I just caught up with Imogen Wall, the Head of Communications for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who is in Haiti. Listen to our discussion about Cholera in Haiti.
Haiti is currently facing its first cholera outbreak in a hundred years. It’s not a surprise, exactly. It was something public health experts have been afraid of since the earthquake. But after nine months, we were starting to hope maybe it wouldn’t happen.
The outbreak seems to be centered in Artibonite, an area that saw a which was relatively unscathed by the earthquake but which experienced a massive influx of people displaced from Port au Prince.
American funding for longterm Haiti reconstruction is held up in a bureaucratic logjam. Meanwhile, a UN official aptly describes the situation as "a humanitarian crisis the needs a development solution."
Guest post from Harold Pollack: It’s easy to get people to pay attention and to help 33 identified people who require a single dramatic rescue. It’s much harder to get the same level of attention and action when millions of people face larger, complicated, and chronic challenges after a mass disaster.
I speak with Melanie Teff, one of co-authors of a new Refugees International report about the condition of Haiti's IDPs. She paints a very bleak picture of the plight of nearly 1 million Haitians displaced by the earthquake nearly ten months ago.
More than eight months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and almost six months to the day after the high-level donor meeting at the United Nations where the world pledged about $10 billion over three years for the Haiti Reconstruction Fund, the Associated Press reports that "just $686 million of that has reached Haiti so far."
My third visit to Haiti since the tragedy of the January 12 earthquake coincided with the visits of two much more noteworthy individuals, Bill Clinton and Wyclef Jean. President Clinton was visiting in his dual, but separate, roles as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Haiti and Co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC). The Ex-Fugee and renowned entertainer was there to submit his paperwork and announce his candidacy for the Presidency of Haiti.
An in depth interview with Haitian president Rene Preval, conducted by Ray Suarez of PBS. Not surprisingly, Preval laments the pace of reconstruction funding, particularly the slow pace of rubble removal. Preval also raises concerns that too much funding is by-passing the government and going directly to NGOs. This is similar criticism that UN skeptical envoy Bill Clinton has leveled at the reconstruction effort. Watch.