Haitian Village: News

Ambassador CdeBaca travels to Haiti today.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
July 6, 2010

MEDIA NOTE

Ambassador CdeBaca to Travel to Haiti and the Dominican Republic July 7-9, 2010

Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, who directs the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, will travel to Haiti and the Dominican Republic July 7-9, 2010. The Ambassador will discuss opportunities for increased partnership in the global effort to combat modern slavery with government officials, law enforcement, and civil society.

In addition, Ambassador CdeBaca will visit an internally displaced persons settlement and an orphanage.

Ambassador CdeBaca was appointed by President Obama to direct the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State, where he serves as a Senior Advisor to Secretary Clinton and leads the United States’ global fight against contemporary forms of slavery. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons develops and implements the State Department’s policy for the protection of trafficking victims, prosecution of traffickers, and prevention of trafficking.

Foreign firms in Haiti ready for construction boom

By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer Ben Fox, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jun 7, 6:12 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Like a small-town booster, Randall Perkins proudly shows off his base camp: air-conditioned bedrooms and offices for 120 managers, a mess hall that can serve 1,000 meals a day, a gym and an infirmary alongside his bulldozers and dump trucks.

Pompano Beach, Florida-based AshBritt Inc. so far has invested $25 million in its Haitian reconstruction operation covering a soccer field.

Now all Perkins needs is a government contract to make his investment pay off.

Nearly six months after the devastating January quake that killed as many 300,000 and destroyed much of the capital, not one major reconstruction contract has been awarded. That hasn't stopped AshBritt and other masters of disaster from preparing for the day when the pledged international support — some $10 billion over the next decade — starts going up for bid.

Some companies, such as Ceres Environmental Services Inc. of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, are veterans of the cleanup of Hurricane Katrina, where they hauled away tons of downed trees and branches from the 2005 storm. Ceres is building temporary homes for quake victims while preparing to bid for more work. Mobile, Alabama-based DRC Group has a 35-acre service yard in Port-au-Prince for hundreds of pieces of heavy equipment for demolition and debris removal.

Though they don't know yet how big the contracts will be, they're banking from experience on the tantalizing prospect of work for years to come. AshBritt was awarded nearly $900 million from the U.S. government for debris removal after Katrina, collecting and processing some 21 million cubic yards of wreckage.

"There's a tremendous amount of work to do here," Perkins said of Haiti. "There are a lot of slices in that pie."

So far, governments and private groups have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on searches, rescues, emergency supplies and clearing rubble. But most of that work was done without competitive bidding and represents only a fraction of what eventually will be spent.

Very little of the promised foreign aid has been released, caught up either in legislative approval, bureaucratic regulations or in the complications of life in Haiti.

The U.S. Congress, for example, is still considering a bill that would provide up to $2 billion to Haiti. The Caribbean country, meanwhile, faces a dizzying — and time-consuming — array of logistical and legal issues, including securing permission to tear down buildings whose owners perished in the quake. Any land cleared for construction risks being taken over immediately by squatters.

But Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who will oversee the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, said financing and construction contracts would start to be issued within months.

There is much work to be done: The quake destroyed about 105,000 homes, 1,300 schools, 50 hospitals, the presidential palace, parliament, courts and the port. Many other structures were damaged, and the country was left with enough rubble to fill the Louisiana Superdome five times.

Most of the companies seeking work in Haiti won't talk about it, in part to avoid seeming like they are capitalizing on catastrophe. There is also fierce competition for contracts to clear debris, carve new roads and drainage canals, restore the electrical grid and rebuild government offices.

AshBritt is one of the more open. The company has formed a joint venture with the GB Group, a conglomerate run by one of Haiti's wealthiest men, Gilbert Bigio, and established partnerships with a number of smaller construction firms.

Perkins, a tall, garrulous executive who arrived days after the quake, expects to hire 600-700 Haitians within a year, as well as provide capital to the smaller local construction companies that it will work with in partnership.

"There is an opportunity in this terrible disaster to use the money that is coming in to make a difference," he said at his base camp, the former site of the Israeli Defense Forces' field hospital set up in the aftermath of the quake.

DRC Group has formed a partnership with Haiti's V&F Construction and hired 300 local workers to demolish buildings, remove debris and set up portable toilets in the quake zone, according to a corporate statement. It already been hired to demolish buildings and clear streets in Port-au-Prince and is expected to be a major competitor for the large government contracts to come. The company declined requests for an interview.

Ceres Environmental, which was awarded nearly $500 million from the U.S. government to remove debris after Katrina, is partnering with Yele Haiti, the charity founded by Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean, to build 100 temporary wood-frame homes for quake survivors. David A. Preus, the company's project manager for operations in the country, declined in an interview to discuss future contracts.

"The future of Haiti is very bright, and Ceres looks forward to being a part of that future," Preus said.

Also scouting for prospects are a number of construction companies from the neighboring Dominican Republic that have experience in operating in Haiti and, perhaps more importantly, easier access to the heavy equipment that is in short supply.

"No one is doing anything yet. All the companies are waiting for the projects to be approved," said Manuel Estrella, president of Grupo Estrella, which had a pre-quake road project in Haiti and has since found some construction and debris-removal work.

All the companies are confronting Haiti's reputation for corruption. Those who would discuss the subject insist the problem is no worse in the Caribbean country than elsewhere in the world.

"I would not be down here with the money I'm investing if I thought I was going to be overrun by corruption," Perkins said.

