Haiti

Haiti Hurricane Devastation Remains One Year Later

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:32:06 -0400

by Laura Raymond and Bill Quigley

Until the summer of 2008, Orlande Noel supported his family of eight by operating a trucking business in Gonaives, Haiti, a town of around two hundred thousand people.

Then four huge tropical storms and hurricanes slammed into Haiti in 30 days. Massive mudslides and flooding roared down the deforested mountains into Gonaives. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed and people were trapped on rooftops for days.

Bill Clinton Named New UN Envoy to 'Stabilize' Haiti, a Country He Helped Destabilize

Tue, 19 May 2009 09:13:17 -0400

by Jeremy Scahill

Former US President Bill Clinton has been named by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as his special UN envoy to Haiti. Clinton will reportedly travel to the country at least four times a year.

“[It’s] an opportunity to bring in resources to address the economic insecurity that plagues Haiti,” says Brian Concannon, a human rights lawyer who works extensively in Haiti.

US Implored to Stop Deporting Haitians

Wed, 13 May 2009 08:52:35 -0400

by Maria Sacchetti

Almost a year after Hurricane Hanna slammed into Haiti, the memory stops her cold.

Gracieuse Marius, a nurse, had huddled inside until the floodwaters subsided in the city of Gonaives, then she raced into the streets to find someone to save. Instead, she was confronted with silence: Cars, trees, and dead animals floated in the water. She still cannot bring herself to talk about the children.

US Mulls Asylum for Haitian Immigrants: Clinton

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:40:17 -0400

PORT-AU-PRINCE - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States was considering granting temporary asylum to illegal Haitian immigrants, thousands of whom face imminent expulsion.

"We are looking carefully at the policy which we inherited and we are going to be considering how best (for those) who are here to continue to have those resources," Clinton told reports in Haiti's teeming capital Port-au-Prince.

"But at the same time, we don't want to encourage other Haitians to make the dangerous journey across the water."

Haiti’s Public Health System Failing Patients

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:17:11 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 13, 2009

Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

As Haiti's prime minister, the UN Secretary General, representatives from more than 30 donor countries, and multilateral agencies convene tomorrow in Washington, D.C., to fund strategies for Haiti's future economic and social development, they must not neglect the country's immediate public health crisis, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF calls on the Haitian government and international donors to immediately implement concrete measures to improve access to health care for the Haitian population.

Haitian President Appeals for Emergency Aid

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:43:27 -0500

by Glenn Kessler

Haitian President René Préval said yesterday that his impoverished country is in desperate need of economic assistance and is seeking as much as $100 million to fill a budget gap that he said could send Haiti back into anarchy.

"I believe we are at a very serious turning point," Préval said in an interview. "We can either win or lose."

New Peasant Alliance Demands Action on Food Crisis

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:45:39 -0500

by Charles Arthur

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's peasant farmers are organising and taking action to try and bring an end to the country's dependence on food imports, and to avert the prospect of looming famine.

In recent months, meetings and demonstrations held by peasant farmer groups and supported by a number of non-governmental organisations have been taking place across Haiti. The mobilisation is part of a fledgling political campaign to end the marginalisation of the rural population and to revamp the nation's neglected agricultural sector.

Haitian Children Severely Malnourished

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:04:57 -0500

by Jacqueline Charles

PORT-AU-PRINCE - With arms and legs so skinny they look like twigs, 2-year-old Davidson Pierre has to struggle just to sit. So he remains sprawled on his back and stares listlessly at the ceiling. He doesn't smile. He doesn't cry.

For eight days now, the boy has been on a high caloric diet of enriched milk and doctors say his fragile body is responding.

Anger and Hope: Haitian Families Furious Over School Collapse

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:24:35 -0500

by Bill Quigley

"No one cares about the children, living or dead," one furious father of children in the collapsed school outside of Port au Prince, Haiti swore Sunday in an interview. "No one has come to provide any counseling to the children and families who survived. Nothing has been done for the families whose children died. The children now have no school and no books. They are sick and have nightmares. Government officials and people from all the NGOs, they all come, take pictures, make speeches and they leave us with nothing. We need action!"

Pregnant Women Desperate for Free Emergency Care in Haiti

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:36:50 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 6, 2008

Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

Teams from the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières' (MSF) are struggling to provide free, quality emergency care to pregnant women and their babies in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.