AMERICA/HAITI - Reconstruction has not begun and people lack food security

Port au Prince (Agenzia Fides) – Haiti needs about a billion dollars to realise the reconstruction projects approved by the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, says the Haitian Prime Minister, Jean Max Bellerive, in a press conference at the end of a meeting with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, special guest of the UN to Haiti. Projects have been prepared for the next eight months covering education, health, housing complexes, energy, the collection of debris, work, and agriculture.
According to information received by Fides, unfortunately, the situation in the Country remains difficult: the many NGOs present are unable to coordinate the joint work, such that Evel Fanfan, President of the organisation “Aumohd” (Action des Unite’s Motive’es pour une Haiti de Droit), an organisation of lawyers that from 2002 has dealt with the protection of the peoples' human and civil rights, reported: “It is impossible that despite a billion dollars having been spent on Haiti, the situation is still what we see and that the Cholera epidemic is still out of control.” According to an assessment by the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population, there are 225,668 people infected by the disease, of whom 121,883 have sought hospital admission. In Haiti, 4,452 people have died due to the cholera epidemic that has plagued the Caribbean country since last October, a figure that increases with each new report by the authorities. The latest report from the Ministry of Health is dated 3 February. The region most affected continues to be Artibonite, where the first case of cholera was discovered.
More than three million Haitians, about a third of the population, continue to live in a situation of food insecurity. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 18/02/2011)