Hungry Haitian Farmers Urged to Burn Donated US Seeds

Haiti's farmers are being urged to burn seeds donated by U.S. agriculture giant Monsanto.

The American company donated $4 million worth of seeds to Haiti to help the country rebuild after January's devastating earthquake. The seeds promise to help farmers in the hungry nation increase the amount of food they can grow.

But the powerful Haitian peasant group that's telling farmers to burn the donations says the seeds will change the way most Haitian peasants farm, tying them to multinational corporations and threatening the environment.

It's the latest example of the worldwide ideological struggle over how to feed a hungry planet.

Even before the earthquake, more than half Haiti's population was undernourished. The earthquake forced hundreds of thousands of people out of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and into the rural areas. They arrived with nothing but their appetites, the Haitian saying goes, putting extra strain on rural farmers.

"The right thing to do"

"Monsanto made this donation, simply put, because it's the right thing to do," said company spokesman Darren Wallis. "The needs in Haiti are significant and we have seeds that could help farmers not only grow food for themselves but, with an ample harvest, significantly impact the food security of other Haitian citizens."

So it may come as a suprise that Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the head of Haiti's Peasant Movement of Papaye (abbreviated MPP in Creole), wants the seeds destroyed.

"We consider introducing poisonous seeds in our country as a major attack," he says. "We want to say clearly to Monsanto, the American government who supports the idea, as well as the Haitian government. We want them to hear the voice of the peasants who say no."

Not GMOs

Monsanto is perhaps best known for creating genetically modified crops, which draw fire from some environmental groups wherever they are introduced.

But the donated seeds are not genetically modified, says Christopher Abrams with the US Agency for International Development, which is helping to distribute them.

"The immediate association with genetically modified organisms versus what we were doing was unfortunately incorrect," he says. "But since then, it's created many, many opinions out there on what this means."

What it means, according to MPP chief Jean-Baptiste, is that, "Our farmers will stop being independent and rely on a multinational like Monsanto or any other multinationals that sell seeds."

Saving seeds vs. buying better seeds

Since the dawn of agriculture, farmers have saved seeds from the previous season to start the next crop.

That began to change in the early 20th century. Researchers developed new techniques to select crop varieties that produce especially large harvests, resistance to diseases or drought, or other valuable traits.

The downside, however, is that the offspring of these varieties don't perform as well as their parents. So farmers have to buy new seeds every season.

It's a matter of weighing the pros and cons, says USAID's Abrams.

"If you have a good hybrid seed that works in Haiti that produces a good yield but it costs you a bit more on the front end, that becomes an economic choice that the farmer makes."

"Monsanto should have known"

While Abrams was surprised by the MPP's reaction, Robert Paarlberg, an agricultural policy expert at Wellesley College, was not.

"Monsanto probably should have known in advance that any gift of its hybrid seeds…would encounter resistance in Haiti, where activist leaders of this local peasant movement view Monsanto as an evil, alien multinational corporation," says Paarlberg.

He notes that the MPP is one of several grassroots organizations worldwide that opposes efforts encouraging farmers to use hybrid seeds and the nitrogen fertilizer that helps them perform at their peak.

He acknowledges that excessive fertilizer use has contributed to water pollution and other environmental problems in many parts of the world. But, he says, "Wherever farmers have refused to use hybrid seeds, their crop yields have remained much lower, and their income has remained much lower, and their access to food has remained much lower."

A matter of choice

"The trick is to make sure that farmers have a choice of either using their traditional varieties or, if they wish, using hybrid seed varieties," he adds.

Monsanto and USAID are offering that choice by making the seeds available through stores operated by Haitian farmers' associations. The stores sell the donated seeds at a discount and use the proceeds to buy supplies for the next season.

So farmers would have to buy the seeds before they could burn them in protest. Asked if he knew of any farmers who were burning Monsanto's donated seeds, the MPP's Jean-Baptiste said no, but he wishes they would.

Haiti Day: 2 Port au Prince

By Rae Chelle Davis Staff Writer

June 8, 2010

We woke up this morning in warm beds surrounded by the things we are accustom to. Yes, we were staying in Atlanta with people we had just met but it was still home, it was still the U.S. Monday was an adventure. So many things happened to each of us in one day that it is hard to tell in words the flood of emotions we experienced.

As I write this blog, I am sitting in a hot room with gnats swarming around my face. We are staying in one of the nicest homes in Haiti and yet there is no air conditioning, the generators allow only certain areas to have power at one time, and the only reprieve is the breeze coming in from the patio.

We arrived at the airport in Atlanta just after 7:30 EST this morning. As we were checking in we were told that due to an embargo only two bags per person would be allowed on the flight to Port au Prince. Liz had been told there was no embargo on the phone prior to the trip; so two of us were planning to pay extra for a third bag. After being told that was not possible we were left with the option of paying for extra weight and cramming the other bags or leaving valuable medication behind. The group quickly concluded leaving medication that could help Haitians was not an option. In the middle of the Atlanta airport we began to cram. We stuffed boxes of ibuprofin, creams, and antibiotics into the bags. After 20 minutes of stuffing and then sitting on the bags to get them closed we had succeeded. Nothing would be left behind except the two empty suitcases.

The flight to Miami was ontime and after a two hour layover we were ready to board our flight to Port au Prince. The flight was delayed a little more than an hour because of a meteorologist for NOAA that failed to board on time. The pilot told us we may not be able to go because there is a Twilight Curfew in Port au Prince. Finally, he informed us that they would be able to land and take-off again before sunset. We were ready for departure. The flight was completely full.

