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The Disaster in Haiti

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Haiti Earthquake Victims Despair as Food, Water and Medical Relief Delayed

Growing Unrest by Haitian Earthquake Victims Over Lack of Aid, Death Toll, Attention to Foreigners

By KATE SNOW, DAN HARRIS and ROBIN ROBERTS

Jan. 15, 2009

 

Despair among the Haitian people clamoring for food, water and medical care is turning into simmering anger as relief workers struggle to reach earthquake victims.

 

Diane Sawyer says that Haitians are frustrated over the delayed relief efforts.

 

The Haitian people, as well as the thousands of foreign missionaries and aid workers trapped in the country's capital, are entering day three without food or water. Supply pallets have piled up by the tons in the Port-au-Prince airport with no way to reach the hardest hit communities.

 

"We're waiting, we're waiting for three or four days, just cannot do nothing," one Haitian man said, his frustration painfully obvious. "The president is staying at the airport while he does nothing for us."

 

"We need help because it's urgent," another citizen pleaded.

 

Click here for more information on how you can help the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

 

ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer felt the rising anger when she on the streets of Port-au-Prince today.

 

"I was surrounded by a giant group of people and they were yelling at me and they were yelling about the need and where is everybody and what's happening. I don't think they were going to hurt me or anybody else.. but it was that close. It's a tinderbox out there," Sawyer told "Good Morning America."

 

She said Lt. Gen. Ken Keen also expressed frustation at the slow movement of supplies from the airport to those who need them in the ravaged city/

 

"I was talking to Gen. Keen and he told me, 'Today I am going to spend my day figuring out where the bottleneck is.' He said there is water sitting in a warehouse right over there and waiting for the U.N. and other aid organizations to distribute it."

 

Adding to the tension is growing unrest among Haitian citizens that the search and rescue efforts have largely been focused on Americans and other foreigners. Stores have also been cleaned out by desperate Haitians, but the U.N. World Food Program denied a report that its warehouse in Port-au-Prince had been looted.

 

There are still no official death toll estimates, though most estimate tens of thousands were killed. Haitian President Rene Preval said that 7,000 bodies have already been buried in a mass grave, and decomposing bodies are filling the streets with a sickening stench.

 

"I'm very sad because my country is in great difficulty," Preval said from his post at the airport.

 

So far two Americans have been confirmed dead, although officials are trying to determine whether three others taken from the rubble were also Americans. In addition, several American college students and professors who were on trips to Haiti have not been heard from.

 

"We've been here doing everything we can," U.S. Lt. Gen. Ken Keen told "Good Morning America." "I can say our efforts have been pushed forward as fast as we can get here."

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The Haiti Earthquake

One of the worst-ever natural disasters in the western hemisphere leaves the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in ruins

 

Haiti Tries to Dig Out as Corpses Pile Up

By IOAN GRILLO / PORT-AU-PRINCE Friday, Jan. 15, 2010

Bodies are piled up in the street, obstructing traffic, as people start trying to cope with massive destruction in Port-au-Prince following Tuesday's massive earthquake

 

Like a thick fog, the stench of death curdles the air in the streets of this shattered city. It comes from trundling trucks, where corpses are piled up and covered by bloodstained sheets, while young men with scarves on their faces warn onlookers to stand aside. It is expelled from pyres of burning tires that incinerate cadavers that have remained unattended too long in the dust and heat, lit by residents afraid that the carrion will attract prowling dogs and endanger children. And it surges through piles of rocks and rubble, where hospitals, schools, palaces and homes fell like cards as the ground shook with the fiercest earthquake to strike this island in two centuries.

 

No one can tell how many have perished, and the exact number of dead will be almost certainly never be known. Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? The panorama of destruction appears endless. Street to street, neighborhood to neighborhood, ever more shattered buildings, wounded survivors and decaying corpses can be found. In one alley, two bodies lie across from a group of teenagers sitting and chatting. Around the corner, dozens of cadavers are piled in the remnants of a government building that reportedly had 1,000 employees. Photographer Shaul Schwarz, on assignment for TIME, saw corpses piled on the street impeding traffic.

