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.

Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will vote on the Debt Relief for Earthquake Recovery in Haiti Act, which would get the U.S. government to push for an immediate cancellation of Haiti's debts to international institutions. Click here to ensure your representative votes for Haiti debt relief.

Here are some stories from our partners about how relief efforts are unfolding. In many areas quake survivors are at risk and still abandoned.

We charitably termed the Obama Administration’s first year of Latin America policy a “false start.”  After the year was kicked off with a promising beginning with a rousing speech at the Summit of the Americas, a promise to close Guantanamo, the lifting of the ban on travel to Cuba for Cuban Americans, and some principled words on human rights to Colombian President Uribe, we had some hope for a new, less ideological, more people-centered approach to the region. As the year progressed, those hopes were dashed. But now we dare to hope again.

When the crisis in Haiti began, we were glad to know we could count on you to join in raising the resources to help those in immediate need. Going forward, we're going to need your voice to make sure that our government and the international community take the necessary steps to support Haiti as it begins the long road to recovery. Please start with this urgent action from our friend Hayley Hathaway at the Jubilee USA Network:

In the wake of Haiti's unimaginable tragedy, one obvious and simple step toward a just recovery is for the international community to cancel Haiti's $1 billion debt.

Please take an extra moment to click here and sign Jubilee USA's petition "Drop Haiti's Debt Now and No More Debt for Disaster."