We arrived at the Port au Prince airport just after 4:00 CST. After gathering our belongings we were loaded on the bus to be taken to the main terminal... the only terminal. The temperature was in the 90's and felt like the Quad Cities in the middle of July. The humidity was intense. We waited to go through customs and then joined the hundreds of people trying to claim their bags. Liz found a Haitian who agreed to help us through customs named Pierre. He agreed to ensure that all of our medications would make it safely. After more than an hour we had our 16 bags in tact.

We walked out to find dozens to Haitians arguing over who would take our bags. We had carts so we attempted to tell them we were fine but they helped us anyway. Liz went off to locate our driver and rent our cars. We waited for her on a concrete slab. As soon as she left we were approached by two children. Although, they only spoke Creole they were able to tell us that they were 10 and 12. Our translator informed us that they are "street kids". This term means that they have no parents, have never been to school, and survive by begging people leaving the airport for money. The concrete slab we were sitting on was their bed. Creole resembles both French and Spanish and Shaney was able to speak Spanish to them enough to learn that one of the little boys had lost his mother in the earthquake and his father had left him. Amazingly, he still had a bright smile. His clothes were tattered and he wore female flip flops. It was the first time many of us had ever seen children like this, especially for Shaney, who helps children everyday, it was deeply saddening. For her, it reaffirmed her purpose.

When Liz returned with the trucks to take us to the residence we were scheduled to stay in there was an argument over money. Men who had helped us and men who surrounded us argued with Liz over proper payment. The sun was setting and we knew it was not safe to travel after dark in Port au Prince. We waited in the cars for Liz and Dustin to come to terms with the dozen or so men around them. When she got in the car everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The trip Tabarre took us through one of the most devestated parts of Port au Prince. We saw signs of revival and rebuilding but we also saw rubble and devistation. The U.N. has a huge presence here in Haiti. Their trucks passed by us several times and the compounds, equipped with several armed guards lined the road on which we traveled.

The potholes were so numerous I lost count and when we finally arrived at the compound several of us felt more than a little nauseous. We were welcomed and fed a delightful meal. We will sleep now and as soon as the sun rises we will begin our journey to Grand Bois.

Ouvere,

Rae Chelle

Haiti leader vows to step down with 'calm heart'

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Surrounded by waving banners of blue and red, Haitian President Rene Preval pledged to step down as scheduled next year, rebuking critics who allege he is using the post-earthquake emergency to hold onto power.

Preval told thousands celebrating Flag Day in the seaside town of Arcahaie that he will step down at the end of his term, Feb. 7. The two-term leader sparked protests this month when he adopted a decree that would extend his term by up to three months if a planned presidential election is not held by the end of November.

"This is the last May 18 I will spend with you as president," Preval said. Pledging to pass his office to a successor on the constitutionally mandated day, he added, "I will go and my heart will be calm."

A group of men positioned near the dais let up a supportive cheer. A group of hecklers in the back chanted, "He must go!" - ironically the same message, though with a markedly different tone.

Larger protests were expected but never materialized. Swarms of Haitian police blocked vehicles trying to enter the town, leaving long lines of cars full of Flag Day revelers sweating in the morning sun.

It was an appropriate setting to call for unity: Haiti's flag day rivals its Jan. 1 independence among national festivals, celebrating the unity with which rebel slaves and free people of African descent defeated their French colonial rulers to become the Western Hemisphere's second independent nation and world's first black republic.

Arcahaie is where a revolutionary congress adopted the flag in 1803 by taking the French tricolor and ripping out the white part. Red and blue banners declaring "Together we will remake Haiti" were hung along the road from the capital Tuesday.

School groups and marching bands waved flags and danced in the town's square. Teenagers and 20-somethings left their cracked homes and tents behind, packing buses and pickup trucks for drives to turquoise-water beaches for all-day parties.

Holding elections on time will be difficult. Much of the electoral council's headquarters and records were destroyed in the quake. Officials must also contend with the loss of polling places, countless voter deaths and the displacement of 1.5 million people.

A February election for legislative seats was canceled because of the disaster, leaving Haiti with a third of a parliament for the foreseeable future.

The Organization of American States and United Nations say elections can be held before the end of the year - if needed political decisions are made on time.

On Monday 1,000 people kicked police barriers, shouted insults at Preval and called for the return of exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. A week earlier, at least twice as many protesters flooded Port-au-Prince's national mall.

Associated Press Writer Pierre Richard Luxama contributed to this report.

Marchers decry Haiti president's earthquake response in 2nd protest in capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian protesters marched to the collapsed national palace for a second straight Monday to criticize President Rene Preval, saying he failed the nation in the aftermath of its catastrophic earthquake.

At least 1,000 people marched to the center of the wrecked capital, where local police and U.N. peacekeepers stood guard. Tens of thousands more watched from the plastic-tarp-covered plots where they have lived since the Jan. 12 disaster.

The protesters said that Preval has failed to help an estimated 1.5 million people left homeless by the quake and that he overstepped his authority by saying he would remain in office for up to three months beyond his term if elections cannot be held by late November.

Many chanted for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Preval rose to power as Aristide's prime minister, and many consider the president a traitor for not returning him to Haiti.

At least one person was killed near the protest, but it was not immediately clear if he was participating in the march. Police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said the victim was a suspected thief killed by a mob. The young man's lifeless body lay unattended in a street near the former national cathedral, his head cracked open.

Lerebours said that in an unrelated incident, a man was shot and wounded by unknown assailants. Some protesters blamed police for the shooting.