 

 

While there was certainly anger and frustration, the atmosphere is mainly calm, considering the scale of the catastrophe. Most of the city has no electricity, gasoline, phone lines, drinking water or working shops. But residents are clearing away the debris from outside their homes. At many of the large ruined buildings, groups of men work slowly taking apart the rubble with sledgehammers and chisels. They clear away the dead and search for the living. At a children's hospital, men search for the director who was in his first-floor office when five levels tumbled down. "We will get him out soon," says Pierre Josef, resting after swinging a hammer through the crumbling concrete.

 

 

But the calm is not everywhere. On one street, dozens of men and teenagers storm into the collapsed building of a cellular-phone company, pushing and shoving over the spoils. As an expensive pickup truck drives fast through the crowd, some men shout and throw stones, cracking its window. The poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti is also a land of great inequality and social tensions rumble beneath the surface.

 

But in the time of such catastrophe, it is more often solidarity that shines through rather than social grievances. Both rich and poor have been hammered by the earthquake. Like a nightmarish lottery, the tremor seemed to have picked out houses at random, devastating one building and sparing the next. An impervious-looking hotel has tumbled to the ground, while next to it a fragile-looking Catholic church stands tall.

 

Most of those who escaped the collapsing buildings suffer on the streets. Miriam Rosseate, a 22-year-old student with a leg crushed by her falling house, bites her fist to fight the pain. She went for two days without medicine and when she was finally given an injection it didn't seem to help much. "I can't think of much except how much it hurts," she says, wincing. Other entire families struggle in tents made of sheets and twigs. Jean Manol, a 34-year-old tennis instructor, had both his home and the hotel he worked in destroyed. "We just have to keep fighting. This will pass," he says, sitting in a makeshift tent with his wife and two small children. Such make-do refugee camps sprawl across soccer fields, sidewalks and the middle of entire streets.

 

Others have decided to leave the city completely. Rickety buses and trucks move in triple file carrying families, suitcases and even furniture. Some worry about disease. Some fear there could be a tsunami after the quake, a rumor that rippled through the street like water. Others just feel the countryside will offer them more safety. "There is nothing for us anymore," says a somber woman, carrying her baby in her arms as she climbs on a truck. "This city will never be the same again."

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FACTBOX-U.S. military mobilizes thousands for Haiti relief

15 Jan 2010 00:44:20 GMT

Source: Reuters

 

Jan 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is mobilizing thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines along with members of the Air Force and Coast Guard for relief efforts in Haiti. Here are the main military components announced so far:

 

WHO'S THERE ALREADY?

* The vast majority of the forces announced for Haiti have not yet arrived, but the military has flown in hundreds of rescuers and has advance teams and assessment teams on the ground. Air Force special forces were among the first military relief workers to arrive. The Coast Guard has deployed four ships as well as air support for evacuation efforts. The Navy destroyer USS Higgins, with about 320 sailors on board, arrived on Thursday.

MORE THAN 5,000 MARINES, SOLDIERS

* Up to 3,500 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg will be deployed in Haiti by Sunday. An advance group of about 125 troops were due to arrive on Thursday and 800 more will arrive on Friday.

* Another 2,200 Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit at Camp Lejeune, N.C., may arrive this weekend or on Monday for what initially is expected to be about a 90-day deployment.

AMPHIBIOUS GROUP, FLOATING HOSPITAL

* An amphibious readiness group with three ships -- the USS Bataan, the USS Fort McHenry and USS Carter Hall -- will take the Marines to Haiti. This group can produce its own purified water.

* A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, with a crew of between 4,000-5,000 sailors on board, is on the way and will arrive in the area by Friday, with 19 helicopters on board. It has three operating rooms, several dozen hospital beds and can produce fresh water.

* The much-anticipated hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, will not arrive until around Jan. 22. It has 12 operating rooms and 250 hospital beds. The Pentagon says the Comfort is a slow-moving vessel and will need a week to arrive in Haiti.

