Help Haiti Rebuild with Rights

Micheline Fleuron lives with her two boys in the median on the road in Carrefour, Haiti. Her home, the pile of rubble across the street from where she is now, collapsed during the earthquake and killed her seven-year-old daughter. Before the earthquake Micheline had a small business selling food items. She lost that in the earthquake. She says food aid has been distributed near where she is but she has not been able to get any of it. She says hunger is difficult and "dust from the street is eating us." 

On March 24th, President Obama sent his request to Congress for a supplemental spending bill to support relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti. Millions of people in Haiti like Micheline could use that aid to feed their children and begin rebuilding their lives, but Congress still has not passed this crucial bill.

Take a look at a quality analysis by Salvador Sarmiento of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights of the road to travel between an apparently successful donors conference and the actual delivery of well-targeted aid, published on the Center for International Policy’s Americas Program blog. 

When the 7.0 earthquake shook Haiti, leaving more than 230,000 people dead and 1.3 million homeless, you gave from your heart.

You told us about some of your spirited efforts, like the Peer College Counselors in Reseda High School in Los Angeles who sponsored a fundraising drive that raised $628 for Doctors without Borders (the organization the students chose to support) in just 20 minutes. Go, Reseda!

But that's not all you wanted to do. You also wanted your government, not just yourself and your community, to do the right thing. To generously aid Haiti. In the right way, in ways that put Haitians in the center of decisionmaking. In ways that are sustainable.