Eleven protesters were arrested for violent acts, authorities said.

"They were troublemakers who wanted to interrupt the peaceful demonstration," said a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission, George Ola-Davies.

Thousands marched early last week over the same issues, with one person wounded by a bullet. Larger protests are expected Tuesday as the country marks its Flag Day.

Haiti frees US missionary at center of quake 'orphan' case

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- The head of a group of US missionaries arrested trying to leave Haiti with 33 children was freed on Monday, ending an emotionally charged case involving the highest US and Haitian authorities after the huge earthquake here.

Laura Silsby. AFP PHOTO Capping the 108-day ordeal, Laura Silsby's time behind bars since the group's January 29 detention was deemed punishment enough for the "irregular travel" charges against her, and she was to fly to Florida later Monday, her lawyer Shiller Roy told AFP.

Silsby was the leader of a group of 10 US Baptists stopped at the border with the Dominican Republic with children who were purported to be orphans, although Haitian authorities later determined all 33 of the youngsters had parents, with whom they were eventually reunited.

In the weeks following their arrest, the case shined a spotlight on the fate of young children surviving in the poverty-stricken nation after the catastrophic January 12 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people.

The case drew the attention of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and overshadowed critical relief efforts as the missionaries were originally charged with "kidnapping minors and criminal association" -- facing up to nine years in prison.

Eight members of the Idaho-based Baptist group called New Life Children's Refuge were however released in February after charges were reduced, and a ninth was released in March, leaving Silsby alone languishing in a Port-au-Prince prison.

Initially accused of child abduction, the charges against Silsby were later revised to "irregular travel" and prosecutors had asked on Thursday for a six-month prison term for her.

125 Haitians Rescued From Boat, Repatriated

MIAMI (CBS4) ?The crew of a Coast Guard cutter repatriated 125 Haitian migrants Thursday after being located at sea in an exceedingly-overloaded sail freighter. The Coast Guarder Cutter Seneca located the vessel on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

While conducting a routine patrol in the Caribbean Sea, Seneca crewmembers received a report of a northbound 55-foot Haitian sail freighter approximately 30 miles north of Punta Gorda, Cuba.

Crewmembers distributed life jackets to the migrants and safely transferred the 100 men, 14 women and 11 children to the cutter without incident. Due to the instability of the 55-foot vessel, Seneca boatcrews carefully and skillfully maneuvered the cutter smallboats alongside the vessel to ensure it did not capsize during the transfer process.

Once aboard the cutter, all migrants received food, water, shelter and basic medical care.

Since October 1, 2009, the Coast Guard has interdicted 442 Haitian migrants, including 217 in April.

a Coast Guard cutter repatriated 125 Haitian migrants Thursday after being located at sea in an exceedingly-overloaded sail freighter. The Coast Guarder Cutter Seneca located the vessel on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

The Coast Guard has stated that these are normal numbers; they have no reason to believe the number of Haitian migrants has risen significantly following the January 12, 2010 earthquake.

All Haitian migrants intercepted at sea will be repatriated back to Haiti into an area relatively unaffected by the earthquake.

Up to 300,000 people killed in Haiti quake, says UN

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- Haiti's devastating January 12 earthquake killed between 250,000 and 300,000 people, the head of the United Nations mission in the country said Thursday.

Until now, the Haitian government death toll was more than 220,000.

April 21 "marked the 100th day since the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti, leaving between 250,000 and 300,000 people dead," said Edmond Mulet, the head of the UN mission in Haiti.

Mulet also said that 300,000 people were wounded in the disaster, and more than one million people were left homeless.

The 7.0-magnitude quake left much of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince in ruins, destroying infrastructure and the seat of government and causing a humanitarian catastrophe in a country already considered the poorest in the Americas.

Mulet, speaking at a press conference, said that he wants the UN Security Council to send an extra 800 police officers to provide safety in the refugee camps.

"In the history of humanity one has never seen a natural disaster of this dimension," said Mulet, adding that the Haiti quake death toll was twice the toll of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

Mulet said that the next 12 to 18 months will be "critical," noting that peacekeepers in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) will focus on five areas: helping support the government organize quick elections, coordinate "post-disaster" humanitarian aid, provide general security, support the Haitian government in carrying out its reconstruction plan, and "help Haiti rebuild its human capital."

Concerning security, Mulet said MINUSTAH forces will help the Haitian National Police have "a more visible presence" to help the tens of thousands of people living in 1,200 refugee camps.

Mulet, a native of Guatemala, took over the UN mission on March 31, replacing Tunisian Hedi Annabi, who was killed in the quake.

If the Security Council accepts Mulet's recommendations, the overall number of UN police in Haiti will rise to 4,391.

When the MINUSTAH peacekeeping soldiers are also counted -- though Mulet has not asked for an increase in this force -- the total UN force would reach 13,300 supported by more than 2,000 civilians.

Separately, Mulet said the Haitian government on Thursday ordered a three-week moratorium on the forced evacuation of refugees camping out on private land, schools or markets.

For nearly two weeks, the authorities and private property owners have urged people squatting on their property to leave.

More than 7,000 people who took refuge at the Port-au-Prince stadium were moved out 10 days ago, and last week some 10,000 Haitians living in a school were ordered out.

"There are students that want to return to their schools to continue their studies, and there are refugees living in the schools. So in order to avoid clashes, a moratorium was established," Mulet said.

UN officials have opened two refugee camps on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince in order to accept some 10,000 refugees currently in danger of being affected by flooding as the Caribbean rainy season is set to begin.