* Two additional ships, the USS Underwood and the USS Normandy, with 400 and 250 personnel, are expected to arrive on Jan 16.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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The Haiti Earthquake

One of the worst-ever natural disasters in the western hemisphere leaves the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in ruins

 

Haiti Tries to Dig Out as Corpses Pile Up

By IOAN GRILLO / PORT-AU-PRINCE Friday, Jan. 15, 2010

Bodies are piled up in the street, obstructing traffic, as people start trying to cope with massive destruction in Port-au-Prince following Tuesday's massive earthquake

 

Like a thick fog, the stench of death curdles the air in the streets of this shattered city. It comes from trundling trucks, where corpses are piled up and covered by bloodstained sheets, while young men with scarves on their faces warn onlookers to stand aside. It is expelled from pyres of burning tires that incinerate cadavers that have remained unattended too long in the dust and heat, lit by residents afraid that the carrion will attract prowling dogs and endanger children. And it surges through piles of rocks and rubble, where hospitals, schools, palaces and homes fell like cards as the ground shook with the fiercest earthquake to strike this island in two centuries.

 

No one can tell how many have perished, and the exact number of dead will be almost certainly never be known. Thousands? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? The panorama of destruction appears endless. Street to street, neighborhood to neighborhood, ever more shattered buildings, wounded survivors and decaying corpses can be found. In one alley, two bodies lie across from a group of teenagers sitting and chatting. Around the corner, dozens of cadavers are piled in the remnants of a government building that reportedly had 1,000 employees. Photographer Shaul Schwarz, on assignment for TIME, saw corpses piled on the street impeding traffic.

 

 

While there was certainly anger and frustration, the atmosphere is mainly calm, considering the scale of the catastrophe. Most of the city has no electricity, gasoline, phone lines, drinking water or working shops. But residents are clearing away the debris from outside their homes. At many of the large ruined buildings, groups of men work slowly taking apart the rubble with sledgehammers and chisels. They clear away the dead and search for the living. At a children's hospital, men search for the director who was in his first-floor office when five levels tumbled down. "We will get him out soon," says Pierre Josef, resting after swinging a hammer through the crumbling concrete.

 

 

But the calm is not everywhere. On one street, dozens of men and teenagers storm into the collapsed building of a cellular-phone company, pushing and shoving over the spoils. As an expensive pickup truck drives fast through the crowd, some men shout and throw stones, cracking its window. The poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti is also a land of great inequality and social tensions rumble beneath the surface.

 

But in the time of such catastrophe, it is more often solidarity that shines through rather than social grievances. Both rich and poor have been hammered by the earthquake. Like a nightmarish lottery, the tremor seemed to have picked out houses at random, devastating one building and sparing the next. An impervious-looking hotel has tumbled to the ground, while next to it a fragile-looking Catholic church stands tall.

 

Most of those who escaped the collapsing buildings suffer on the streets. Miriam Rosseate, a 22-year-old student with a leg crushed by her falling house, bites her fist to fight the pain. She went for two days without medicine and when she was finally given an injection it didn't seem to help much. "I can't think of much except how much it hurts," she says, wincing. Other entire families struggle in tents made of sheets and twigs. Jean Manol, a 34-year-old tennis instructor, had both his home and the hotel he worked in destroyed. "We just have to keep fighting. This will pass," he says, sitting in a makeshift tent with his wife and two small children. Such make-do refugee camps sprawl across soccer fields, sidewalks and the middle of entire streets.

 

Others have decided to leave the city completely. Rickety buses and trucks move in triple file carrying families, suitcases and even furniture. Some worry about disease. Some fear there could be a tsunami after the quake, a rumor that rippled through the street like water. Others just feel the countryside will offer them more safety. "There is nothing for us anymore," says a somber woman, carrying her baby in her arms as she climbs on a truck. "This city will never be the same again."

Thanks for starting this thread, MC. I know there are a lot of groups looking for donations for relief efforts in Haiti. Anyone have suggestions on which groups to give donations?

Edited by esherk

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Text to Help Haiti: A Record Outpouring of Help

Ian Paul, PCWorld

Jan 15, 2010 12:31 pm

Major U.S. wireless carriers say the numbers of people donating to Haitian relief efforts via text messages has been the largest and most successful outpouring of charitable giving of its kind to date. While the concept of giving via text messages is not new, the massive number of people giving via text messages is.

