Aid for Haiti

nancyk58 · March 10, 2010

AID for HAITI / BBC on 10 March 2010

HAITI-related news from BBC World Service on 10 March 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8560909.stm

BARACK OBAMA SAYS SITUATION IN QUAKE-HIT HAITI 'DIRE'

US President Barack Obama has warned of a SECOND DISASTER IN HAITI, saying people should be under no illusion that the crisis there is over.

Mr Obama said the situation in Haiti remained "dire" almost two months after the earthquake struck.

He was speaking after talks with Haitian President Rene Preval in Washington.

Mr Obama told Mr Preval that the US would continue to help Haiti in its recovery and reconstruction efforts.

He praised Mr Preval for being a "profile in courage" in the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude quake.

Mr Obama said there remained a desperate need for humanitarian help, especially as seasonal rains could threaten the more than a million Haitians left homeless by the quake on 12 January.

RAPID REACTION FORCE

"The challenge now is to prevent a second disaster, and that is why at this very moment, thousands of Americans, both civilian and military, remain on the scene at the invitation of the Haitian government," Mr Obama said.

The US president also pledged to continue to help Haiti in the long term.

"Even as the US military responsibly hands off relief functions to our Haitian and international partners, America's commitment to Haiti's recovery and reconstruction must endure and will endure," he said.

Mr Preval thanked the US for the material and moral support it had provided.

More than 20,000 US civilian and military personnel have taken part in the relief efforts, according to figures released by the White House.

Mr Preval said that while the response to the disaster had been massive and generous, it could have been more effective.

He also called for the creation of a United Nations rapid response team to provide humanitarian help when natural disasters struck.

"I support the idea of the creation of so-called 'red helmets' within the United Nations and these would be an observatory, a warning provisional system for natural disasters and a humanitarian force which will be the equivalent of the 'blue helmets'," Mr Preval said.

nancyk58 · March 12, 2010

AID for HAITI / news on 12.3.10

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI on 12 march 2010

HAITI: KIDNAPPERS RELEASE 2 EUROPEAN AID WORKERS

(03/12/2010 | 11:07 AM - GMA News.TV)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – Kidnappers have freed two Swiss women snatched off the streets of Haiti's capital and held for five days, officials said Thursday.

It is the first reported kidnapping since Haiti suffered a magnitude-7 earthquake with catastrophic damage on Jan. 12. More than 5,000 prisoners fled jails that collapsed or were damaged in the temblor. Only about 200 have been captured.

Doctors Without Borders confirmed the kidnapping. Agency spokesman Michel Peremans said the victims were released Wednesday night and are "in good health." He would not say if a ransom was paid.

Doctors Without Borders is one of hundreds of international aid agencies that have flooded into Haiti to help.

A security alert sent to nongovernmental agencies, obtained by The Associated Press, said the two were Swiss women working for the France-based agency. The alert said that they were kidnapped at night near the posh La Reserve restaurant in a Petionville suburb.

Aid groups told the AP that they have imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews following the kidnapping and amid increasing signs of insecurity in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Doctors still treating earthquake victims report that they are seeing many gunshot wounds, and it is common to hear cracks of gunfire at night.

Many women have reported being raped in some of the hundreds of makeshift tent camps set up by people whose homes collapsed or were damaged by the quake.

The Swiss aid workers were held during a weekend in which most of the thousands of US troops that had helped distribute aid and provide security following the quake were leaving the country.

A small number of troops — the US military has not said how many — have remained to help 10,000 Haitian police officers and 10,000 UN peacekeepers reassert control.

Kidnappings were rare in Haiti until 2004, when abductions took place during the bloody chaos that followed the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Foreigners were often targeted, but Haitians were taken in much larger numbers.

Political officials, foreign aid workers and deeply impoverished Haitian children were all targeted in the kidnappings, which typically spiked before Christmas as bandits sought money to buy presents.

Crackdowns by UN police and a strengthened — and increasingly less corrupt — Haitian police force helped curb the crime in the 18 months leading up to the earthquake, but some of those suspected of heading kidnapping rings escaped from the national penitentiary during the disaster. - AP

Swedish SVT Text: HAITI WAS THE BREAKTHROUGH FOR SMS DONATIONS

The Suedes have donated more than 200m SEK (Swedish Kroner) corresponding to $28.5m to the earthquake victims in Haiti, and this disaster is a real breakthrough for SMS donations. "Dagens Nyheter" broadcasting the daily news has contacted 18 organizations which collected money for Haiti. Most of the organizations say that they received many donations. "Radiohjälpen" (translation: Radio Aid) received SEK 5.4 mio ($771,000) via SMS donations which is by far the largest sum of money collected via SMS. RED CROSS has collected the highest sum via SMS with 7.5m SEK (more than $1m).

Swedish SVT Text: THE UN HAS DIFFICULTIES IN GETTING THE PROMISED MONEY TO HAITI

In the days after the massive earthquake in HAITI on 12 January 2010 the UN launched an acute appeal for $562m from member countries. In February the appeal had increased to $1.46bn. The UN has received 49% of the funds needed for the entire year. The UN appeals for more resources and funds to the relief organizations.

nancyk58 · March 13, 2010

AID for HAITI / NEWS on 13.3.10

DR1 News (live): HAITI:

A reporter from DR1 News is in HAITI and talked to a man who was very sad because some dear ones (family members or friends) had died today:

Some poor and very hungry Haitians had gone into the ruins of the Ministry of Finance to collect some planks and firewood as they needed money for food. 11 of them were killed as the roof of the damaged Ministry of Finance collapsed.

The situation in HAITI has not become better as President Preval has ordered the distribution of food stopped. He encourages the population to start working, but there is NO WORK available for them for the time being!! The population is very hungry and desperate.

TV2 News / live: HAITI ON THE WAY TO NORMALCY.

TV2 News has a reporter in HAITI – he has been there since the devastating earthquake that killed 230,000 Haitians and left more than 1 million Haitians homeless.

The homeless are still living under poor conditions living in bad-quality “tents” or under tarpaulins.

Danish Red Cross’s team of 4 persons are distributing tents. We see a young girl – pregnant in the seventh month – receive a big 5-person-tent (weight: 25 kilos). She has to carry the tent herself. Her next problem is to find out how to erect it – but she succeeded in doing that.

There are several lines at the distribution point: One for pregnant women, one for other women and one for men. The worst problem is that of security.

Danish Red Cross also distributes packages with boards and tarpaulins.

nancyk58 · March 16, 2010

Aid for HAITI / updates on 16.3.10 and other articles

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 16 MARCH 2010

Recent HEADLINES CONCERNING HAITI (most articles posted here)

ALL 33 HAITIAN ‘ORPHANS’ WITH BAPTISTS HAD PARENTS

(02/21/2010 | 11:14 AM)

HAITI LEADER SAYS QUAKE TOLL COULD REACH 300,000

(02/22/2010 | 09:55 AM )

US TROOPS WITHDRAWING EN MASSE FROM HAITI

(03/08/2010 | 10:01 AM - GMA News.TV)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — US troops are withdrawing from the shattered capital, leaving many Haitians anxious that the most visible portion of international aid is ending even as the city is still mired in misery and vulnerable to unrest.

As troops packed their duffels and began to fly home this weekend, Haitians and some aid workers wondered whether UN peacekeepers and local police are up to the task of maintaining order. More than a half-million people still live in vast encampments that have grown more unpleasant in recent days with the early onset of the rainy season.

Some also fear the departure of the American troops is a sign of dwindling international interest in the plight of the Haitian people following the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake.

"I would like for them to stay in Haiti until they rebuild the country and everybody can go back to their house," said Marjorie Louis, a 27-year-old mother of two, as she warmed a bowl of beans for her family over a charcoal fire on the fake grass of the national stadium.

US officials say the long-anticipated draw down of troops is not a sign of waning commitment to Haiti, only a change in the nature of the operation. Security will now be the responsibility of the 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force and the Haitian police.

A smaller number of US forces — the exact number has not yet been determined — will be needed as the UN and Haitian government reassert control, said Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of US Southern Command, which runs the Haiti operation.

"Our mission is largely accomplished," Fraser said.

American forces arrived in the immediate aftermath of the quake to treat the wounded, provide emergency water and rations and help prevent a feared outbreak of violence among desperate survivors. They also helped reopen the airport and seaport.

There has been no widespread violence but security is a real issue. A UN food convoy traveling from Gonaives to Dessalines on Friday was stopped and overrun by people, who looted two trucks before peacekeepers regained control, U.N. officials said.

They managed to escort the other two back to Gonaives. There were no reports of injuries.

The military operation was criticized by some Haitian senators and foreign leaders as heavy-handed and inappropriate in a country that had been occupied by American forces for nearly two decades in the early 20th century. But ordinary Haitians largely welcomed the troops, many out of disenchantment with their own government.

"They should stay because they have been doing a good job," 35-year-old Lesly Pierre said as his family prepared dinner under a tarp at an encampment in Petionville. "If it was up to our government, we wouldn't have gotten any help at all."

US soldiers said they had nothing but warm encounters with the Haitian people.

"They're real good people. They just want help," Army Private First Class Troy Sims, a 19-year-old from Fresno, California, said as he prepared to board a flight back to the US. "I feel that us being here helped a lot. If we weren't here, things probably would have gotten out of control."

There are now about 11,000 troops, more than half of them on ships just off the coast, down from a peak of around 20,000 on Feb. 1. The total is expected to drop to about 8,000 in coming days as the withdrawal gathers steam. The military said more than 700 paratroopers left this weekend.

Soldiers are now gone from the General Hospital, where they once directed traffic and kept order amid the chaos of mass casualties. There are no more Haitian patients on board the USNS Comfort, which treated 8,600 people after the quake. At a country club in Petionville, where some 100,000 Haitians are living in rough shelters in a muddy ravine, only a few soldiers remain of the several hundred there after the disaster.

Alison Thompson said she was nervous about the smaller US troop contingent.

"Soon we are not going to have any security," said Thompson, medical coordinator of the Jenkins/Penn Relief Organization, which runs a field hospital at the edge of the ravine. "Everybody is just so worried that they are pulling out because it's going to get dangerous."

It was the same concern for Louis at the national stadium.

"If the troublemakers see that there is some kind of force here, they will think twice before they do anything," she said. "They are already getting ready to stir up trouble."

But Ted Constan, chief program officer for Partners in Health, said that the way to address security is to get adequate shelter and other aid to the hundreds of thousands of people who are now stranded in squalid encampments.

"The real solution is to deliver services ... rather than turn Haiti into a military state," he said. - AP

NOT MORE QUAKES, JUST MORE PEOPLE IN QUAKE ZONES

(03/09/2010 | 11:24 AM)

HAITI: KIDNAPPERS RELEASE 2 EUROPEAN AID WORKERS (03/12/2010 | 11:07 AM)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Kidnappers have freed two Swiss women snatched off the streets of Haiti's capital and held for five days, officials said Thursday.

It is the first reported kidnapping since Haiti suffered a magnitude-7 earthquake with catastrophic damage on Jan. 12. More than 5,000 prisoners fled jails that collapsed or were damaged in the temblor. Only about 200 have been captured.

Doctors Without Borders confirmed the kidnapping. Agency spokesman Michel Peremans said the victims were released Wednesday night and are "in good health." He would not say if a ransom was paid.

Doctors Without Borders is one of hundreds of international aid agencies that have flooded into Haiti to help.

UN CHIEF SEES DANGERS UP-CLOSE IN HAITI QUAKE CAMP

(03/15/2010 | 09:01 AM - GMA News.TV)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised Haitians on Sunday that the world has not forgotten the quake-torn nation as it suffers from a shortage of shelter and growing violence in teeming camps for the homeless.

Security issues and the risk of flooding and disease in the squalid tarp-and-tent cities are pressing concerns for governments and international aid groups struggling to help hundreds of thousands of victims of the Jan. 12 disaster, which killed an estimated 230,000 people and left 1.3 million homeless.

Making his second visit to Haiti since the quake, the UN leader met with President Rene Preval and discussed plans for a UN donors conference in New York on March 31 to fund Haiti's reconstruction.