Mulet also said that Haiti "is going on the right path" towards reconstruction, and that he was showing "prudent optimism." He also urged people to "not underestimate the size of the task and the challenges that Haiti faces."

In Haiti, schools lure back students with a free daily meal

by Clement Sabourin

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- The meal doesn't look like much, rice, a few vegetables and a little bit of meat, but for the Haitian school children who receive it for free, it is reason enough to come to class.

By 10:30 am on a Wednesday, the smell of chicken stock wafts through the Rosalie Javoukey school, located in a neighborhood of Haiti's devastated capital Port-au-Prince.

In the shade of a three-story building scheduled for demolition, women bustle about, doling food onto metal and plastic plates on huge tables set up in between white Unicef tents.

The playground has been eliminated "because it is covered in tents," said Sister Marie-Bernardette, the school's headmistress, and now it serves as a staging area for the daily free school meal.

The children, aged five to 12, wait their turn to retrieve their meal. They return to their desks, say grace and then begin eating, "in silence," their headmistress reminds them.

Schools across Haiti's capital, devastated by a January 12 quake that killed at least 220,000 people, including some 1,350 teachers and 38,000 students, officially reopened on April 6.

But 100 days after the devastating 7.0-magnitude quake, the country continues to struggle and many children are still missing from classrooms in the capital.

Some have left for the countryside, others were killed in the quake, and some are being kept home by their parents.

"It's difficult to convince parents to send their children to school. They are scared that there will be another earthquake and the school will be destroyed," said Alejandro Chicheri, a spokesman for the World Food Programme.

Students at the school also attend classes in fear of what might happen.

"I don't feel at ease at school," said Valencia Demostene, 12. "I know that we will still have natural disasters, like earthquakes..." Her voice trails off.

At the moment, Rosalie Javoukey school has some 400 students, 200 fewer than before the earthquake.

To encourage attendance, the World Food Program has launched a major food distribution program in schools in Haiti, a country where some 500,000 children do not get an education, roughly one quarter of all the country's youth.

Some 550,000 students already receive a meal each day, but the figure is expected to rise to 800,000 in coming weeks.

"We're trying to get as many children as possible back to school, which will allow them to return to reality and to save their school year. And it also helps parents who are trying to find work so they can bring some money home," said Chicheri.

For the students in this underprivileged neighborhood, the meal is a blessing.

"There are some parents who don't have anything to give their children to eat. You can see it on the faces of the children, they are preoccupied because they are hungry," said Mother Louis, a teacher at the school.

The meals provide the children with some comfort in the short-term at least, but many remain deeply scarred by the experience of the January quake.

Mother Louis asks a class of students how many of them were trapped beneath the rubble of buildings that were strewn across Port-au-Prince by the quake.

About half raise their hands.

"I was under the rubble for two days. My father was the one who pulled me out," said Francesca Jeune, a nine-year-old who dreams of becoming a doctor.

She describes her experience with a giant grin on her face, but teachers say their students remain traumatized and they try to provide the children with therapy.

"We play, we move around. Anything to try to get the earthquake off their minds," Mother Louis says.

UN launches website to track Haiti aid use

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- The United Nations has launched a new website to track the estimated 9.9 billion dollars in aid pledged to Haiti by the international community in the wake of a devastating January 12 earthquake.

The site, a joint project between the UN Development Programme and the Haitian government, will promote efficient spending while "ensuring transparency and accountability of the use of their funds," a UN statement said.

"The system tracks the money from pledge to impact," the statement added.

UN Resident Coordinator Nigel Fisher said the project would serve two key constituencies.

"We believe it addresses all the concerns of the international community as to how the funds will be spent, by whom and for what," he said.

"It also provides a portal through which the people of Haiti can monitor use of the funds and hold their elected representatives accountable for how those funds are spent."

At a meeting in New York in March, 138 countries and numerous international organizations pledged to deliver 5.3 billion dollars to Haiti over the next two years and a total of 9.9 billion dollars over three years.

At least 220,000 people were killed and some 1.3 million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck Haiti on January 12, devastating the country's capital Port-au-Prince.

U.N.'s Ballooning $732 Million Haiti Peacekeeping Budget Goes Mostly to Its Own Personnel

By George Russell - FOXNews.com
The United Nations has quietly upped this year's peacekeeping budget for earthquake-shattered Haiti to $732.4 million, with two-thirds of that amount going for the salary, perks and upkeep of its own personnel, not residents of the devastated island.

The United Nations has quietly upped this year's peacekeeping budget for earthquake-shattered Haiti to $732.4 million, with two-thirds of that amount going for the salary, perks and upkeep of its own personnel, not residents of the devastated island.

The world organization plans to spend the money on an expanded force of some 12,675 soldiers and police, plus some 479 international staffers, 669 international contract personnel, and 1,300 local workers, just for the 12 months ending June 30, 2010.

Some $495.8 million goes for salaries, benefits, hazard pay, mandatory R&R allowances and upkeep for the peacekeepers and their international staff support. Only about $33.9 million, or 4.6 percent, of that salary total is going to what the U.N. calls "national staff" attached to the peacekeeping effort.

Click here to see the supplementary budget document.

Presumably, the budget also includes at least part of some $10 million that the U.N. has spent on renting two passenger vessels, the Sea Voyager (known to some U.N. staffers as the "Love Boat") and the Ola Esmeralda, for a minimum of 90 days each, as highly subsidized housing for some of its peacekeepers and humanitarian staff. The tab for the two vessels, which offer catered food, linen service and comfortable staterooms and lounges, is about $112,500 per day.

