Slide Show: Life in Nicaragua, Surviving on Less than $2 a Day

HEALTH -- October 27, 2011 at 2:00 PM EDT

Slide Show: Life in Nicaragua, Surviving on Less than $2 a Day

The NewsHour's global health unit is in Nicaragua this week reporting on the upcoming presidential election and efforts to provide a new life-saving vaccine to infants.

Both of these stories are playing out against a back drop of intense poverty -- Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere behind Haiti.

Barely scraping by is a way of life for many families here -- about 76 percent of the population survives on less than $2 a day, according to the U.N. World Food Programme. Poverty plays into many of the countries biggest challenges, like quality of health services and access to education. Learn more in the slideshow below, and watch for our Nicaragua broadcast segments in early November:

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