Haitian Diaspora Calls for Results from the Martelly-Obama Meeting This Week

Washington DC, February 5, 2014 – The Global Haitian Diaspora Federation welcomes the scheduled historic meeting between the President of the first black republic and the first black President of the United States on Thursday February 6, 2014.  The Global Haitian Diaspora Federation urges President Obama to consider pledging the following:

1.    Agreement to quickly deploy the remaining 40% of the funds allocated for earthquake recovery of   Haiti and additional emergency assistance to the Haitian Government to relocate the remaining 150,000 earthquake victims still living under tents prior to the June 1 hurricane season;

2.    Support Haiti in its effort to secure additional loans from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to rebuild the damaged infrastructure estimated to be a $14 billion loss;

3.    Address  the needs of the majority of the 5 million people living in abject poverty;

4.    Organize an international donor conference to discuss how to more effectively deploy international aid, and secure the release of the $10 billion in pledges that have never been received;

5.    Support free and fair elections this year and the continued fight against corruption;  

6.    Take the administrative decision for the Haitian family reunification;

7.    Support the vote in the US Senate for the Haiti Accountability Act passed by the House and the Haitian-American Enterprise Fund introduced by Congresswoman Clarke;

8.    Continued pressure from the US Government to bring accountability to the UN for the cholera epidemic in Haiti;

9.    Support the Haitian government’s calls for the repeal of the Dominican Republic’s court ruling stripping citizenship from black Dominicans of Caribbean and Haitian decent retroactively to 1929;

10.Integrate the Haitian Diaspora into the US AID strategy for Haiti; currently only 3.4% of the $2 billion spent has gone to Haitian institutions;

11.Send a U.S. Presidential Delegation to assess the current situation in Haiti and discuss ways to restructure aid in the country and strengthen cooperation with the Haitian government;

12.Urge president Martelly to integrate the Haitian Diaspora     experts in the recovery and development of Haiti.

For Immediate Release 

Contact Sandra Thomas (786) 218 7161