. They are reminded to appreciate having regular meals and to work hard through education to fight poverty themselves.

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Nad DeYn
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337 views

Reflection by Andrew F. Rabal

The document discusses the difficult situation in Haiti where extreme poverty has led many citizens to eat "dirt cookies" in order to survive. Due to lack of support from the government and scarce food resources, Haitians will eat mud to keep their stomachs full, despite the cookies having no nutritional value and posing health risks like disease. The author expresses pity for the Haitians forced into this situation and hopes that countries and charities can help improve lives there. They are reminded to appreciate having regular meals and to work hard through education to fight poverty themselves.

Uploaded by

Nad DeYn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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My reflection about “Haitians eat dirt cookies to survive”:

By: Andrew F. Rabal BSED 2-Mathematics


“Poverty and Hunger Is Not a Joke”

Hunger is one of the greatest problems that the world still experiencing for today’s
generation. Poverty and lack of support coming from the government are the primary reasons
why it is happening. It is more evident in some of the countries in Africa and in the western
hemisphere where those kinds of problems are present. The country of Haiti, one of the poorest
countries in the western hemisphere, is the best example for that as their people are experiencing
lack in the sources of food. Haitians are in the situation that they can do everything in order to
satisfy their needs in food simply to survive. They can even eat mud cookies just only to keep
their stomachs full even though the taste is really bad and harmful to their health. It is
unbelievable but it is the reality that some people are experiencing hunger because of poverty.
Can you imagine being so poor and so hungry that you have no choice but to eat mud?

After I watch the video about the Haitians who forced to eat dirt cookies in order to
survive, I felt pity for them because of their hard situation. Also I felt sad because it seems like
their government is not taking actions to help them to lighten their problems. Probably, they have
no enough power or resources that could be used to easily help them in their current situation. In
contrast, it is not an excuse to abandon them; they still need to think a remedy for that kind of
problem even in a small thing because it is their responsibility. However, I really admire those
Haitians because despite of the hardships and hindrances, they stay strong, still feel hopeful, and
did not stop in thinking innovative solutions to surpass all of it. They become resourceful even
though it resulted to unusual and atypical products. It is not exactly ideal, but sadly, the people of
Haiti have no real alternative. With food scarce and prices high, many Haitians are forced to
create their own food. Imagine they manage to eat dirt cookies that one of the main components
is mud. In that way, I felt again pity for them because they eat that kind of food without thinking
that it is unhealthy. Well, eating mud cookies is harmful to human health. They could possibly
get a lot of diseases from it like respiratory infections, tuberculosis, and diarrhea and they
become sickly most of the time caused by a lot of bacteria coming from the mud. In addition,
children who also eat dirt cookies could be experienced malnutrition. As you can imagine, these
dirt cookies have virtually no nutritional value. Then, there is no doubt that the mortality rate in
their country will become high. Poor Haitians can die for several reasons such as lack of food
and diminished resistance to diseases like what I mentioned a while ago as a result of inadequate
diet. If that will happen I am sure it is also another problem for them. However, we could not
blame them for doing it because they still believe that it is the only way to survive. It is their
decision and the only thing we can do is to pray for them and for ourselves also that we will not
experience the same thing. In fact, we don’t need to worry too much for the starving Haitians
because other countries and numerous charities are already helped them and still helping them to
improve their lives. The most important thing we need to consider is that poor people try their
best to cope with poverty, to resist it, and escape it just like the Haitians.

I realized that we are very lucky because we ate three times a day or more, that we did
not experiencing hunger unlike in some other countries in the world or even some places here in
the Philippines. That’s why we need to be thankful for all the blessings that we received from
God especially for providing us our basic necessities like food, clothes and shelter. Don’t waste
food and learn to set aside your wants over your needs. And if possible we should show our
compassion and caring for people especially those who are really in need beyond our honesty
and fairness even in a small thing. I realized also that while we are still young we need to study
hard in order for us to easily get a decent job with enough salary. Indeed, education is one of our
weapons to fight against poverty and the same time hunger. Each one of us should be productive
citizen for the better future of our country. Also the participation of our government is needed
because we need a great leader to make us united as one through his/her good governance. We
need to help each other with one common goal and purpose in order for us to survive. Just like
the Haitians, we need to try our very best together to cope with poverty, to resist it and escape it.

“If you ever feel poor, just remember there are people out there whose diet
hugely relies on eating pottery.”

-UNKNOWN

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