Ban said his message to Haiti's government and people is that "even if time passes, the world has not forgotten. The world is always at their side."

Haiti needs money for schools, infrastructure, roads, ports and electricity, Ban said at a news conference.

And "for the foreseeable future, the government will need international assistance simply to cover its payroll," he said. A government statement said the tax department expects to collect only a third of its expected annual take of 13 billion gourdes ($330 million). Duties on imports are the government's main source of income.

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said last week that the United Nations is struggling to raise the $1.44 billion needed to help earthquake victims this year. Ban said only 49 percent has been raised.

Preval raised concerns that Haiti's farmers would be hurt by continuing imports of food aid. Already, rice farmers have told The Associated Press they cannot sell their harvest because of rice handouts.

"It was absolutely necessary that international aid arrive" after the earthquake, Preval said, but "we are now in a new reality."

Ban later toured a makeshift camp where more than 40,000 people are living under a tapestry of blue, orange and white tarps and tents sprawled across a valley golf course — emblematic of the mixed results of a $2.2 billion international aid effort.

Behind the tents is a country club that became the base of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division in the days after the disaster. Only a few soldiers are left, but Ban said the withdrawal of US and Canadian troops "will not compromise the mission."

He said Haitian police and UN peacekeepers who have been on a stabilization mission in the country since 2004 are doing "an excellent job" providing security.

But with no electricity or security, the camps are growing increasingly dangerous at night, particularly for women and girls. Aid workers said a 7-year-old girl raped in the camp was being treated Sunday at its tent hospital.

"We will make every effort to ensure that IDP camps remain safe and secure, most especially for women and children," Ban said, referring to "internally displaced people."

Ban has also become concerned by reports of increasing gang activity, spokesman Yves Sorokobi said. More than 5,000 prisoners fled jails that collapsed or were damaged in the temblor, and only about 200 have been captured. Two European women with the Doctors Without Borders aid group were kidnapped last week and held for five days. It was not clear if a ransom was paid.

Thousands of people in the camp came down from their broken homes in the hills above the capital to be near food and water distributions overseen by the US soldiers. Those distributions, like those run by the UN World Food Program and others, were largely a success — though many were marred by small-scale violence and corruption by local officials.

The camp has been a hub of activity by humanitarian groups, with schools, medical clinics and social programs setting up under canvas tents. But the valley is at major risk for floods and landslides when the rainy season starts in earnest next week.

Ban said 60 percent of Haiti's quake homeless have received plastic sheets or tents to protect them from deluges.

"This is not enough," he admitted. "We are a little bit behind schedule but we are moving very quickly." He called for a "better structured" and "much more efficient way" of distributing emergency shelter.

The trouble is that the homeless have nowhere to go. Despite two months of efforts to establish government-run relocation camps on Port-au-Prince's outskirts, not one has yet opened.

Aid groups say they are ready to build but don't have the land. Government officials insist they are making progress on finding sites in closed-door negotiations with private landowners. - AP

HAITI LEADERS RUSH TO FINISH POST-QUAKE PROPOSAL

(03/16/2010 | 11:06 AM - GMA News.TV)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's government and business community are finalizing details of a reconstruction plan that economists say could cost nearly $14 billion.

Haitian Chamber of Commerce President Reginald Boulos says he told the prime minister and international financiers at a meeting Monday that the private sector's earthquake losses alone totaled more than $2 billion.

Inter-American Development Bank economist Ericq Pierre says no definitive total was agreed on Monday. The bank estimates Haiti's total damage from the Jan. 12 quake between $8.1 billion and $13.9 billion.

The plan will be refined later this week at a meeting in the Dominican Republic. That meeting is to prepare for a March 31 aid conference at the United Nations. - AP

nancyk58 · March 17, 2010

AID for HAITI / articles on 17 March 2010

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 17 MARCH 2010

Danish DR1 Text TV: SEXUAL ASSAULTS IN HAITI

HAITI is ravaged by crimes after the massive earthquake that shook Haiti on 12 January 2010.

In the capital, Port-au-Prince there are reports of an increase in the number of sexual assaults. Women and children as young as 2 years are victims of rapists in the many badly secured makeshift/temporary camps without electricity.

It is dark from 6pm to 6 am, and Haitians are living in fear all night long, and sexual assaults are inevitable when there is noone to keep order. This is reported by Thomas Ubbesen, Danish DR's special correspondent.

German ZDF TTV, Swedish SVT Text and Danish Text TV: HAITI WILL NEED $11.5 BILLION TO REBUILD HAITI

2 months after the earthquake in HAITI a draft for a reconstruction plan has been submitted. Financially about $11.5bn is needed. The plan was submitted by the Haitian government together with the United Nations as part of preparing the Haiti donors conference on 31 March.

In addition to direct emergency aid also long-term goals were listed such as for instance "the rebuilding of the state and society in the interest of all Haitians" and a reform of Haiti's judicial system. Before the earthquake HAITI was already a very poor country with a weak central authority.

HAITI ESTIMATES $11.5 BILLION NEEDED FOR RECONSTRUCTION

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8571593.stm - Page last updated at 10:29 GMT, Wednesday, 17 March 2010

Haiti will need $11.5bn (£7.5bn) to rebuild after the devastating earthquake in January, the country's government estimates.

The amount is a rough estimate of money required for a complete overhaul of the impoverished country, officials say.

The plan, co-authored by international aid agencies, will be put to donors at a conference on Haiti on 31 March.

More than 220,000 people were killed in the quake, which is thought to have caused around $8bn of damage.

"This is a process. This is not a final document," Haiti's Tourism Minister Patrick Delatour was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Estimates for the total reconstruction could be as high as $14bn, he added.

'UNPRECEDENTED'

The reconstruction plan, known as the Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment (PDNA), will be discussed at a major conference on Haiti in New York at the end of this month.

The document put the total cost of earthquake damage at $7.9bn - 120% of Haiti's GDP.

More than 70% of those losses were sustained by the private sector. But damage was widespread, affecting schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, buildings, ports and airports.

"The earthquake has created an unprecedented situation, amplified by the fact that it struck the country's most populous region and its economic and administrative centre," the assessment said.

The plan emphasises that the SHORT-TERM PRIORITY is to prepare those left homeless by the quake for April's HEAVY RAINS and for the JUNE HURRICANE SEASON.

Nearly 220,000 quake survivors are living in temporary camps in the capital city of PORT-au-PRINCE, where there is a HIGH RISK of FLOODING and LANDSLIDES.

WOMEN, GIRLS RAPE VICTIMS IN HAITI QUAKE AFTERMATH

(03/17/2010 | 09:17 AM - GMA News.TV)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – When the young woman needed to use the toilet, she went out into the darkened tent camp and was attacked by three men.

"They grabbed me, put their hands over my mouth and then the three of them took turns," the slender 21-year-old said, wriggling with discomfort as she nursed her baby girl, born three days before Haiti's devastating quake.

"I am so ashamed. We're scared people will find out and shun us," said the woman, who suffers from abdominal pain and itching, likely from an infection contracted during the attack.

Women and children as young as 2, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in the Jan. 12 catastrophe, are now falling victim to rapists in the sprawling tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people.

With NO LIGHTING and NO SECURITY, they are menacing places after sunset.

SEXUAL ASSAULTS are daily occurrences in the biggest camps, aid workers say — and most attacks go unreported because of the SHAME, SOCIAL STIGMA and FEAR OF REPRISALS FROM ATTACKERS.

RAPE was a big problem in Haiti even before the earthquake and frequently was used as a political weapon in times of upheaval. Both times the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted, his enemies assassinated his male supporters and raped their wives and daughters.

But the quake that killed an estimated 200,000 people has made women and girls ever more vulnerable. They have lost their homes and are forced to sleep in flimsy tents or tarp-covered lean-tos. They've lost male protection with the deaths of husbands, brothers and sons. And they are living in close quarters with strangers.

The 21-year-old said her family has received no food aid because the Haitian men handing out coupons for food distribution demand sexual favors.

Sex-for-food is not uncommon in the camps, said a report issued Tuesday by the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development in Haiti.

"In particular, young girls have to negotiate sexually in order to get shelter from the rains and access to food aid."/COLOR]

At the camp on Monday where the young mother was gang-raped, a woman in shorts tried to bathe discreetly. Stripped to her waist, she faced her blue tarp tent, her back to the rows of other shelters.

Nearby, a teenage girl squatted behind a pile of garbage, trying to avoid the stench and clouds of flies around tarp-covered latrines that provide the only privacy, but also are places where women are attacked.

In this camp, some 47,000 people live crowded into what used to be a sports ground in a neighborhood that always has been dangerous. Residents include a dozen escaped prisoners, among them a man accused of a notorious murder, according to Fritznel Pierre, a human rights advocate who lives at the camp.

"But nobody says anything because they're scared, scared of the criminals and scared of the police," he said.

Pierre has documented three other gang rapes in the camp, including of a 17-year-old who says she was a virgin before six men attacked her and raped her repeatedly.

"I really worry about the teenager because she has no one to look out for her. She says she sees her attackers but is afraid to report them because she would then have to leave the camp and she has nowhere to go," Pierre said.

Investigators for Human Rights Watch reported the first three gang rapes to U.N. officials. Then, two weeks later, on Feb. 27, the 21-year-old mother was gang-raped.

Only a week later did U.N. police officers begin patrolling.

"For me it seems completely bizarre that for this one camp that everyone knows is unsafe, it's taken them three weeks to get a patrol going," said Liesl Gerntholtz, executive director of the agency's women's rights division. "It's unrealistic to expect patrols in camps all the time, but I think they can identify hotspots and provide security to those spots."

Pierre complained that the U.N. patrols are ineffective. "They only drive their cars down the one road that covers only a small portion of the camp. They never get out of their cars," he said.

In the hilltop suburb of Petionville, where plush mansions look out over slums on hillsides and in ravines, a 7-year-old rape victim was being treated Monday in the hospital of a tent camp set up on a golf course. Another child, a 2-year-old, had been raped in the same camp two weeks earlier.

The toddler is taking antibiotics for a gonorrhea infection of the mouth, according to Alison Thompson, who is the volunteer medical coordinator for a Haitian relief group created by Sean Penn. She helped treat both children.

"Women aren't being protected," Thompson said. "So when the lights go down is when the rapes increase, and it's happening daily in all the camps in Port-au-Prince."

Besides SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES and PREGNANCY, victims face possible HIV INFECTION. Haiti has the highest infection rate for the virus that causes AIDS in the Western hemisphere, with one in 50 people infected.

Among the many rape victims is an 18-year-old girl who lost her parents, grandmother, a sister and three cousins to the quake. She was roaming the streets distraught when a man approached her, promising her his wife would look after her, she said.

The middle-aged man took her to a house, then left and came back with two men. The three raped her repeatedly until she managed to escape.

The teen is among dozens of rape victims who have sought help from KOFAVIV, a group of Haitian women who survived political rapes in 2004. Their offices were destroyed in the quake and they now operate from a tent.

They brought the victims to American volunteer lawyers who came to Port-au-Prince a week ago to identify Haitians who may qualify for humanitarian parole to live in the United States.

"I've been here five days and have spoken to 30 (rape) survivors including a dozen under 18. Their stories are horrific. I would be catatonic," said San Francisco lawyer Jayne Fleming.

Few rapes are reported because women often face humiliating scrutiny from police officers who suggest they invited the attacks and even nurses who contend young girls were "too hot" in their dress style, according to Delva Marie Eramithe, a KOFAVIV leader.

Her own 18-year-old daughter was saved from an attacker who dragged the girl into a dark alley between tents at the downtown camp sprawling across Champs de Mars plaza. The assailant did not see the teen's three sisters, who had been walking behind her, and all four of them managed to beat him and run him off.

Soon after, he returned to their tent with three other men and a gun, Eramithe said.

While a male neighbor argued with the men, Eramithe and her daughters went to a nearby police station to report the attempted rape.

"We told them the man who attacked her was right there at our tent, just two blocks away," Eramithe said. "But one policeman said they had received reports of nothing but raping, thefts and domestic beatings all day and there's nothing they can do. The other police officer said the only person who can do anything is President (Rene) Preval."

