Wyclef Jean Announces Storm Relief Fund for Haiti

The storms that have battered Haiti
in the past few weeks have left more than 500 dead and wreaked havoc in the
lives of more than 600,000 people who have been displaced by flooding or
cut off from food supplies. Haitian President Rene Preval has appealed for
help from the international community, saying the country faces a
"catastrophe".

Wyclef Jean - musician, Haitian Goodwill Ambassador and founder of Yele
Haiti - has launched the "Haiti Storm Relief Fund" to provide food, water,
purification tablets, tents, blankets, medical supplies, hygiene kits as
well as funds to a number of non-profit organizations working on the ground
to respond to the emergency. Yele Haiti is working closely with the Pan
American Development Foundation and the World Food Programme in this
effort, and in consultation with the Haitian government’s emergency
management authorities.

Yele’s Storm Relief Fund has already sponsored food, supplies and water
to assist victims in the South-East, including Jakmel, Cayes-Jakmel,
Marigot and La Vallee. A second wave of support is currently underway in
and around Jakmel in cooperation with the Mayor of this resort community.
Containers with emergency supplies are being shipped into the country over
the next few weeks as individuals and corporations begin responding to
Wyclef Jean’s call for donations. Within days Yele Haiti’s teams will begin
an intensive operation of emergency food distributions with food staples
supplied by the World Food Programme.

"My country is facing a serious catastrophe at the moment," said Mr.
Jean, "and we urgently require assistance. But the long-term catastrophe is
that we have less than two percent tree cover, and without restoring our
forests we will always be susceptible to mudslides and flash floods from
storms and hurricanes."

Donations can be made online at http://www.yele.org.

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