#232 Planet Money: What Your $3,000 Bought In Haiti

Earlier this year, we reported on l'Artibonite, a rice-growing region in Haiti. The people there were suffering because an influx of free rice from foreign aid groups destroyed the market for their crop.

Listeners responded, donating some $3,000 to support a school that figured prominently in the story. That's about 10 years of wages for the average Haitian.
The principal, Enselm Simpliste, thought he could use the $3,000 to build a schoolhouse.

We recently visited the school to see how things were coming along. The news is bad: All the money has been spent, and all there is to show for it is a foundation, some concrete blocks and some rock and sand.