When she insisted, they gave her the license plate of a police van patrolling the camp perimeter. Eventually she found the patrol car but that officer "told us to go and get the attacker and bring him to them."

Police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said only 24 rapes have been reported to Haitian authorities this year. Several suspects were detained, but many escaped when prisons collapsed in the quake, he said.

Police Chief Mario Andresol blamed the attacks on the more than 7,000 prisoners who escaped. "Bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents," he told reporters two weeks after the quake.

"We are aware of problem ... but it's not a priority," Information Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said last month.

Haitian police officers with stations minutes from some of the largest camps do not patrol — a fact that spokesman Desrosiers blames on the loss of dozens of officers killed in the quake, as well as scores who remain missing and more than 250 who were injured.

Still, that leaves some 9,600 Haitian police officers and 2,000 U.N. police officers.

The first signs of action came when U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived Sunday, and a contingent of female U.N. and Haitian police officers set up a tent at the camp.

Ban promised the camps will be "safe and secure."

He praised the security offered by Haitian and U.N. police and told the women officers: "We must protect these women and girls. ... If they are sexually abused and attacked and raped, that is totally unacceptable and intolerable, and we must stop it."

On Monday, a man with a bullhorn was at the camp during a food distribution, saying "We don't want men raping women, do we?"

No, the women waiting in line yelled back.

Still, the fear was palpable among the most vulnerable. The 18-year-old orphaned rape victim was nervous about the time, even though it was only mid-afternoon.

"I have to find somewhere to sleep, near some people who might help me if there's trouble," she said.

"It scares me, the way the men look at me, and they know I'm all alone".

- AP

nancyk58 · March 18, 2010

AID for HAITI / news on 18 March 2010

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 18 MARCH 2010

Danish DR1 Text: HAITIAN CHILDREN ARE NOT ORPHANS

10 US missionaries attempted to transport 33 children believed to be orphans out of Haiti in the aftermath of the massive earthquake in Haiti in January. It has turned out that all these children have living parents. The organization SOS Children's Villages is convinced that in most cases it is best for a child to be taken care of and protected by its own family, says the relief organization which was in charge of the children.

Laura Silsby and 9 other baptists were arrested on 29 January 2010 when the group tried to take the children into the Dominican Republic.

Danish TV2 Text and German ZDF Text: HAITI: THE CHILDREN "KIDNAPPED" BY US BAPTISTS ALL HAVE FAMILIES

The Haitian children that US baptists would take out of Haiti after the massive earthquake on 12 January 2010 all have families. None of the children is an orphan, said a spokeswoman of SOS Children's Villages.

The children aged 2 months up to 14 years were returned to their parents. The families received financial support of more than 360 EURO.

10 baptists were arrested when trying to cross the border to the Dominican Republic with the children.

Swedish SVT Text: NONE OF THE HAITIAN CHILDREN WAS AN ORPHAN

All 33 Haitian children that US baptists attempted to smuggle out of Haiti after the earthquake have been reunited with their parents.

10 US missionaries were arrested when trying to bring the children into neighbouring country, the Dominican Republic. The missionaries did not have the necessary documents and it turned out that the children were not orphans.

Several parents later testitied that they gave up their children voluntarily because they could not take care of them.

9 of the missionaries have been released, but the leader will be charged with child trafficking.

Swedish SVT Text: HAITI: CAN GET 4 BILLION DOLLARS

A preliminary committee before the donors conference on 31 March 2010 suggests that HAITI shall receive 4 billion dollars for rebuilding and state budget after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

Wednesday, donor countries and international organizations approved of the HAITI government being given $3.8 billion in 1.5 years, said the Dominican Republic's Minister of Economic Affairs, Montás.

Additional $350 million is scheduled for the country's state budget, Montás said.

28 countries participate in the donors conference in the United Nations in New York.

nancyk58 · March 19, 2010

AID for HAITI / news articles on 19 March 2010

UPDATES AND NEWS ARTICLES ON THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 19 MARCH 2010

URBAN (free Danish paper) on 19.3.10: KIDNAPPED CHILDREN RETURNED TO PARENTS IN HAITI

33 "orphans" - attempted brought out of Haiti by American missionaries after the earthquake - turned out to have parents.

33 children whose parents were presumed killed in the earthquake in Haiti in January and who were attempted brought out of Haiti by American missionaries are now being reunited with their parents.

All 33 children have at least one living parent according to the relief organisation "SOS Children's Villages" which was in charge of the children since the American missionaries tried to get them to the United States.

The youngest child was only a few months old when the earthquake occurred and she was parted from her parents. She has now been returned to the parents after having spent the last couple of months with a foster-mother selected by the "SOS Children's Villages".

A spokeswoman of "SOS Children's Villages" in Haiti, Line Wolf Nielsen says that most parents have visited the children the last couple of weeks before they had their children back this week.

A total of 22 families have claimed the 33 children.

TEN AMERICAN MISSIONARIES ARRESTED

The reunion takes place after weeks' work with registering and finding the children's parents and making sure that the parents were in a position to handle the return of the children.

The case of the 33 children attracted international attention when ten American missionaries were arrested on 29 January trying to bring the children out of Haiti and into the neighbouring country The Dominican Republic. The transport was stopped because the missionaries did not have the necessary documents for the children.

All missionaries were arrested, but they denied - during a trial - that they would kidnap the children. They claimed that they would help the children to a better life in the USA after the earthquake on 12 January.

Several parents testitied in court that they gave up their children voluntarily because they could no longer provide for them after the quake.

9 of the ten missionaries have been released from the prison in HAITI and have returned to the USA. One of them is still in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince where she is charged with child trafficking. Ritzau (news agency)

HAITI AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

As many as 230,000 people were killed due to the earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January 2010

More than one million have become homeless

Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America, and life expectancy is 61 years

80 out of 1,000 children die before they are 5 years old

More than half the population has less than one dollar per day to live on.

-------------------------------------

Danish TV1 TTV: HAITI: PROMPT HELP TO FORGOTTEN VICTIMS IN HAITI

When DR's special correspondent visited the camp "Camaran Deux" on a stony and barren mountainside outside of Port-au-Prince a few days ago, the camp had not been visited by one single relief organization since the earthquake on 12 January.

But when the terrible situation there was described to a centrally placed person, she immediately organized a massive help effort for the people in the camp who were close to death due to hunger and thirst without anybody noticing, DR News' Thomas Ubbesen reports from HAITI.

Besides water and food, relief workers have promised to deliver / supply kitchens, huts and medical help to the camp.

Danish DR1 TTV: HAITI's DEBT RELIEVED

Countries behind the Inter-American Development Bank are close to a deal that will relieve Haiti of its debt of the equivalent of almost 2.5 billion Danish Kroner (more than $0.3 billion) according to sources from the US Treasury Department. After the devastating earthquake in January, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner has worked for relief of Haiti's debt to i.a. the Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

UN experts estimate that HAITI will need the equivalent of DKK 62 billion (more than $8 billion) to rebuild the country.

Swedish SVT Text: "SECOND HAITI DISASTER INEVITABLE"

A second disaster in HAITI is probably inevitable despite of pledged billions and a help effort so big as never seen before.

These are the words of Sam Worthington, coordinator of US Aid.

The threat comes from the upcoming rainy and hurricane seasons. The tents and tarpaulings erected as temporary shelter after the earthquake provide no protection against the upcoming heavy rain and hurricanes.

- "We are in a race against time and even though a large number of people have been removed, then with sadness, I think that many are staying in dangerous places", says Worthington.

nancyk58 · March 21, 2010

Aid for HAITI / news article on 21 March 2010

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION ON 21 MARCH IN HAITI

Danish newspaper BT: HAITI: MENTALLY ILL LIVING UNDER BAD CONDITIONS

Mental patients are lying naked on the cold concrete floor in Haitian hospitals. When confronted with this the answer was: Mentally ill never had a high priority in HAITI!

nancyk58 · March 22, 2010

AID for HAITI / news on 22.3.10

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 22 MARCH 2010

3 DIE IN QUAKE COLLAPSE IN NORTHERN HAITI — UN

(03/22/2010 | 08:21 AM - GMA News.TV)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A small earthquake struck northern Haiti early Sunday, collapsing an apartment building and killing at least three people, a UN spokesman said.

Residents said the tremor struck Haiti's second-largest city of Cap-Haitien shortly after midnight, collapsing the four-story building. Some nearby structures were damaged by the collapse but no other quake effects were reported.

Three survivors were pulled out of the rubble and taken to a hospital, UN spokesman Louicius Euguene said.

Haitian police, civil protection authorities and UN peacekeepers from Chile and Nepal found the body of another person killed inside.

Cap-Haitien lies along the fault line that produced THREE MODERATE EARTHQUAKES in nearby CUBA on Saturday. It was not affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, some 80 miles (130 kilometers) to the south.

Witnesses said it had been raining, which could have weakened the ground under the structure.

US Geological Survey scientists were studying data Sunday for signs of the temblor but had no confirmation of the earthquake. A small, 3.7-magnitude aftershock was felt in Port-au-Prince late Saturday night.

"We don't really see anything that is jumping out of the records but ... we're looking at this," geophysicist Rafael Abreu said.

But residents of the northern port city said they were frightened by the shaking.

Last month three children were killed in Cap-Haitien when a school collapsed after a late-night tremor and heavy rains.

There have been several panics in Cap-Haitien since the Port-au-Prince disaster, including two triggered by evangelical churches that convinced thousands that earthquakes and tsunamis were coming on dates that have since passed. - AP

nancyk58 · March 23, 2010

AID for HAITI / news on 23 March 2010

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 23 MARCH 2010

DEVELOPMENT BANK FORGIVES $479 MILLION HAITI DEBT

(03/23/2010 | 08:12 AM - GMA News.TV)

CANCUN, Mexico – The Inter-American Development Bank said Monday it has agreed to forgive $479 million in debts owed by quake-ravaged Haiti.

Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno said the bank's board of governors voted to forgive the debt and will offer $2 billion in financing to the Caribbean nation over the next 10 years.

"This commitment is good news for all Haitians, and will help heal the wounds caused by the earthquake," Moreno said at the inauguration of the bank's annual meeting in the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun.

The IADB debt was the biggest single chunk of the $1.2 billion Haiti owed as of late January, according to figures of the International Monetary Fund.

The measures are meant to help Haiti recover from the magnitude-7 Jan. 12 earthquake, which killed an estimated 230,000 people. The new funds would be directed toward supporting long-term reconstruction and development efforts.

The 48-member regional development bank is Latin America's largest lender for projects such as roads and power plants.

The administration of President Barack Obama is pushing for the cancellation of other multilateral debt, as well as the $400 million Haiti owes individual countries.

Also Monday, European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said in Brussels that the EU foreign ministers agreed to donate euro1 billion ($1.36 billion) in DEVELOPMENT AID to Haiti in the years ahead.

Ashton said she will pledge that amount on the EU's behalf at a Haiti donors conference in New York next week.

She says what the Caribbean country needs after the devastating earthquake is "long-term development aid."

In addition to discussing debt relief for Haiti, Moreno said the board of governors had voted for a $70 billion increase in the bank's current capital of about $100 billion. Moreno called it the biggest capital increase in the bank's history, and said it would allow the bank to become the biggest multilateral lending agency for the region.

Colombian Economy Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga said the capital increase would allow the bank to continue financing economic and development projects.

"With this increase, we have established a basis for the bank into the future," Zuluaga said.

In 2009, the bank made loans worth a record $15.5 billion, and it had warned that, without a capital increase, it would have to cut its lending to about half that.

But Moreno said that after Monday's decision the bank could boost its lending to an average of about $12 billion per year, focusing especially on "the poorest and most vulnerable" economies. Poverty reduction, climate change programs and extending educational coverage would be among the priorities for new projects. — AP

EX-PRESIDENTS BUSH, CLINTON VISIT DEVASTATED HAITI

(03/23/2010 | 10:53 AM - GMA News.TV)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton clasped hands with residents of one of Haiti's massive tent cities Monday on a tour of its quake-devastated capital — a visit intended to remind donors of the immense needs facing the recovery effort.