Under a cost-sharing formula, the U.S. pays a 27 percent share of the entire $732.4 million peacekeeping tab for Haiti during this 12 month period, or about $197.7 million.

The ultimate size of the peacekeeping bill for Haiti this year has been a source of much concern among the three dozen or so of the U.N.'s 192 members who pick up roughly 96 percent of the U.N.'s overall peacekeeping bill.

That concern rose sharply about a month ago, when U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office issued an updated peacekeeping estimate that used a $700 million figure strictly as a placeholder for the final Haiti post-quake number.

The new figures take some of the uncertainty out of that estimate, but even so, the U.N. was taking no chances of raising concerns higher with its new tally; rather than take a new vote on the expanded peacekeeper budget, the U.N. Secretariat simply issued its revised tally as an extension of the previous $611 million allotment it had voted for Haiti.

The Haitian peacekeeping budget is relatively unique among U.N. efforts, because there was no civil war or widespread bloodletting to inspire the original peacekeeping force, which arrived in 2004. Instead, the mission has mainly been intended to bolster political order in a society crushed by hurricanes, political turbulence, and grinding misery.

The revised peacekeeping tab is over and above the roughly $15 billion in short- and long-term aid that the international community — led by the U.S. and European Union — pledged to Haiti at an international donor's conference last month.

It is also over and above the $773 million in humanitarian aid raised from donor nations and private citizens in a "flash" appeal in the days after the Jan. 12 earthquake — which is about half the total hoped for by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs when it raised the appeal.

Moreover, the revised Haiti peacekeeping budget only covers a period that ends in about 10 more weeks — on June 30, 2010 — at which time, Ban's office will have to formulate another peacekeeping estimate for the stricken island, not to mention the remainder of its global peacekeeping effort.

Given the temporary nature of this year's sudden 20 percent boost in Haiti peacekeeping costs, there is some possibility that next year's budget will mark a decrease from the $732.4 million figure.

Since the U.N. installed peacekeepers on the island in 2004, however, the budgeted cost of peacekeeping has roughly doubled, from an original $372.8 million.

US military operation in Haiti winds down to 500 personnel by June

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military mobilization in support of Haitian earthquake relief and recovery efforts is winding down and will be concluded for the most part by June 1.

U.S. Southern Comman chief Lt. Gen. Ken Keen says there are about 2,200 American troops still there, compared to 22,000 at the peak of the U.S. effort. And he says that by June, only about 500 National Guard and Reserve personnel will be stationed in Haiti to help aid workers.

The Jan. 12 earthquake was estimated to have killed as many as 250,000 people.

Work in Haiti Goes Beyond Politics say Bill Clinton

Bringing bipartisan leaders together to tackle issues like the recovery efforts in Haiti is important because it reminds people that "there are some things beyond politics, that are human and personal," former President Bill Clinton said today.

People "just get sick of all of us fighting all the time," he said.

Mr. Clinton is working with former President George W. Bush to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti, where a devastating earthquake killed hundreds of thousands in January. Speaking with former President George W. Bush's daughter Jenna Bush Hager on NBC's "Today Show," Mr. Clinton said Americans like seeing the two former presidents work together.

"They know that your father and I, our political days are over -- we're doing this because it's the right thing to do," he said.

The former president said that the upcoming generation of leaders has a better grasp of the need to work collaboratively. He launched the Clinton Global Initiative University in 2007 to spur young people on college campuses to address global challenges.

"There's this understanding they live in an interdependent world and that they have to find ways to get along, work together," he said. "It's very different from a generation older."

Multiple Canadian groups back Haiti

By Bevin Springer

TORONTO, Canada -- More than CA$350,000 was raised for the survivors of the Haiti earthquake from West Indian musicians, an Israeli entertainer, three Canadian companies and a Jewish philanthropist.

Maria Noa Habchi addressing attendees of the Haiti fundraiser in Toronto
(CMEX photo) And, if that's not multinational enough - the fundraising drive was organized by a young lady from the South Pacific working with a Caribbean media organization.

Maria Noa Habchi said the campaign, held in concert with the Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx) at Toronto's Lula Lounge, was anchored by a glittering evening of music and entertainment and augmented by direct approaches to individuals and organizations. She noted it "was a heartwarming reminder of how generous Torontonians of vastly differing backgrounds can be."

Recalling the "Haiti Carnival" at the Lula Lounge clashed with the Olympic hockey final between the US and Canada, Habchi said she was moved and impressed by the number of people who turned up to support the evening's bill of stellar Caribbean musicians and the Canadian-Israeli entertainer, Haim Goldenberg of TV fame.

Habchi, who hails from the Pacific island of Samoa and received her education in Lebanon, said she was delighted when celebrating hockey fans reached by phone added their contributions after the momentous Olympic Gold Medal game.

She issued a special note of thanks to Canadian philanthropist Walter Arbib who orchestrated more than $350,000 worth of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies.

Arbib assembled a shipment of medicines for Haiti from SkyLink Aviation, Shalom Life Canadian Jewish On Line News, the United Jewish Appeal on behalf of Israel, and the airport security company, AviSecure."A few people went home very happy indeed carrying with them stays at the top resorts in the Caribbean," recalled Habchi. Top world resort, Jade Mountain, its sister property Anse Chastanet, and the favorite of professionals, Coco Palm, all from Saint Lucia, along with the Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino & Spa contributed prizes for the evening's auction.

