Reed Young: Las Pajas and the Lucky Haitians

Exploring a batey in the Dominican Republic

Photographer Reed Young was invited to visit Las Pajas by a friend who was volunteering there. “I was struck by how these Haitian people view themselves as extraordinarily lucky compared with their families back home. Although the conditions of the Bateys are deplorable, they’re nothing compared to those that exist in Haiti where the current food crisis affects 60 percent of the country’s people.”

“Who would think that people with no education, no access to healthcare and terrible sanitary conditions would consider themselves lucky? These are the lucky Haitians.”

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