The two former leaders, who were tapped by President Barack Obama to spearhead US fundraising for the crisis, made their first joint visit to Haiti. They spotlighted the DRAMATIC NEED FOR HELP ahead of a critical March 31 UN donors conference in New York where Haitian officials will ask for $11.5 BILLION IN RECONSTRUCTION HELP.

At a news conference with President Rene Preval on the grounds of the collapsed national palace, Bush said he was struck by the devastation caused by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

"It's one thing to see it on TV, it's another to see it firsthand," said Bush, who was making his first visit to Haiti. "Hopefully our visit will remind people that Haiti needs help."

Clinton and Bush later greeted quake survivors camped on the Champ de Mars, the national mall filled with 60,000 homeless people. Secret Service agents and Haitian police surrounded the men as they waded into a fenced-in section of the mall where dozens of families have pitched blue, orange and silver tarps.

While many of the homeless welcomed the visit as a sign that the US would continue to supply aid, some said they were disappointed the presidents did not bring anything more tangible.

"The visit is like no visit at all. They walked inside, it's to show off," said Rene Pierre, a 35-year-old homeless man.

About 100 protesters burned tires and an American flag outside the national palace to demand the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was flown from Haiti aboard a US plane during Bush's presidency and now lives in South African exile.

Clinton and Bush visited the country as it struggles to feed and shelter victims of the magnitude-7 quake, which killed an estimated 230,000 people. Another 1.3 MILLION QUAKE SURVIVORS are HOMELESS, with many living in CAMPS PRONE TO DANGEROUS FLOODING IN the APRIL RAINY SEASON.

The former presidents also visited the Maxima SA woodworking plant where manager Evelien Degier, a native of the Netherlands, said they can build houses for $2,000. She said she hopes the presidents help direct investment to companies like hers that employ Haitians as part of the reconstruction effort.

"It's wonderful to have the handouts and the food," she said. "But now people need to go back to work to real life to earn real money."

The chairman of Haiti's chamber of commerce, Reginald Boulos, said Monday that Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive will co-chair a task force overseeing the large amounts of international aid expected to pour in next month.

Clinton said he had not been formally offered the position but was open to helping in any way. He endorsed creating an independent agency to oversee aid as well as a Web site to track money — ideas he said helped avoid corruption in Indonesia after the 2006 tsunami.

Bush left Monday afternoon. Clinton was expected to stay overnight for meetings with business leaders and officials.

Named UN special envoy to Haiti last year, Clinton said the former presidents hoped to get all the aid agencies and the Haitian government working together to make the most of the huge global outpouring of support.

"The most important thing in the short run is to coordinate what the NGOs do with the long-term plans that the Haitian government has. They can't be a self-sufficient country unless we both are transparent in this aid and build the capacity of the government," he said.

Aid was already being announced on Monday.

The INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK announced it had agreed to FORGIVE its $479 MILLION SHARE OF HAITI's $1.2 BILLION in FOREIGN DEBT while offering $2 billion in grants over the next 10 years. The EUROPEAN UNION said it will DONATE EURO1 BILLION ($1.36 billion) in DEVELOPMENT AID to Haiti in the years ahead.

VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez has also announced he would cancel Haiti's debt to his country, which the IMF had listed at more than $200 million.

The nonprofit CLINTON BUSH HAITI FUND has RAISED $37 MILLION FROM 220,000 INDIVIDUALS including Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who gave $1 million, and Obama, who among other donations gave $200,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize.

About $4 million has gone to such organizations as Habitat for Humanity, the University of Miami/Project Medishare mobile hospital in Port-au-Prince and the US branch of the Irish charity Concern Worldwide. The rest has yet to be allocated. — AP

German ZDF Text: CLINTON AND BUSH: HAITI AID MUST CONTINUE

The former US presidents Clinton and Bush spoke in favour of a continuation of the humanitarian aid to Haiti which was destroyed by the earthquake. According to Clinton the programme HOPE aims at creating jobs for about 100,000 people and restarting agriculture.

Both former presidents arrived in Haiti this morning representing President Barack Obama. They are to estimate the rebuilding process in the earthquake-hit region - according to the Haitian broadcaster Radio Metropole.

Macintosh · March 26, 2010

Thank you for important information, Nancy.

HAITI shall receive 4 billion dollars for rebuilding and state budget in 1.5 years...

But as far as I read for a full restoration and construction of buildings suitable for seismically active areas they need at least $ 15 billion. And this is a good option if the U.S. will put away forces from Iraq and send the money where they are most needed.

nancyk58 · March 27, 2010

Aid for Haiti / news on 26.3.10

NO NEWS POSTED ON 24 AND 25 MARCH 2010 AS I DID NOT FIND RELEVANT NEWS ON GMA News.TV, TEXT TV FROM DENMARK, GERMANY, SWEDEN OR BBC WORLD NEWS

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 26 MARCH 2010

EX-PRESIDENT CLINTON ASKS DONORS TO MAKE HAITI SELF-SUFFICIENT

(03/26/2010 | 08:40 AM - GMA News.TV)

NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton is urging the aid groups serving Haiti's devastated communities to help REBUILD the country's government and ultimately put themselves out of business by fostering a self-sufficient nation.

Clinton, the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, spoke to representatives of the aid groups Thursday, ahead of a critical United Nations donors conference next week at which Haitian officials are expected to ask for $11.5 billion to rebuild.

"Every time we spend a dollar in Haiti from now on we have to ask ourselves, 'Does this have a long-term return? Are we helping them become more self-sufficient? ... Are we serious about working ourselves out of a job?'" Clinton said.

Haitian leaders have expressed frustration that billions of dollars in aid have bypassed the government and gone to foreign non-governmental organizations, which operate independently and don't always coordinate with local authorities.

Clinton asked the groups Thursday to allocate 10 percent of their spending in Haiti for government salaries and employee training, to help the nation's agencies rebuild their decimated staffs.

He urged the aid groups to hire local staffers, consult with local authorities and structure their efforts around the Haitian government's plan, which is currently being finalized. Groups should make sure that the money they spend builds communities and infrastructure and creates local jobs, he said.

Efforts must focus outside the capital of Port-au-Prince, Clinton said, adding that Haitian President Rene Preval and others were eager to decentralize the country.

"For too long, Haiti has revolved around its capital city rather than just being supported by it," Clinton said.

The former president also urged the groups to participate in an online registry and make their expenditures transparent.

And he warned that unless they take action to MOVE REFUGEES TO HIGHER GROUND, as many as 40,000 PEOPLE COULD BE KILLED if there are HEAVY RAINS.

Liz Blake, a senior vice president for Habitat for Humanity International, said that Clinton's words were inspiring and aid groups were willing to work with him, but what he was asking is difficult.

"Working yourself out of a job — which is working to strengthen the government of Haiti so that the support and work of a nonprofit is no longer needed — isn't a standard practice," she said.

But, she added, "All of us want to do what we can to support the Haitian people and work with the Haitian government, and do so even if we have to suspend our disbelief." — AP

nancyk58 · March 28, 2010

Aid for Haiti / News from UNICEF and Red Cross in relation to HAITI

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI / News from UNICEF and RED CROSS International 28 MARCH 2010

http://www.unicef.org/

the Press Centre / UNICEF:

Former US President Bill Clinton praises crisis response by UN and UNICEF in HAITI

By Simon Ingram

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 24 March 2010 – During a visit to Haiti yesterday, former US President and UN special envoy Bill Clinton praised the United Nations for its response to the devastating 12 January earthquake, saying now was the time to help the country escape its impoverished past and build a better future.

Mr. Clinton addressed UN staff during his third trip to the Haitian capital since the disaster. He singled out the role that UNICEF plays in tackling the profound sanitation and public health problems caused by the quake, which killed more than 220,000 people and displaced many more.

"Water challenges affect children more than anything else," Mr. Clinton said, adding that a large percentage of children's deaths after an emergency are caused by waterborne illnesses.

"A lot of lives are going to be saved because of UNICEF," he noted.

Chance for 'a brighter future'

Mr. Clinton highlighted what he saw as an opportunity to rebuild better than before in Haiti. "In spite of this horrible earthquake," he said, "this is the best chance [Haitians] have ever had to escape the darker chapters of the past and build a brighter future."

He went on to remind aid workers about the importance of helping the people of Haiti "become what they've always been capable of becoming, but never had the chance to become."

"We're getting there, and we will get there," Mr. Clinton told UN staff. "More than anything else, I want you to know I am profoundly grateful to you."

Donor conference upcoming

Named a UN Special Envoy to Haiti last year, Mr. Clinton visited the country in advance of a critical 31 March UN donor conference in New York, where Haitian officials will ask for $11.5 billion in reconstruction help.

An estimated 3 million people have been affected by the disaster in Haiti, including about 1.26 million children. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

In and around Port-au-Prince, many are living in crowded, unsafe spontaneous temporary settlement sites and lack basic shelter as well as social services.

On Monday, Mr. Clinton and former US President George W. Bush met earthquake survivors camped on the Champs de Mars, a city park that is currently home to 60,000 displaced people. The park is one of the sites where UNICEF and its partners are delivering water and sanitation services.

---------------

http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/haiti-feature-180310

18-03-2010 Feature / HAITI: bringing water and restoring dignity to the elderly

The elderly and infirm are among the most vulnerable of the many tens of thousands of people living in crowded, often squalid camps in Port-au-Prince. The ICRC's Jessica Barry has been to see how some of them are faring.

In a camp sheltering earthquake victims located in the compound of the Asile municipal nursing home in Port-au-Prince, children crowd around large, black water tanks installed by the Spanish and Haitian Red Cross societies. The spot is a favourite for kids, who come to play while helping their gossiping mothers fill their buckets. The water supply is limited, and what the women carry back to their tents must meet all their family's daily needs for drinking, cooking and washing clothes.

Bringing a modicum of privacy to nursing home residents

In such cramped surroundings, privacy is an unattainable dream. Taking a bath in a small plastic bowl might be fun for a toddler, but imagine what it is like for the elderly and infirm, trying to wash and keep clean with only minimal water. And how much harder must it be for people confined to wheelchairs.

To help address this problem, the ICRC is installing 50 ventilated improved pit latrines in the Asile compound, some of them adapted for the nursing home's wheelchair users. Too fearful to stay indoors, the elderly residents have been spending much of their time since the earthquake out in the garden of their previously tranquil nursing home, sitting in the shade, or propped up in their wheelchairs amid the crush and noise going on around them. Once finished, the toilets, which are sturdy and made of wood and corrugated iron, will provide these extremely vulnerable old folk with a modicum of privacy in the midst of a camp that is seething with people.

Building up a sustainable supply of water

In the camps that have sprung up all over Port-au-Prince since the devastating earthquake of 12 January, people's access to water has slowly improved. Water trucks ply the parks, where people are living squashed like sardines, and water bladders and water storage tanks like the ones in the Asile compound have been installed.

By contrast, the provision of water in slum neighbourhoods of Port-au-Prince such as Cité-Soleil – home to over 200,000 people – has always been chaotic. The ICRC has been working in Cité-Soleil, together with the Haitian Red Cross, since 2004. For the past four years ICRC water engineers, in partnership with the Port-au-Prince water board, have been upgrading the shantytown's water distribution network.

When the earthquake struck, the water network in Cité-Soleil took a direct hit. The water tower cracked, and now needs substantial repair. The piped water supply was also partially damaged. The ICRC quickly installed six water bladders as a stopgap measure, serving the basic needs of around 9,000 people, pending a decision on who would repair the water tower, and how.

The aim of the ICRC's partnership with the water board is to promote more efficient and sustainable water distribution. Achieving this aim requires a long-term commitment to changing attitudes with regard to the supply, use and management of water. The partnership intends not only to improve people's access to clean water, but also to contribute to a comprehensive drive towards strengthening preventive health care in Port-au-Prince's shanty areas.

In addition to working alongside the water authorities in Cité-Soleil, the ICRC is also supporting grassroots water committees in their efforts to repair and maintain the water networks. Among other things, it is providing spare parts and tools, helping to stop leaks in the pipes, giving the fuel needed to run pumps and paying salaries of some workers for a limited period.

