Local author's new book reveals harsh realities of life in Haiti

Local author Anne Heffernan will launch her new book, titled Living in a Land That Time Forgot, in Edenderry next Wednesday, April 9.

Originally from Dublin but now living in Carbury, near Edenderry, Anne will launch her new book in Edenderry Library at 6.30pm.

Living in a Land That Time Forgot pays tribute to the Haitian people for their tenacity, their resilience and their optimism amid the ever present lack of opportunity and their never-ending hunger for daily food.

Anne spent a year in Haiti from 2016 to 2017, and her new book aims to raise awareness of how people live in this third-world country where daily struggles to survive and feed their children are the things that keep mothers awake at night.

"Haiti has a beautiful climate of around 30° all year long and a fabulous coastline which should make it ripe for a booming tourist industry," Anne said.

"However, Haiti has suffered much interference from outside countries throughout generations divesting it of its natural resources, leaving its ordinary people to suffer starvation and poverty on a grand scale.

"Currently gang-crime is at an all-time high and politically the country has been unstable for quite some time. At the moment 5.5 million people rely on humanitarian aid to survive, and close to 1 million are already internally displaced due to gang-crime which is spreading out further and further from the capital of Port-Au-Prince, which has long been subjected to violence and dangerous gangs."

Despite the dangers lurking in the shadows, Anne enjoyed her time in Haiti and is keen to raise awareness about the daily lives of those she met during her one-year volunteer placement in a remote area of the North-West of the country, close to where Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ the Americas.

Anne’s everlasting memories of Haiti and her people remain constant; their deep belief in their God, their love of singing and the smiling faces of the young children she met every day, despite the poverty and hunger that never go away.

Living in a Land That Time Forgot is available in Edenderry Parish Centre, Bargains Galore and Beauty Allways in Edenderry and also in parish centres in Newbridge, Naas and Clane as well as on www.buythebook.ie

All proceeds of the book which is retailing at €15 will go to fund projects in North-West Haiti.