Nancy Rivard, president of Airline Ambassadors International, and major recipient of the fundraising campaign, said she was "humbled by the generosity of Torontonians," adding the support, "comes at an important time as the rains start bringing with it an increased danger of infection and disease."

Airline Ambassadors, made up of volunteers drawn from the staff of 12 airlines, has arranged and flown into Haiti some 600 doctors and nurses as well as close to three million pounds worth of medical and other assistance to the clinics and orphanages it supports.

Set up almost a decade ago, CMEx provides a neutral platform for the discussion of tourism as a development tool.

Former Missionaries Shocked by Devastation in Haiti and shares his reflections

Dear Friends, Here are some news and reflections,                 Lynchburg, Virginia, April 14, 2010

Eleanor and I have returned from nine weeks in Haiti to our Liberty University ‘grandchildren’.
We are grateful that they listened and stayed at their studies though torn by grief. The university generously says that all Haitian students must graduate, realizing the problems of their families !

Reports of Haiti’s three days of prayer instead of Carnival are not exaggerated. City friends told how, when the initial shock hit, the people streamed into the streets, arms upraised, crying to Jesus in repentance, as did the people of Ninevah. Not one cried to another name. Thousands are still being converted, churches overflowing.

The collapsed structures of Haiti’s cities are terrible to see, but her wonderful people are as busy as ever, bustling about. Buildings were poorly constructed, either short on cement or in steel reinforcing bars, so especially with the initial strong shock the inferior white limestone materials in them crumbled. Also, if moist and porous, the lime eats the iron.

I often say “God sees ahead !” When the U.S. military were cautious at first to allow aid workers to pass from the airport, Franklin Graham’s medical team were permitted by the card of a visiting reserve colonel to go up to our hospital with their emergency supplies immediately after the big initial shock. Our two doctors had not slept for three nights. 3600 injured who could get there were treated in the days following.

Some 4,000 amputees visible everywhere are seeking prosthesis. A fine lady educator, Eleanor’s friend, lost both hands and is in Miami for care. Flocks of foreign volunteers are all-over. People joke that if a fee was charged, most ‘me too’ patients getting free medicines would suddenly be well.

Dozens of ONG’s (relief organizations) have hundreds of foreign volunteers trying to help. The most visible needy are many thousands of families living crowded under a bedsheet for a roof. A Mennonite group are rapidly erecting durable little partly furnished cabins. Illiterate and without a trade, people flocked to city slums when their areas had no more trees or stumps to make charcoal for cooking by city dwellers. Some find ONG day labor for U.S. government aid cash.

Often, one sees the humiliating sight of many women lined tightly together for up-to 12 hours, to get fifty pounds of rice. They hope to sell some or all of it, to buy necessities. We longed for the ‘good old days’ of Haiti’s nutritious rations of PL480 work-for-food projects, or FDR’s CCC camps. It was good to see roads and their curbs and drainage being improved.

Nervous people are traumatized by a month of more than 50 shocks over 4 on the Richter scale. Thousands are sleeping under tents, fearful of fractured masonry buildings. We were glad that none of our structures fell, as in observing frequent slight tremors we had taken precautions in building. Only one campus building collapsed, an attempt of an inexperienced chap to enlarge a structure for youth gatherings, destroying much of our reforestation greenhouse.

Because city schools collapsed, killing many pupils, all schools were ordered to close ! At last, Haiti’s children, often traumatized by adult panic, are being allowed to return to normalcy and a possible hot meal, if only under a tree or a tarpaulin. Many rural schools are not damaged.

Our trip to Haiti was full of happy encounters with friends ‘old, and new’. We borrowed a little apartment because a faulty water heater exploded the pipes in the place we had been using. Chris Lieb gave us part-time internet and a full-time inverter hookup so I could use my C-pap.

Two boys made me a fine stave to replace the old stick I was using. Ladies spoiled us with delicious dishes of local foods. Travels to visit friends in outposts were encouraging. We took part in a ceremony before the ruined national place, of passing the torch to many hundreds of Christian young people. We are thankful for the prayers of friends for us, and for Haiti.

Yours in Christ’s service,
                                              ?
                                                   Wallace, & Eleanor Turnbull

Haiti's Preval pledges elections for 2010

by Clarens Renois

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) - Haitian President Rene Preval pledged in an interview with AFP to hold elections this year despite the massive difficulties of organizing a successful poll in his quake-devastated country.

Legislative polls, originally set for February and March, were postponed after the January 12 earthquake that demolished the capital Port-au-Prince, killing more than 220,000 people and leaving 1.3 million Haitians homeless.

Haiti President Rene Preval. AFP PHOTO Preval, who also served as president from 1996 to 2001, is constitutionally barred from seeking a third mandate. His current term expires in February 2011 and presidential elections are expected in December, though no firm date has been announced.

Preval told AFP on Monday that he asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "to send a technical team to evaluate the possibility to have elections with international standards in order for them to be credible."

Elections were important in order to "not leave a political vacuum" at the end of his mandate, he said.

"It's a pity there are no elections at the time of my departure," he said, noting that "the absence of legitimate authorities could pose problems of trust not only for the international community but also for investors."

Preval however noted that he took office in May 2006, three months after the date set by the constitution.

"On the day that I took the oath of office I announced that I'd serve until February 7, 2011. This is a choice and I will stand by my word," Preval said.

In the interview Preval urged Haitians to be patient during the reconstruction process. "This is the best way to help us help them," he said.