In contrast to the emergency assistance being given in the Asile compound, the work going on in Cité-Soleil is long-term.

Restoring dignity

Back in the nursing home compound, children race about and play. An improvised market selling fruit, vegetables and cheap household trinkets is crowded. Intense-looking young men play furiously at dominoes in a rare open space between tents. Teenagers mill around doing nothing. The elderly residents of the nursing home doze, skewed sideways in their wheelchairs. Near where the water gatherers are congregated a group of women sit, doing their washing. In the middle of the camp, the workers building the latrines are seated on the concrete foundations beside a line of deeply dug pits awaiting their supervisor. The toilets, once they are ready, will help restore some of the dignity the old folk lost along with so much else, at the quiet ending of their lives, when the earthquake struck.

Since the 12 January earthquake, the ICRC has:

enabled 29,000 NAMES to be REGISTERED on http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/haiti (the ICRC's site for restoring links between family members) including the names of 6,100 people who wanted to tell their families that they were alive;

worked with the Haitian Red Cross and the Haitian government to REUNITE four children aged between two and twelve with their families, while continuing to handle the cases of 70 other unaccompanied children with a view to reuniting them with their families as well;

VISITED some 700 detainees in the main police stations of Port-au-Prince and in Cap-Haïtien Prison;

SUPPLIED 20 TONNES of FOOD, to feed 4,000 detainees for three weeks;

carried out EMERGENCY REPAIRS to the sanitation system, plumbing and kitchen of Port-au-Prince Prison, with other work still in progress;

SUPPORTED 10 Haitian Red Cross FIRST-AID POSTS in PORT-au-PRINCE and two in Petit-Goâve, at which first-aiders have so far treated over 17,300 people;

REGULARLY SUPPLIED MEDICINES to the Rosalie Rendu maternity/paediatric centre in Cité Soleil, to which over 500 children under five come for consultations every day;

SUPPORTED A MAJOR VACCINATION CAMPAIGN carried out by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the authorities in Martissant, Bel-Air and Canapé-Vert, as a result of which over 137,000 adults and children are now protected against German measles, whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria;

provided training in the management of corpses to 21 staff from the State university hospital mortuary and four volunteers from the Haitian Red Cross, and supplied over 2,000 body bags to the mortuary and other relief organizations;

DISTRIBUTED DRINKING WATER TO 18,000 PEOPLE IN PORT-au-PRINCE EVERY DAY and helped the authorities to repair the water network that serves the 207,000 inhabitants of Cité Soleil;

distributed essential items to over 20,000 people in Port-au-Prince, Léogane, Jacmel and Cayes, and distributed 50 tonnes of food to over 4,000 people in Delmas 60 and Primature (Port-au-Prince);

financed refuse collection at seven sites housing some 45,000 displaced persons and installed 60 latrines in the camps in Delmas

nancyk58 · March 29, 2010

Aid for Haiti / news on 29.3.10

Danish DR1 Text TV 23pm: UN ASKS FOR 3.8 BILLION DOLLARS

On Wednesday 31 March 2010, the United Nations will ask the nations of the world to donate about $3.8 billion to finance Haiti’s ambitious rebuilding programme after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010. Over 100 countries will be represented at the international donors conference to be hosted by Haiti’s President Réne Duval, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.

The organizers of the conference regard it as a decisive step towards helping Haiti on its feet again. Already before the devastating earthquake, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

nancyk58 · March 30, 2010

AID for HAITI / News on 30.3.10

UPDATE OF NEWS IN RELATION TO HAITI ON 30 MARCH 2010

TV2 Text-TV (posted at 21 o'clock): UN: HAITI AID FAILS TO APPEAR

Only half of the amount (the equivalent of DKK 7.7 billion) pledged by the nations of the world has actually reached Haiti.

The flow of financial support to Haiti has decreased even though there still exists an enormous need for help in the earthquake-struck country. This was stated today by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs aka. OCHA which has only received barely the half of the amount corresponding to DKK 7.7 billion pledged in aid by the world's nations after the UN APPEAL for help.

"To begin with our urgent appeal was well-financed, but since then the donations from the donor countries have stagnated", says OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byers.

UN SAYS EL NIÑO GOOD NEWS FOR HAITI HURRICANE RISK

03/30/2010 | 06:47 PM - GMA News.TV

GENEVA — The UN weather agency says the ongoing El Nino weather system could lessen the strength of hurricanes in the North Atlantic and mean good news for earthquake-rattled Haiti.

The World Meteorological Organization says the El Nino effect may persist through midyear, halfway through the region's March-November hurricane season.

Senior WMO official Rupa Kumar Kolli says it will be difficult to predict before May how long the El Nino effect will last.

He told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that past experience indicates neutral conditions are likely by midyear.

Kolli says the chance of a swing to the La Nina effect that increases hurricane strength in the North Atlantic is unlikely. — AP

nancyk58 · March 31, 2010

Aid for HAITI / News in relation to HAITI on 31.3.10

UPDATE OF NEWS IN RELATION TO NATURAL DISASTERS ON 31 MARCH 2010

NEWS IN RELATION TO HAITI ON 31 MARCH 2010

DR1 Text-TV: UN: HAITI AID FAILS TO APPEAR

Only half of the amount - $1.4 bn (= DKK 7.7 billion) - pledged by the nations of the world has actually reached Haiti.

The flow of financial support to Haiti has decreased even though there still exists an enormous need for help in the earthquake-struck country. This was stated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, which has only received barely the half of the amount pledged in aid by the world's nations after the UN APPEAL for help.

"To begin with our urgent appeal was well-financed, but since then the donations from the donor countries have stagnated", says OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byers.

About 1.3 million Haitians are still without shelter, and there still exists an enormous need for food according to OCHA.

German ZDF and ARD Text: REPRESENTATIVES FROM 130 NATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPATE IN THE DONOR CONFERENCE FOR HAITI

Representatives of 130 countries and organizations participate in the international donor conference for Haiti.

The United Nations hopes that about $4bn or 2.9 bn Euro will be donated for Haiti which was destroyed by the January earthquake.

Haiti's Prime Minister Bellerive will present a "plan of action for national rebuilding and development". The main focus will be on rebuilding of state institutions and infrastructure.

According to UN estimates, $11.5bn is needed for rebuilding the country.

The earthquake killed 220,000 people and made 1.3 million homeless.

German ZDF Text: US ESTABLISHES THE AID FOCUS

Before the international donor conference for Haiti in New York, the US has established the focus for the rebuilding of Haiti.

According to the US State Department, the aid will flow into the sectors of healthcare, agriculture, energy and security.

In addition the Haitian government is to be supported when it comes to organizing elections.

Former US president Bill Clinton is chairman of the rebuilding committee for Haiti. He and the Haitian Prime Minister are to co-chair the committee.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8596080.stm

UN CHIEF BAN KI-MOON URGES SUPPORT FOR $4bn HAITI PLAN

Page last updated at 14:39 GMT, Wednesday, 31 March 2010 15:39 UK

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has opened a fundraising conference on Haiti by calling for a "wholesale national renewal" of the earthquake-hit country.

Mr Ban gave his support to a plan to rebuild Haiti which will require almost $4bn (£2.65bn) in initial aid payments.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told delegates the US would give $1.15bn, and the EU pledged $1.7bn.

The 12 January earthquake killed 200,000 people and left one million more homeless.

The Haitian government and international officials have spent weeks putting together a plan for the country.

The first part of the plan is an 18-month project focusing on rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, government buildings, hospitals and schools - which is expected to cost almost $4bn.

Haitian President Rene Preval said he wanted to make education the focus of a new Haiti.

"I call on Haitians, both at home and abroad, to add their resources to those of our friends from the international community in order to transform Haiti to a place of knowledge," he said.

Officials estimate that a total of $11.5bn in aid will be needed for long-term reconstruction, which will involve strengthening institutions and refocusing the economy.

Mr Ban, the UN secretary general, described the plan as "concrete, specific and ambitious" and said he hoped it would build a "better future" for Haiti.

But he also urged donor nations not to forget a separate appeal for $1.44bn for food aid and shelter launched by the UN last month - of which he said just half had so far been pledged.

Aid agencies have warned that thousands are vulnerable to April rains and the hurricane season in June.

Ongoing poverty

Earlier, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said it was crucial to get the first step in reconstruction right.

"There should be a clear plan of action and a clear vision of how Haiti is going to be reconstructed which is endorsed by the international community," he said.

"The pledging of those funds for the immediate future is very important as a sign of the willingness of the international community to actually do that."

The country was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere before the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck.

Unemployment and illiteracy were high among its 9 million population, about 80% of whom were living on less than $2 a day.

Self-sufficiency

The BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN, says everyone is aware that billions of dollars of aid have failed to fix Haiti in the past.

To help make it work this time, the aim is to strengthen the country's weak and corrupt government institutions, she adds.

Edmond Mulet, the acting head of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (Minustah), said the international community was "co-responsible" for the weakness of Haitian institutions.

"We've always worked not with the government or through the government, because it has been too corrupt, too weak," he said.

"But if we don't address the situation we will have a peacekeeping mission in Haiti for the next 200 years."

Both Haiti's government and donors are insisting that a strategy of decentralisation is at the heart of the reconstruction plan.

They aim to increase development in parts of the country that are less vulnerable to natural disasters than the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The capital's population more than tripled to 2.5 million in the three decades before the quake.

Officials also hope to develop a rural agricultural strategy that would enable Haiti to become more self-sufficient. Haiti is dependent on food imports, yet about 80% of the population works in agriculture.

HOW CAN DONORS AID QUAKE-HIT HAITI?

Page last updated at 13:15 GMT, Wednesday, 31 March 2010 14:15 UK

By Henri Astier, BBC News

Wednesday's UN conference in New York on co-ordinating assistance to earthquake-hit Haiti raises an awkward question - what has foreign aid ever done for Haitians?

The country has received an estimated $5bn (£3.3bn) over the past decade.

Thousands of charities have been operating there - yet even before the quake devastated the capital, Haiti was a wretched place.

It is the poorest country in the Americas. About 80% of the population lives on less than $2 a day and nearly half is illiterate. Jobs are scarce, public services woeful and corruption rife.

Haiti, says US political scientist Terry Buss, is largely run by "an army of NGOs and some international development organisations" whose programmes "cost a lot of money and don't make any difference".

Mr Buss - author of the book Haiti in the Balance, Why Foreign Has Failed And What We Can Do About It - cites as an example Haiti's judicial system, which he calls a "shambles".

The US government, he says, has tried to promote reform by running seminars for judges.

But few Haitian judges have extensive legal training, and teaching them US jurisprudence has not led to a noticeable reduction in the number of prisoners languishing without due process in Haiti's overcrowded jails.

Band-Aid approach

One of the reasons donors get little bang for their aid buck is the scattered nature of their efforts.

"One of the problems is a lack of co-ordination to make the most of the generosity of groups and people," says Ruth Levine, from the Center for Global Development, a Washington think tank.

NGOs and church groups, she adds, tend to get involved in short-term, local projects and move on.

"It's a Band-Aid approach," Ms Levine says. "It's not a sustained effort, so it's hard to build up the kind of trust with the community that would provide ongoing services."

Governments too can be fickle. The US, for instance, stopped funding family planning programmes - particularly crucial in Haiti - because of concerns over abortion.

Another factor affecting the efficacy of aid is the tendency of donors and charities to bypass local authorities.

Such mistrust can be understandable, as Haiti has a long history of oppression and misrule.

But by providing services directly, the aid community in effect takes on government functions, reinforcing the divide between officials and the people.

"It's the worst (form of) government you can possibly imagine," says US writer Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains, a book about Haiti.

"It is a government whose activities are not co-ordinated and that is not in any way accountable to the people it's supposed to be governing."

Meanwhile, Terry Buss says, Haiti's nominal government never feels pressure from people they do not serve. "They don't expect to deliver public services because it never does," he says.

Tyranny of emergency

Some charities ensure that they work with the Haitian authorities, rather than undermine them.