 

As of Thursday U.S. cell phone users have contributed more than $5 million to the Red Cross for Haiti disaster relief in record time, according to the charity. In total, an estimated $7 million has been donated to charity relief organizations in $5 and $10 increments via text messages from all carriers. Jeffery Nelson, Verizon Wireless spokesperson told MSNBC the Haitian Relief Effort is "the largest outpouring of charitable support by texting in history - by far."

 

Customers of all four major wireless carriers can send donations using SMS "shortcodes" without incurring any additional texting charges.

 

Read on to see how your carrier is handling donations to Haitian relief.

 

The Charities

 

There are six charities that allow you to donate to Haitian relief efforts via SMS. They are: Yele Haiti ($5 donation), Clinton Foundation Haitian Relief Fund ($10 donation), International Medical Corps ($10 donation), International Rescue Committee ($5 donation), American Red Cross ($10 donation) and the Salvation Army of Upper Wisconsin ($10 donation).

 

Anyone in the United States can use these shortcodes to donate to the charity of their choice using their mobile phone. All donations will be charged to you through your monthly wireless bill.

 

Posted Image

 

 

 

 

Sprint

 

Sprint customers have by far the widest range of charities to donate to Haitian Relief efforts. The carrier has waived all applicable SMS fees (retroactive from Wednesday) for donations to the American Red Cross, Yele Haiti, Clinton Foundation, International Medical Corps/Rescue Union Mission (shortcode 85944) and the International Rescue Committee. Sprint will pass on one hundred percent of your donation to the above charities. As of Thursday, Sprint customers had donated a total of $882,000 to Haitian Relief.

 

In addition to waiving customer fees, the Sprint Foundation, Sprint's philanthropic arm, has donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross, and will match employee donations dollar-for-dollar up to another $50,000 between now and January 31. Making a potential $150,000 donation between the Sprint Foundation and Sprint employees.

 

T-Mobile

 

T-mobile is already offering free long distance to Haiti and free roaming for the rest of the month within the devastated country, now T-Mobile customers can donate to both the American Red Cross and Yele Haiti without incurring mobile SMS charges. One hundred percent of your donation will be forwarded to the charities. At the time of this writing, T-Mobile had not released any numbers about customer giving. T-Mobile will also be donating wireless equipment such as generators and phones to help rebuild Haiti's telecommunications infrastructure.

 

AT&T

 

The other two major wireless carriers have promised to waive texting fees only for donations to the American Red Cross. To give a $10 donation to the ARC text HAITI to 90999.

 

AT&T has waived SMS fees for customers donating to the Red Cross retroactive to Thursday at 12:35:12 PM. One hundred percent of your donation will be passed on to the Red Cross. As of 6PM ET Thursday, AT&T says its mobile customers have donated $2.63 million to the American Red Cross via SMS--almost half of all SMS donations given to the Red Cross so far. The carrier's philanthropic arm is also donating $50,000 to Telecoms Sans Frontieres (Telecoms without Borders). Haiti's telecommunications network suffered a crippling blow due to the earthquake, and TSF is providing emergency telecommunications services in Haiti.

 

Verizon

 

Verizon says close to 140,000 customers have texted donations to the Red Cross (approximately $1.4 million). The Verizon Foundation is also donating $50,000 to both World Vision and Food for the Poor. The foundation will also match Verizon employee donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1000 per employee.

 

Although donating by text has existed for several years, the Haitian relief effort is the biggest campaign of its kind to elicit donations from American mobile customers. Jeffery Nelson, Verizon Wireless spokesperson told MSNBC the Haitian Relief Effort was "the largest outpouring of charitable support by texting in history - by far." As of Thursday, total U.S. donations via text had reached $7 million, with more than $5 million of those proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

 

 

The donation-by-text campaigns are not only a win for charities, but may also help repair the public images of wireless carriers famous for mystery charges, service problems and high fees.

Edited by MC

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Text to Help Haiti: A Record Outpouring of Help

Ian Paul, PCWorld

Jan 15, 2010 12:31 pm

Major U.S. wireless carriers say the numbers of people donating to Haitian relief efforts via text messages has been the largest and most successful outpouring of charitable giving of its kind to date. While the concept of giving via text messages is not new, the massive number of people giving via text messages is.

