N ear the bottom of the island of Hispaniola in southeast Haiti is a forgotten village, cut off from its own country, and slowly emptying as its residents leave for the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Without health services, electricity, or paved roads, Boucan Ferdinand lost its only road to the nearest Haitian town, Bois Negresse, in devastating floods back in 2004.

Some of its residents have left for the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and others cling on to a precarious life. Many have crossed illegally into the more prosperous Dominican Republic.

“They do not have access to basic social services, this situation is at the root of the mass migration to the Dominican Republic,” says Jean Gilles Viola, mayor of the municipality that governs Boucan Ferdinand and around 20 other villages.

Those who remain live in thatch and stick hovels, collecting rainwater to drink and at constant risk of infectious diseases. Some children, in impeccable blue uniforms, walk to a school in the town of Chapotin – a trip that takes an hour and a half over a narrow path, impassable in the rainy season.

In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Show all 20 1 /20 In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Cristera Jusma hands a towel to Enol St Pierre as he gets ready to go to the church in Boucan Ferdinand Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village A boy carries sticks to be used as firewood Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Naida Ogisten walks with her daughter Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village A man, who goes by the name Polo, rests in the kitchen of his house as he gathers with family and friends at the end of the day Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Children attend a class at the Baptist church school Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Children gather to read school books Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village A woman leans on a mattress belonging to a neighbour, who came back after years of living in the Dominican Republic Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Adults take care of a newborn Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village A family eats dinner in a makeshift kitchen outside a house Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village A boy rests on a pile of avocados at the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Children carry a neighbour’s mattress Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Women use a homemade tool to make holes and sow seeds in a field near Boucan Ferdinand Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Aurana Augustin, known as Timatant, a salesperson, rests on a bed Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Girls and a woman harvest corn in a field Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Believers gather to pray inside a house Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Residents look as Senfleur St Pierre, known as Mello, works on the frame of a new facility for a Protestant church Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Trees at night Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village A man cuts a tree in the fields of Chapotin, with Boucan Ferdinand and the Dominican Republic in the background Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Residents dance at a bar in Boucan Ferdinand Reuters In photos: Haitians abandon forgotten village Anita bathes his son Romenson Exalus at their house Reuters

In the village are two makeshift classrooms, run by the Baptist and Catholic chapels.

“This year my children will not go to school,” says village farmer Wilber Jean, as his children play nearby. “Here you pay a ton. There,” pointing across the border, “the president pays.”

Children collect firewood or graze small flocks of goats and sheep to help their parents. During planting time, many skip school in order to help on the farms, earning less than $2 a day.

In the mornings, the village smells of burning firewood brought by the children as the women make breakfast: sometimes there is pasta, but more likely coffee and a piece of bread. Often there is rice and beans. Meat, a luxury. Haiti, which according to the World Bank is the poorest country in the Americas, has not recovered from a powerful earthquake that hit it in 2010, leaving more than 200,000 dead.

The countryside has been emptying out. Less than half of Haitians live in rural communities compared to 84 percent in 1960, World Bank data shows. Boucan Ferdinand seems to have fallen off the map. Radios mainly capture Dominican signals.

“I’m tired of looking for stations in Haiti,” complains Polo, a 64-year-old man who returned here with his wife and one of his grandchildren after spending more than 40 years in the Dominican Republic.

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Aurana Augustin “Timatant” sold bread and sweets until a few months ago when the left half of her body was paralyzed. Today, the grandmother spends her days lying in bed.

The nearest Haitian health centre is across a mountain, so she has been crossing the border on a mule to seek care in the Dominican town of Duverge. The local government wants to rebuild the road taken out by the floods but lacks the financial means, the mayor says.