One is the US charity Partners In Health (PIH), which has 10 clinics and hospitals in Haiti. They are run jointly by the health ministry and are staffed with Haitian doctors and nurses.

"What we do is really make it a priority to strengthen the institutions in which we're working," says PIH's Donna Barry.

However PIH's efforts to involve Haitians are not the rule.

According to Pastor Michel Morisset, who heads Eben-Ezer Mission, a local charity in Gonaives, most aid workers regard Haitians as wards rather than partners.

"Instead of coming and doing everything for us, they should ask us where the problems are, where we suffer, and help us. Coming with ready-made programmes and dumping things has never worked," he says.

"We have been treated as helpless victims and that has stayed with us."

The earthquake, according to Pastor Michel Morisset, has reinforced a feeling of helplessness and dependency among Haitians.

"We have become a perpetual emergency," he says. "We are ruled by the tyranny of emergency."

On the bright side

Is Haiti doomed to remain in the grips of well-meaning but ineffectual benefactors? Not necessarily.

Jean-Louis Warnholz, a former economic adviser to the Haitian prime minister, speaking to the BBC in January, said that under the current government the country has enjoyed stability and good relationship with the international community.

Reforms have been undertaken, and a quarter of the foreign debt was cancelled last June.

Last year Haiti's economy grew by about 3% - not a stellar performance, but an encouraging one in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane in 2008 and amid a global financial crisis.

Before the earthquake the garment sector was the country's fastest-growing industry, with factories near Port-au-Prince supplying such major brands as Gap and New Balance. Thanks to a new trade deal, Haiti exported $512m worth of apparel to the US in 2009.

Tourism is another promising sector in a country with plenty of sunshine and pristine beaches.

Royal Caribbean Cruises recently spent $55m upgrading the northern port of Labadee, and sent the world's largest cruise liner there on its maiden voyage last year.

Mr Warnholz believes that even after the earthquake, the potential for growth remains.

"The pockets of opportunities that still exist need to be expanded," he said. "I don't think that Haiti is forever cursed."

Few deny that outsiders have a key role to play in Haiti. An impoverished country that has suffered as many deaths in a single region as the 2004 tsunami inflicted across the Indian Ocean needs all the help it can get.

However, as donors gather to discuss reconstruction aid for Haiti, the key question may not be how much they pledge, but whether their efforts are channelled in a way that avoids the failures of the past.

HAITI FACTS

Poorest country in the Americas

80% of the population below the poverty line

Two thirds living on small scale farms

GDP per capita: $1,300 (2007)

FROM OTHER NEWS SITES

Reuters UK Donors meet on massive Haiti aid drive - at 17 Central European Time = CET

People's Daily Online Int'l donor conference for Haiti opens at UN - at 16:30 CET

Washington Post* Clinton to co-chair Haiti rebuilding authority - at 16:30 CET

France24 HAITI: UN summit seeks to raise $3.8 billion for quake-devastated Haiti at11:30 CET

Melbourne Age UN hosts fund-raiser to rebuild Haiti - at 6:30 CET

TV2 TTV: UN CHIEF: "WE MUST BUILD A BETTER HAITI"

The world community pledges billions to reconstruction of Haiti at the donor conference in New York.

The US secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, pledged the equivalent of DKK 6.4 bn to long-term reconstruction. The World Bank pledged additional $ 250 mio to the earthquake-hit country.

ZDF Text: EU PLEDGES 1.2 BN EURO FOR HAITI

The money is earmarked for streets and buildings and other infrastructure projects, said EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton at the donor conference in New York.

Germany's share of EU's donation is 39.4 mio. EURO.

The US will donate $1.15 bn (850 mio EURO).

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon urged the nations to build a "new Haiti".

nancyk58 · April 1, 2010

Aid fpr HAITI / news on 1 April 2010

HAITI-RELETED NEWS ON 1 APRIL 2010

UN HAITI DONOR PLEDGES SURPASS TARGETS AT ALMOST $10 BN

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8596080.stm

Page last updated at 01:06 GMT, Thursday, 1 April 2010 02:06 UK

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAS PLEDGED A TOTAL OF $9.9 BN (£6.5 BN) IN IMMEDIATE AND LONG-TERM AID TO EARTHQUAKE-HIT HAITI AT A UN DONOR CONFERENCE.

The $5.3bn (£3.5bn) of support over the next two years exceeds the $4bn requested by the Haitian government to rebuild infrastructure.

"This is the down-payment Haiti needs for wholesale national renewal," UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in New York.

The 12 January quake killed 200,000 and left one million more homeless.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The biggest contributions came from the United States and the European Union, but more than 130 countries, as well as key international financial institutions, took part in the conference.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, co-hosting the conference with Mr Ban, offered $1.15bn.

The EU meanwhile pledged an additional $1.7bn for FOOD and to support the REBUILDING OF HAITIAN President Rene Preval's GOVERNMENT.

International aid will be used to build hospitals, schools and government buildings, create jobs, and reform Haiti's key farming sector.

Mr Ban said a "robust" internet-based tracking system run by the UN would be used to "ensure accountability and transparency" of the aid distribution.

A commission co-chaired by President Preval and former US President Bill Clinton is supposed to ensure that the aid is well coordinated and well spent.

It is an attempt to let HAITI's GOVERNMENT set the priorities for reconstruction while responding to donor concerns about its REPUTATION for CORRUPTION, says the BBC's Barbara Plett at the United Nations.

Delegates repeatedly stressed that the only way to produce real and lasting results for Haitians was to strengthen and work with the government, not around it, as has been the case in the past, our correspondent adds.

THREE-STAGE PLAN

The Haitian government and international officials have spent weeks putting together a plan for the country.

The first part of the plan is an 18-month project focusing on rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, government buildings, hospitals and schools - which is expected to cost almost $4bn.

Officials estimate that a total of $11.5bn in aid will be needed for long-term reconstruction, which will involve strengthening institutions and refocusing the economy.

Earlier in the conference, Mr Ban urged donor nations not to forget a separate appeal for $1.44bn for food aid and shelter launched by the UN last month. He said just half had so far been pledged.

Aid agencies have warned that thousands are vulnerable to APRIL RAINS and the HURRICANE SEASON IN JUNE.

The country was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere before the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck.

Unemployment and illiteracy were high among its nine million population, with about 80% living on less than $2 a day.

Both Haiti's government and donors are insisting that a strategy of decentralisation is at the heart of the reconstruction plan. They aim to increase development in parts of the country that are less vulnerable to natural disasters than the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The capital's population more than tripled to 2.5 million in the three decades before the quake.

Officials also hope to develop a RURAL AGRICULTURAL STRATEGY that would enable HAITI to BECOME more SELF-SUFFICIENT. Haiti is dependent on food imports, yet about 80% of the population works in agriculture.

AMOUNTS PLEDGED:

EU $1.7bn

US $1.15bn

Spain $466m

Canada $390m

World Bank $250m

France $243m

Brazil $172m

TIME 'RUNNING OUT' FOR QUAKE-HIT HAITI ORPHANS

Page last updated at 15:26 GMT, Wednesday, 31 March 2010 16:26 UK

By Andy Gallacher, BBC News, Port-au-Prince

Billions of dollars in aid for Haiti are being pledged at a UN conference in New York, but the gesture is lost in the makeshift orphanages and camps near the capital Port-au-Prince.

In the barren windswept mountains a short drive from the capital Port-au-Prince, a tiny Haitian girl sings a hymn as she goes about her daily chores.

She, like many at the disaster recovery centre in Fond Parisien, only has one arm - but is incredibly lucky to be here.

The field hospital, run by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the Love A Child Foundation, has been singled out as one of the best facilities of its kind in Haiti.

Patients receive a level of care few would believe possible in such a rudimentary place; there are advanced prosthetic limbs, an operating theatre, and doctors from across the world, each experts in their own field.

'BLEAK FUTURE'

Tiffany Fontonot has just returned to the hospital from the United States, still haunted by what she saw in Haiti in those first few days after January's earthquake.

Like all the specialists who volunteer their time, she uses her own money to travel to Haiti, even paying for food and accommodation at the camp.

The physical therapist from Louisiana said: "I got so excited to come back. Such a hopeful and grateful people like you couldn't do enough for them.

"Coming back and seeing everybody just so progressed from the first time, I go home in peace. It's like 'OK they're going to be good now'."

But the outlook for the facility is dire. Despite promises of funding and visits from various officials, no money has emerged.

Professor Gregg Greenough, who runs the camp, is afraid to tell his patients they may soon be told to leave.

"I cannot meet payroll, and I won't be able to keep the volunteers, and these are highly specialised people," he said.

"We will close and these patients will have nowhere to go. There is no other outlet for them."

When asked how that makes him feel, his answer is blunt. "Sick, really."

Close by, at another site, a group of children orphaned by the earthquake are setting up camp in a field next to a stream, using tents donated from the US.

Haitian pastor Jean Guillaume, who has taken many orphans into his home in Port-au-Prince, says his pleas for funding have fallen on deaf ears.

But he, like many others, was determined to get by regardless and wanted to remove the children from the capital as soon as possible.

The city, with its MAKESHIFTS CAMPS and LACK OF SECURITY, has become a DANGEROUS PLACE for the young, he says.

"Some men, very bad and they sexually abuse children now in the camps everywhere in Port-au-Prince. That's why we came here with them to be away from that," the pastor said.

By the time the camp is established, there will be about 200 girls and boys living in the tents.

Mr Guillaume has plans to build some kind of temporary school house, but without money the children's future remains bleak.

The people of Haiti know that millions of dollars have been raised to help them and that billions more are being pledged.

But they feel abandoned and forgotten about. In the streets of Port-au-Prince there are signs that aid money is doing some good, but it is not nearly enough and time is running out.

The RAINY SEASON is fast approaching and there are still more than a million people sleeping on basketball courts and in riverbeds and hospital car parks beneath hastily constructed shelters and donated tents.

Those that realise leaders from across the world are discussing their fate in New York are sceptical - and they have good reason to be.

FROM OTHER NEWS SITES (CET = Central European Time)

The Economist*: Donors and Haiti: Promises, promises - posted at 20 o'clock CET

Yahoo! UK and Ireland: World raises nearly $10 bln for quake-hit Haiti - posted at 17 o'clock CET

Telegraph: World pledges $10 billion to help Haiti rebuild - posted at 13 ago o'clock CET

The Scotsman: 'Let us dream of a new Haiti' as EU and US launch fresh $3.8bn appeal for aid - posted at 6 o'clock CET

BusinessWeek: Haiti Gets $5.26 Billion in Reconstruction Aid at UN (Update3) - posted at 5 o'clock CET

Danish TV2 News: EU PLEDGES $1.67bn (DKK 9bn) TO HAITI

EU earmarks almost $1.67bn (DKK 9bn) for Haiti aid. At the same time the EU countries stress the need for long-term reconstruction of the destroyed Caribbean nation.

EU had already earmarked more than $0.3bn (DKK 1.6bn) for reconstruction aid.

EU's total contribution from both private and public bodies is $3bn (DKK 16bn). Denmark has pledged $3.9 million (DKK 20mio) to Haiti.

TV2 News/Live at 10am: UN HOPED FOR 3.9bn (DKK 20bn). THE PLEDGED AMOUNT IS $9.9bn (DKK 50bn). $11.5bn (DKK 64bn) is needed over 10 years for long-term reconstruction of Haiti.

DR1 Text-TV: $9.9bn (DKK 50bn) IN AID TO HAITI

The 138 countries at the UN donor conference in New York have agreed to earmark almost $9.9bn (DKK 50bn) for the long-term reconstruction of earthquake-hit Haiti.

Over the next two years as many as $5.3bn (DKK 29bn) will be spent on getting Haiti on its feet again. It is far more than the organizers had dared hope.

US pledged $1.15bn (DKK 6.4bn) for long-term reconstruction, whereas the World Bank pledged additional $250m (DKK 1.4bn).

The EU pledged an additional $1.7bn (DKK 9bn) to be added to the $0.3bn (DKK 1.6bn that EU had adready earmarkd for the reconstruction.

