Over the past 15 years, I’ve traveled to some awful places. Inner Mongolia where people are so poor they’re living in caves. Northern Uganda where the average life expectancy is 42 years. Tribal areas in India where day laborers make 17 cents a day and farmers commit suicide because they can’t raise a $100 dowry to marry their daughter. Bangladesh where I saw 3-year-olds begging in rush hour traffic. I thought I knew what extreme poverty was. I was wrong. My recent trip to Cite Soleil, Haiti was one of the most depressing and shocking trips I have ever taken. Two hours off the coast of the world’s richest country, 9 million men, women, and children are living amidst absolute squalor and desperation.

Starvation is a major problem. Half of the population lives on less than $1 a day. The price of rice has risen more than 80% since December. There were food riots last month that left 7 people dead.

Hunger pains are so severe and prevalent they have a nickname for it.

They call it “Chlorox.” Because it feels like bleach eating away at the insides of your stomach.

To stop the pain, some Haitians have resorted to eating cookies made of mud.  Yes, mud.

Cite Soleil, Haiti photos with surgical charity specializing in cleft lip and cleft palate, Smile Train, and Co-Founder Brian F. Mullaney.