"I tell those who are homeless that everyone understands their problem, that nobody would like to be in the street living in truly appalling conditions, but I also ask them to be patient," Preval said, adding that reconstruction will be a slow and expensive process.

The Caribbean nation -- the poorest country in the western hemisphere -- has had a long history of dictatorship followed by years of political turmoil and civil unrest.

In 2004, 1,000 US Marines followed by thousands of UN peacekeepers brought order to Haiti after a bloody rebellion against president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's rule. A provisional government was then installed.

MINUSTAH, the United Nations stabilization force which plays a major role in organizing and running elections in Haiti, was particularly badly hit by the quake and well over 100 UN personnel perished in the disaster.

Quake survivors say poor governance, corruption and shoddy construction magnified the devastation wrought by the Haiti quake, which was about 50 less powerful than the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February, but far more deadly and destructive.

Haiti's legislature building was severely damaged in the quake, and the body is currently meeting in temporary quarters.

US Congress passes Haiti debt relief bill

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- The US Congress passed a bill on Wednesday calling for easing Haiti's debt burden to help with reconstruction efforts in the wake of the devastating January 12 earthquake.

The measure, adopted unanimously by the House of Representatives, now goes to President Barack Obama's desk to be signed into law.

It directs US representatives to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international lenders to act to relieve Haiti's external debt obligations and calls for future aid to be in the form of grants, not loans.

The "Haiti Recovery Act" also urges the Obama administration to support the creation of an international trust fund for Haiti to support investment in infrastructure including the development of electricity grids, roads, water and sanitation facilities, and reforestation initiatives.

The Group of Seven richest countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- announced in early February that they would cancel Haiti's bilateral debt.

But that amounts to only a small portion of Haiti's overall debt, which ran about 1.88 billion dollars as of late September 2008, according to the Paris Club group of creditor nations.

The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that Haiti's reconstruction will cost some 14 billion dollars.

Haiti able to hold poll by year-end, says Bill Clinton

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK, USA (Reuters) -- Earthquake-devastated Haiti should be able to hold elections by the end of the year, UN envoy Bill Clinton said on Wednesday, as the impoverished Caribbean nation works to have a legitimate government in place to oversee its multibillion dollar reconstruction.

Former US president Bill Clinton. AFP PHOTO The former US president said Haiti would need help to stage its presidential election and already-delayed legislative elections as it rebuilds after the January 12 earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people and decimated the country's economy and infrastructure.

Organizing new elections is set to be a major task, but they are crucial to put in place a new parliament that will be legally empowered to spend relief aid. International donors have pledged nearly $10 billion for Haiti's reconstruction.

"They will be able to have them," Clinton told Reuters in an interview to promote this weekend's Clinton Global Initiative University in Miami, a philanthropic summit for students. "I expect that will be one of the things we don't have to worry about."

The World Bank, working with the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations, will supervise a multi-donor trust fund through which the billions of dollars in rebuilding funds will flow to the Haitian government.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Haiti to make holding elections a top priority to ensure the legitimacy and stability of the country's government.

The earthquake destroyed the offices of the Electoral Council, members of the UN mission working with the commission were killed and election materials were buried. Many of Haiti's government offices were also severely damaged in the earthquake, further slowing recovery efforts.

"You've got a massive transient population there, many of whom had a lot of their documents and identity proofs destroyed, so we need a little help putting the elections together, but we will get some experts in there," Clinton said.

More than one million people were left homeless after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the capital Port-au-Prince, and aid groups are racing against a looming hurricane and rainy season to ensure they have adequate shelter.

Haitian President Rene Preval has said he would not seek to extend his term in office beyond its scheduled end on February 11, 2011, and that he was confident legislative elections -- originally scheduled for February 28 this year -- could be organized in time to ensure an orderly transition.

Ninety-eight of the 99 seats in the legislature's Chamber of Deputies were to be at stake in the February election, along with one-third of the 30-member Senate. The vote for the remaining lower house seat had been set for a later date.

Presidential elections had been set for November, but it is unclear whether that will happen on schedule.

"Preval is particularly intent on having the capacity to hold the presidential elections. He thinks that's the symbolic thing that proves that Haiti's still committed to the path of democracy," said Clinton.

"I have spent a lot of time with the parliamentary leaders ... and they feel the same way," he said. "They want to see their country rebuilt, or built anew if you will, while strengthening democracy, not weakening it."

Clinton, who also oversaw rebuilding in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, said Preval had already asked the United Nations for experts to advise Haiti on its elections.

Michelle Obama makes unannounced visit to Haiti

By Robin Givhan
MEXICO CITY -- First lady Michelle Obama has arrived in Haiti on an unannounced humanitarian mission.

Accompanied by Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, Obama is making a one day stop in Port-au-Prince en route to Mexico City, where she is scheduled to launch an international campaign encouraging young people to become actively involved in their communities.

The visit to the Haitian capital, which was virtually destroyed by an earthquake in January, will give the first lady an opportunity to extend a caring hand to the Haitian people and to draw attention to their dire circumstances. She arrives in Haiti at a time when aid workers and local official are particularly concerned about how displaced residents will survive as the rainy season begins and hurricanes become more likely.

Obama follows in a long line of previous first ladies who have served as good will ambassadors and voices of solace to those in need.

Obama's stopover in Haiti was organized in conjunction with her Mexico trip -- which is her first time as a solo act on the world stage. The visit to Haiti was not publicly announced until the last minute for security reasons, in particular, crowd control.