German ZDF Text: VENEZUELA PLEDGES $2bn:Venezuela is the greatest donor at the donor conference. Caracas pledged $2.147bn to the destroyed Caribbean nation - almost twice as much as the US.

Venezuela will transfer half of the amount within the next 18 months. The rest will follow over a period of 10 years. (I have not seen this news anywhere else - April's Fool?)

The nations pledged a total of almost $10bn or $9.9bn in reconstruction aid.

In the earthquake in January more than 220,000 people died and 1.3 were made homeless. Haiti - the poorest country in the western hemisphere - suffered damage at a value of about $14bn.

German ZDF and ARD Text: NATIONS PLEDGE $9.9bn TO HAITI IN RECONSTRUCTION AID

Haiti is in ruins since the earthquake on 12 January 2010.

The country can expect about $10bn in reconstruction aid. This sum was pledged to the destroyed nation by 59 nations and institutions at the donor conference in New York. UN had set a target of $3.9bn. - That much was needed within the next 18 months. $11.5bn is needed over the coming 10 years.

The US pledged $1.15bn to Haiti. The EU will pay $1.67bn of which $53 million comes from Germany.

According to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon Haiti can expect aid at a value of $5.3bn within the next 2 years, of which $1.15bn - as mentioned - comes from USA and $53 million comes from Germany.

Swedish SVT text: CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS PLEDGE $9.9bn TO HAITI

Within the next 18 months, the countries participating in Wednesday's donor conference will contribute $5.5bn to the earthquake-hit Haiti. $9.9bn is pledged for a more long-term reconstruction.

UN secretary-general Bank Ki-Moon says that this is "far more than expected". UN hoped for $3.9bn for the next 18 months, as hospitals, schools and settlements have to be rebuilt.

More than 100 countries participated in the New York donor conference with the aim of rebuilding Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010.

nancyk58 · April 2, 2010

HAITI-related news from GMA News.TV dated 1 April 2010

HAITI-RELATED NEWS FROM GMA News.TV DATED 1 APRIL 2010

DONORS PLEDGE $9.9 BILLION FOR HAITI

04/01/2010 | 07:52 AM - GMA News.TV

UNITED NATIONS — Countries and international organizations pledged nearly $10 billion on Wednesday to rebuild Haiti after January's earthquake, going far beyond the government's expectations and providing new hope to the impoverished nation.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that nearly 50 donors pledged $9.9 billion "for the next three years and beyond," demonstrating that the international community had come together "dramatically and in solidarity with the Haitian people" to help them recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Haiti had appealed for $3.8 billion for the next two years. The UN chief said the $9.9 billion includes pledges of $5.3 billion from governments and international partners for the first 24 months of reconstruction.

"We have made a good start," Ban told a news conference at the end of the daylong donors conference. "We need now to deliver."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who co-chaired the conference, called the pledges "an impressive sum by any standard."

"To put this effort in perspective, after the 2005 (Indian Ocean) tsunami, more than 80 countries provided immediate humanitarian assistance and more than 20 countries pledged assistance for reconstruction," she said.

"As of today, more than 140 countries have provided humanitarian assistance to Haiti and nearly 50 countries have made pledges of support for Haiti's rebuilding."

Haiti's President Rene Preval thanked donors, saying "this is a heartfelt effort that demonstrates that Haiti is not on its own."

The earthquake destroyed the government and commercial center of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, killed between 217,000 and 300,000 people, and left an estimated 1.3 million people homeless.

In the first minutes of the conference, the United States and the European Union pledged more than two-thirds of the $5.3 billion Haiti requested.

Clinton announced the United States' pledge of $1.15 billion over the next two years. Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign affairs chief, then announced the EU's pledge of 1.235 billion euros, equivalent to over $1.6 billion.

It was not immediately clear if all pledges were new money, as some delegates appeared to be describing existing aid projects.

Preval had asked donors to focus on education and help the country's 9 million people provide for their own future.

"Let us dream of a new Haiti whose fate lies in a new project for a society without exclusion, which has overcome hunger, in which all have access to secure shelter ... (and their) health needs provided," he told diplomats and ministers from more than 130 countries.

The $3.8 billion is just the initial part of a $11.5 billion package Preval's administration wants to rebuild schools, hospitals, courthouses and neighborhoods destroyed in the magnitude-7 earthquake.

Haiti's government has detailed its plans for the money in a 55-page rebuilding plan that lays out the interim reconstruction committee. It includes requests for $350 million in direct budget support to the government, which Edmond Mulet, the top resident UN envoy there, said is crucial for the country's progress.

"We need Haiti to succeed," Clinton said. "What happens there has repercussions far beyond its borders."

She said the donors conference was not only to pledge financial support but "to offer support in a smarter way."

Haiti's leaders must guide "a transparent recovery," Clinton stressed, and the international community must change its past practice of working around the government and ensure that it is working with the government.

At the core of the quake-ravaged country's request for help is the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, or IHRC, which will be co-chaired by former US President Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

The commission's two-dozen members will be tasked with coordinating and paying out the aid money expected to flow in. It is a key step to allaying donor concerns over Haiti's history of official corruption and political unrest who want assurances that the money will go where it is intended.

The former US president was tapped for the role earlier this week, Bellerive said. Clinton, who as UN special envoy to Haiti visited three times since the earthquake, will likely be spending much more time in the impoverished country in his new role.

In keeping with his work as UN special envoy, Bill Clinton pushed private investment at the conference.

Most notably he helped shepherd a $7.5 million project with the Coca-Cola Company to help mango producers supplying the "Haiti Hope Mango Lime-Aid" made by its Odwalla brand.

The board Clinton will help lead is a source of consternation among some Haitian lawmakers, who are now considering a legislative package submitted by Preval to approve the commission's authority. Opposition lawmakers are threatening to block the bill unless Preval's administration first publishes a report on how aid money was spent in the initial aftermath of the disaster.

- AP

nancyk58 · April 4, 2010

AID for HAITI / News from American Red Cross

NEWS IN RELATION TO THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE FROM AMERICAN RED CROSS

http://www.redcross.org/haiti

HOW THE RED CROSS IS HELPING

As part of its largest international response since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the global Red Cross network has helped nearly 1.9 million Haitians since the country’s January 12 earthquake. It has so far spent or allocated $106.4 million to meet the most urgent needs of earthquake survivors and will continue to support hundreds of thousands of additional survivors in the years ahead until the last donated dollar is spent.

More than 50 disaster specialists representing the American Red Cross are in Haiti working alongside thousands of Haitian Red Cross volunteers as part of a broader and coordinated network of Red Cross and Red Crescent responders from nearly 40 nations.

In the two months since the earthquake, the global Red Cross network has:

Provided RELIEF ITEMS for 400,000 people.

Handed out nearly 99,000 TARPS, TENTS and TOOLKITS.

Supplied MEALS for more than 1 million people.

Distributed 40 million liters of CLEAN DRINKING WATER.

Built more than 1,100 LATRINES.

Helped VACCINATE more than 125,000 people.

Coordinated the SHIPMENT of more than 1,800 units of BLOOD to medical facilities.

TREATED more than 55,000 PEOPLE at Red Cross hospitals or mobile clinics.

Sent more than 23 million TEXT MESSAGES with critical HEALTH ADVICE to survivors.

Received more than 28,400 REGISTRATIONS ON its FAMILY LINKING WEB SITE.

ASSISTED more than 25,000 PEOPLE who arrived in the U.S. following the earthquake.

DEPLOYED more than 600 RESPONDERS to Haiti.

nancyk58 · April 4, 2010

Aid for HAITI / News from Unicef

NEWS IN RELATION TO THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE FROM UNICEF

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_53194.html

JOINT PRESS RELEASE

A HAITI FIT FOR ITS CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

NEW YORK, 30 March 2010 – On the eve of an international donor’s conference for Haiti at the United Nations, Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages International, Plan International, World Vision International, OXFAM and UNICEF have stressed the importance of ensuring children, young people and their families are at the centre of all rebuilding efforts.

Haitian children and young people aged 5 to 24 shared their views on issues affecting them such as gender, disabilities, violence and abuse, disaster risk reduction, and their own rights and responsibilities post-earthquake as their country emerges from recent earthquakes at a series of focus group discussions held throughout the country between 26 February and 5 March.

Humanitarian organizations working on children’s issues maintain that providing Haiti’s youngest citizens with a strong voice in the discussion around the future of their country and enabling them to actively participate in all aspects of it will be crucial for a successful transformation of Haiti.

In a recent post disaster risk assessment study with more than 1,000 children, many said that their priority was to return to school and continue their education as soon as possible. “I want the rights of children to be respected and all children to know what their rights are. I also want everyone to have access to education,” says quake survivor Daphmika, 15, in Port-au-Prince.

Children and adolescents under 15 make up nearly 40 per cent of the population in Haiti and young people from 15 to 24 account for another 20 per cent.

Even before the earthquake the needs of many Haitian children were not met.

Nearly one in every fourteen children did not live to see their fifth birthday and children who survived were afflicted by high rates of malnutrition. About 50 percent of all Haitian children did not attend primary school and only 18 per cent of boys and 21 per cent of girls attended secondary school.

The government of Haiti has indicated its commitment to prioritizing the needs of children and youth, but the earthquake has dramatically complicated the difficult task of assuring the well-being of Haiti’s youngest citizens. Many of the more than one million children in the earthquake zone were already in vulnerable circumstances and now face increased risks due to loss, separation from, or displacement of their families, malnutrition, illness, psychological trauma and abuse.

Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages International, Plan International, World Vision International, OXFAM and UNICEF stress that Haiti is a children’s emergency and have been providing children and families with emergency relief supplies including shelter, food, medical supplies, water and sanitation supplies, and child protection services. The establishment of tent schools has given children the opportunity to continue their education and experience a sense of safety and normalcy.

If Haiti is to emerge from disaster as a place where children and families can survive and thrive, a holistic and sustained internationally-funded response that creates a strong child protection system and provides access to quality health care and education will be needed. Children and young people must be acknowledged as resourceful, as agents of change and as protagonists in their own development.

Save the Children, SOS Children’s Villages International, Plan International, World Vision International, Oxfam and UNICEF are closely collaborating on the ground and internationally to provide consistent and coordinated support to Haiti’s children and its future.

For more information, please contact:

Janine Kandel, UNICEF New York,

Tel: + 1 212 326-7684,

E-mail: [email protected]

Tamar Hahn, UNICEF Panama,

Tel: + 507 301-7485,

E-mail: [email protected]

Jenessa Bryan, SOS-Children’s Village International,

Tel: + 1 917 208-3472,

E-mail: [email protected]

Amy Parodi, World Vision,

Tel: + 1 253 815-2386,

E-mail: [email protected]

Nicole Widdersheim, Oxfam International,

Tel: + 1 212 687-3018,

E-mail: [email protected]

Robin Costello, Plan USA,

Tel: + 1 401 829-2796,

E-mail: [email protected]

Kate Conradt, Save the Children,

Tel: + 1 202 640 6631,

E-mail: [email protected]

AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE, PROTECTING HAITIAN WOMEN AND GIRLS FROM VIOLENCE

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_53204.html

By Jennifer Bakody

ANSE-A-PITRE, Haiti, 29 March 2010 – The effects of the earthquake that struck Haiti some two and a half months ago have reverberated across the country. Both in and beyond the capital, Port-au-Prince, progress made in tackling long-standing human rights issues – including the problem of gender-based violence against women and girls – seems a distant memory.

In too many cases, the most vulnerable have been the victims of exploitation and abuse.

The small and isolated town of Anse-a-Pitre, located at Haiti’s most southern border crossing with the Dominican Republic, has suffered largely beneath the radar of the international community. Although the community’s modest, one-room houses and schools all remain standing, a population influx measuring in the thousands – combined with security pressures at the border – is breaking the back of families’ ability to cope.

Business in Anse-a-Pitre is anything but booming. To make matters worse, pre-existing aid and resources have been diverted to address post-quake needs elsewhere.

FEW WOMEN AND GIRLS FEEL SAFE

Such dire conditions help to explain why five grassroots advocates travelled many miles recently for a chance to speak with UNICEF Haiti Gender-Based Violence Specialist Catherine Maternowska.

