News stories by Correspondents* - IPS/Haiti Grassroots Watch, page 2

Last year, tens of thousands of tonnes of tools, seeds and plant cuttings were distributed to almost 400,000 Haitian farming families, perhaps one-third to one-half of the country's farming population.

Posters cover almost every conceivable surface, even tombs in graveyards. Trucks mounted with loud speakers blare campaign jingles. Candidates' faces are everywhere. It's elections 'à la américaine', complete with polls and whistle-stops.

All across Haiti, United Nations, bilateral and non- governmental agencies are running scores of 'cash-for-work' programmes. But are they 'working'?

Rosie Benjamin is just one of over 1.3 million people living in Haiti's 1,354 squalid refugee camps. She and 1,200 others are jammed into 300 tents and plastic tarp-shacks on a soccer field in Grand Goâve.