Where Jesula Grew Up: Cité-Soleil

Jesula was born and grew up in not only the worse neighborhood in Haiti, but perhaps the worse neighborhood on the planet, Cité-Soleil.


Cité-Soleil is a slum village located on a garbage dump and land fill in the suburb of Port au Prince, Haiti. This 3 square mile slum occupies some 300,000 residents, most of which live in extreme poverty. The area is regarded as the poorest and most dangerous area in the Western Hemisphere and is the largest slum in the Northern Hemisphere. Cité Soleil is filled with armed gangs. Murder, rape, kidnapping, looting, and shootings are common.


The area has no electricity, no stores, no health care facilities, no schools, and has open sewers. There is very limited access to drinking water. When it rains, mud and debris flow through the streets, through the open sewage canals, and through the make shift houses. These houses are not adequate to protect against the elements.


Most of the residents of Cité-Soleil are children or young adults. The residents are the poorest of the poor and survive on less than the equivalent of one dollar per day. Many of the children there have no clothing and even young toddlers wonder with no one to care for them.

Jesula was born and spent the majority of her life in this environment. I close my eyes and try to picture her there. I cannot imagine the things she has seen and experienced in her life. Can you?

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Psalm 82:3