The six met in the backyard of small cement house located off a residential dirt road. Despite the importance they attached to this meeting, each of the three men and three women in attendance was patient and respectful.

Seated in the shade on a circle on wooden chairs, they spoke and listened in turn.

By the meeting’s end, the situation report was bleak: Like the capital’s overcrowded settlements for displaced people, the modest homes of host families in this rural region are under increasing duress. Daily life in the close quarters of a tent or one-room house has taken away any semblance of privacy. Come nightfall, poorly located latrines – or the complete lack thereof – require women and children to steal away to unlit areas. Few people feel safe.

“Since the earthquake, as the population here has increased, so have we seen an increase in cases of violence against women,” said Anse-a-Pitre Justice of the Peace Marc-Anglade Payoute. “The police and the justice system, we’re doing everything possible. We’re continuing to pursue arrests.”

SEXUAL VIOLENCE IS NOT INEVITABLE

Ms. Maternowska first came to Haiti in the 1980s, working alongside local activists to advance women’s issues. She speaks fluent Creole and knows the issues.

For her, the problem isn’t new or surprising: Emergencies increase the vulnerability of girls and women to gender-based violence. She stresses, however, that such violence can be avoided. Local women’s, men’s and non-governmental organizations; the justice system; all UN actors; and the media all have crucial roles to play.

“Sexual violence is not inevitable,” says Ms. Maternowska. “Haiti’s women’s movement has worked long and hard to change archaic Haitian laws that put women and girls at a grave disadvantage from the day they are born. Today in Haiti, support groups are teaching both men and women how to prevent violence, as well as how to create safe spaces for their daughters.”

PREVENTING ABUSE, SUPPORTING SURVIVORS

In the aftermath of earthquake, UNICEF staff members have met with nearly a dozen groups in south-eastern Haiti, working to create an effective referral system for survivors of violence. Small plastic-coated referral cards, printed in Haitian Creole, instruct victims on where to go for medical care and support. The cards were developed by UNICEF, in collaboration with the Haitian Government, the International Rescue Committee, and UNFPA.

“Information is key,” says Ms. Maternowska, “and placing that information in the hands of a survivor can save her life. The referral cards we’ve developed provide information on how and where to access essential medications to prevent pregnancy and HIV. And of course, the provision of timely information gives survivors access to full medical treatment, psycho-social support and justice.”

In partnership with NGOs and other UN agencies, UNICEF supports the Haitian Government’s push to include gender-based violence services as part of a comprehensive approach to women’s and girls’ health. Plans to develop dedicated health centres for women and girls are currently in the works in the areas hardest-hit by the earthquake – including Port-au-Prince, Leogane and Jacmel.

The partners’ goal is to expand these services to even the most remote corners of Haiti, including Anse-a-Pitre.

SAFE SPACES FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

UNICEF is equally committed to the prevention of future violence through the establishment of child-friendly spaces, with activities designed to educate girls and boys about gender-based violence and help them develop life skills needed in the new and challenging camp settings. Working with an established local Haitian partner, Solidarity for Haitian Women, UNICEF has plans to create women-centered friendly spaces, as well.

Safe spaces for women and girls will address issues related to gender roles and violence through a locally produced curriculum based on gender-based violence prevention and basic rights. Group activities such as these provide the community-based psycho-social support that Haitian women and children need..

FIELD DIARY: CAMP's CHILDREN EXCITED ABOUT GOING BACK TO SCHOOL IN HAITI

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_53222.html

UNICEF is among the many agencies delivering assistance to hundreds of spontaneous camps that have sprung up in parks and other public places in Haiti since the 12 January earthquake there. UNICEF's Simon Ingram visited one camp in Port-au-Prince and sent this report

By Simon Ingram

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 31 March, 2010 – You only have to mention the word 'school' and a sparkle comes into Taïma Celestin's dark brown eyes. It's not hard to understand why. The scheduled reopening of Haiti's schools on 5 April will be the first real opportunity for this confident 10-year-old to leave what is today her home – a tiny lean-to covered with a blue tarpaulin in a former sports ground in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince.

In the days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January, killing some 220,000 people, Taïma, her grandparents and more than 7,000 other terrified people sought refuge here. Nearly three months on, few have managed to return home, and the artificial soccer pitch surrounded by an asphalt running track has become a tent community known by the name Dadadou.

PART OF THE HEALING PROCESS

During the day, Taïma joins several hundred other children for informal classes run by volunteer teachers inside two large white tents that were provided by UNICEF along with 'School-in-a-box' kits full of learning materials, and a recreation kit.

The classes are noisy but good-natured. They pause briefly to allow members of a local non-governmental organization to distribute fruit juice and snacks to the children.

[b]"The classes help me forget what happened, if only for a little while," says Taïma. [/b]

It may be part of the healing process that has led children in the camp to invent their own name for the earthquake. "When we talk about it among ourselves, we call it 'Monsieur Gudoo-Gudoo'," Taïma says, shaking her arms in rhythm to the words, "because that was the noise it made."

The former Dadadou camp coordinator, Dr. Junie Bertrand of the Haitian NGO Kore Timoun (Supporting Children), says the informal classes have helped children come to terms with what happened.

"I used to find children having panic attacks at night," says Dr. Bertrand. "But since the classes started, I haven't seen kids nearly so distressed."

KEEPING THE CAMP HEALTHY AND SAFE

The classes serve other purposes, too. For example, the younger children have been taught a SONG that teaches them the importance of hand-washing and PERSONAL HYGIENE – very important in preventing diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases.

So far, Dr. Bertrand says, most camp residents have avoided serious illness. Even so, with the rainy season expected soon, she has real worries for the future.

Dadadou camp, its population increasing lately with the arrival of new homeless families, is short of proper shelter materials and adequate food and water supplies.

Conditions in the camp are similar to those in many of the hundreds of spontaneous camps for displaced people in Port-au-Prince and other earthquake-affected areas.

Today, Dadadou has a generally orderly feel. The tents and tarpaulins are pitched close together, a neat row of toilets fills one side of the perimeter and a 3,000-gallon water tank stands next to grounds that are kept free of litter. Patrols by local police and camp volunteers have kept security fears at bay.

'It'll be a great day for me'

For Taïma, as for many children, the prospect of going back to school is exciting. "It'll be a great day for me, especially the math and French classes," she says, referring to her favourite subjects.

Her one surviving school uniform – retrieved from the family's damaged apartment – has been carefully set aside in the tiny tent in readiness for the big day. But like so many other children in Haiti, Taïma knows her excitement about beginning school anew will be tempered by the tragic realities of the earthquake.

"When I get to school," she says, "I will also find out which of my friends are alive, and which ones are dead."

nancyk58 · April 7, 2010

AID for HAITI / AVAAZ results in favour of HAITI

From AVAAZ..org : News in relation to HAITI

STANDING WITH HAITI - thousands of us contributed more than US$1.3 million for relief and recovery from the Haitian earthquake, helping outstanding local organizations provide life-saving food, shelter, and medical care for thousands of people, and powered a global push that secured $1 billion in debt relief for Haiti.

nancyk58 · April 11, 2010

Aid for Haiti / news on 11 April 2010

UPDATES OF NEWS IN RELATION TO NATURAL DISASTERS ON SUNDAY 11 APRIL 2010

HAITI:

Swedish SVT Text: TENT CITIES EMPTIED IN HAITI's CAPITAL

German ZDFtext: RAINY SEASON IN HAITI: RELOCATION OF EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS

In Haiti the first survivors of the earthquake disaster have been relocated, because they were threatened by flooding. As many as 50,000 people should be relocated due to the beginning of the rainy season.Saturday the first homeless were brought from Petionville to Corail-Cesselesse, an extremely dry region, situated 15 km north of Petionville. Volunteers had erected new homes and prepared for the arrival of the first inhabitants.

German ARD Text: EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS ARE RELOCATED

Haiti's government and foreign relief organizations have started the relocation of thousands of earthquake survivors. Many homeless are currently living on the golf course of Petionville which is threatened by mudslides and flooding at the beginning of the rainy season, said president René Préval. The people should be brought to places where there is no risk.

About 300,000 people were killed in the earthquake which occurred in the middle of January. About 1 million people were made homeless.

nancyk58 · April 14, 2010

Aid for Haiti / news on 14 April 2010

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN RELATION TO NATURAL DISASTERS ON 14 APRIL 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8618445.stm

US FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBANA MAKES SURPRISE HAITI VISIT

Page last updated at 01:38 GMT, Wednesday, 14 April 2010 02:38 UK

The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, has made an unannounced visit to Haiti.

It was her first official trip overseas without US President Barack Obama since he took office last year.

She spent several hours in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, visiting projects set up in the wake of the devastating earthquake in January.

Mrs Obama then flew on to Mexico for a previously announced visit due to last

three days.

The trip was kept a secret for security reasons.

The White House said the AIM of the visit was to "underscore to the Haitian people and the Haitian government the enduring US commitment to help Haiti recover and rebuild".

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan, who is travelling with Mrs Obama, says US troops who have been helping with the aid effort are leaving and Haitians are wondering what comes next.

President Obama has previously stated that America will be a reliable partner and will continue to help reconstruction efforts, even though US troops are leaving the area.

About 230,000 people are believed to have died in the quake.

More than a million people lost their homes and many are now living in makeshift camps.

Thousands are being moved to higher ground as the forthcoming rainy season increases the risk of landslides.

German ZDF Text: PENN: NOW HAITI HAS A CHANCE

The American 49-year-old actor Sean Penn, who is involved in helping Haiti, sees a unique chance of a better future for Haiti. He criticizes the international aid as being "too slow and frustrating".

Penn, who has lived almost non-stop in the hard-hit earthquake-stricken Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, since the devastating earthquake on 12 January, told the Mexican daily paper "La Jornado" that the international community must let the Haitians decide their own future.

nancyk58 · April 17, 2010

Aid for HAITI / News on 15 April 2010

German ZDF Text: WILLIAMS ASKS FOR HAITI RELIEF / AID

Robbie Williams has appealed to the world to do its utmost to help children in the earthquake-stricken Haiti to a better life. The British singer who is also UNICEF ambassador said after his visit to Haiti that 3 months after the quake a lot has been done. "But it is still a huge challenge".

According to the latest UNICEF report the life conditions have improved for many of the 1.5 million children who are affected by the earthquake. But the situation is still difficult.

nancyk58 · April 18, 2010

AID FOR HAITI / news on 16 April 2010

PINOYS WARNED AGAINST JOB OFFERS IN QUAKE-RAVAGED HAITI

04/16/2010 | 10:24 PM - GMA News.TV

Beware of unscrupulous individuals recruiting Filipinos for non-existent jobs in Haiti, which is still reeling from the devastation of a major earthquake.

This was the reminder of the Philippine Embassy in Cuba, after receiving reports of an alleged recruitment scheme to bring in Filipino workers in Haiti.

“Port-Au-Prince was recently ravaged by a major earthquake on January 12 that killed more than 250,000 people. It does not have job opportunities at all for ‘walk-in’ applicants," Philippine Ambassador to Cuba Macarthur Corsino said in a release posted on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) website.

The warning was issued in the light of reports from Philippine Honorary Consul in Haiti Fitzgerald Brandt about two Filipinos being recently stranded penniless in a beach resort in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince after being promised jobs in the country.

The recruitment scheme was allegedly hatched by Philippine-based recruiters in connivance with Haitian nationals and supposedly Haiti-based Filipinos.

Most of the victims are from Laguna, the release added.

“The city’s infrastructure and business establishments suffered tremendously from the tragedy. It is still in the process of recovery, and any available jobs are given first to qualified local Haitians and those with prior approved contracts addressed to specifically needed skills related to reconstruction," Corsino added.

The Embassy likewise warned Filipinos against illegally entering the country to look for jobs by pretending to be tourists.

Jobseekers may end up being stranded, penniless and homeless in the earthquake-ravaged country, after paying big amounts to recruiters, the release stated.

“Any promise of available jobs in Haiti is false and is punishable as illegal recruitment and human smuggling," it added.

—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV

Aid for Haiti

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