ABOUT HAITI
* Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
* About 54 percent of its more than 9 million residents live in abject poverty.
* Haiti is slightly smaller than Maryland and shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
* The population is 95 percent black and 80 percent Roman Catholic.
* French and Creole are the official languages.
* About half the population practices voodoo.
* The nation has four airports with paved runways and is favored by Columbian drug dealers for routing cocaine shipments, in part because of widespread corruption.
Source: CIA World Factbook
CLOSER TO HOME
The U.S. Bureau of Census estimates there are 19,642 Georgia residents and 1,820 persons living in Tennessee with Haitian ancestry.