 

As of Thursday U.S. cell phone users have contributed more than $5 million to the Red Cross for Haiti disaster relief in record time, according to the charity. In total, an estimated $7 million has been donated to charity relief organizations in $5 and $10 increments via text messages from all carriers. Jeffery Nelson, Verizon Wireless spokesperson told MSNBC the Haitian Relief Effort is "the largest outpouring of charitable support by texting in history - by far."

 

Customers of all four major wireless carriers can send donations using SMS "shortcodes" without incurring any additional texting charges.

 

Read on to see how your carrier is handling donations to Haitian relief.

 

The Charities

 

There are six charities that allow you to donate to Haitian relief efforts via SMS. They are: Yele Haiti ($5 donation), Clinton Foundation Haitian Relief Fund ($10 donation), International Medical Corps ($10 donation), International Rescue Committee ($5 donation), American Red Cross ($10 donation) and the Salvation Army of Upper Wisconsin ($10 donation).

 

Anyone in the United States can use these shortcodes to donate to the charity of their choice using their mobile phone. All donations will be charged to you through your monthly wireless bill.

 

Posted Image

 

 

 

 

Sprint

 

Sprint customers have by far the widest range of charities to donate to Haitian Relief efforts. The carrier has waived all applicable SMS fees (retroactive from Wednesday) for donations to the American Red Cross, Yele Haiti, Clinton Foundation, International Medical Corps/Rescue Union Mission (shortcode 85944) and the International Rescue Committee. Sprint will pass on one hundred percent of your donation to the above charities. As of Thursday, Sprint customers had donated a total of $882,000 to Haitian Relief.

 

In addition to waiving customer fees, the Sprint Foundation, Sprint's philanthropic arm, has donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross, and will match employee donations dollar-for-dollar up to another $50,000 between now and January 31. Making a potential $150,000 donation between the Sprint Foundation and Sprint employees.

 

T-Mobile

 

T-mobile is already offering free long distance to Haiti and free roaming for the rest of the month within the devastated country, now T-Mobile customers can donate to both the American Red Cross and Yele Haiti without incurring mobile SMS charges. One hundred percent of your donation will be forwarded to the charities. At the time of this writing, T-Mobile had not released any numbers about customer giving. T-Mobile will also be donating wireless equipment such as generators and phones to help rebuild Haiti's telecommunications infrastructure.

 

AT&T

 

The other two major wireless carriers have promised to waive texting fees only for donations to the American Red Cross. To give a $10 donation to the ARC text HAITI to 90999.

 

AT&T has waived SMS fees for customers donating to the Red Cross retroactive to Thursday at 12:35:12 PM. One hundred percent of your donation will be passed on to the Red Cross. As of 6PM ET Thursday, AT&T says its mobile customers have donated $2.63 million to the American Red Cross via SMS--almost half of all SMS donations given to the Red Cross so far. The carrier's philanthropic arm is also donating $50,000 to Telecoms Sans Frontieres (Telecoms without Borders). Haiti's telecommunications network suffered a crippling blow due to the earthquake, and TSF is providing emergency telecommunications services in Haiti.

 

Verizon

 

Verizon says close to 140,000 customers have texted donations to the Red Cross (approximately $1.4 million). The Verizon Foundation is also donating $50,000 to both World Vision and Food for the Poor. The foundation will also match Verizon employee donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1000 per employee.

 

Although donating by text has existed for several years, the Haitian relief effort is the biggest campaign of its kind to elicit donations from American mobile customers. Jeffery Nelson, Verizon Wireless spokesperson told MSNBC the Haitian Relief Effort was "the largest outpouring of charitable support by texting in history - by far." As of Thursday, total U.S. donations via text had reached $7 million, with more than $5 million of those proceeds going to the American Red Cross.

 

 

The donation-by-text campaigns are not only a win for charities, but may also help repair the public images of wireless carriers famous for mystery charges, service problems and high fees.

Awesome! Thanks MC :)

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Groups raise doubts about Jean’s charity group

Tax returns, audits show Yele Haiti intertwined with musician’s businesses

Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean backs the Yele Haiti Foundation, which groups are now raising doubts about.

 

updated 6:04 p.m. PT, Fri., Jan. 15, 2010

LOS ANGELES - Groups that vet charities are raising doubts about the organization backed by Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, questioning its accounting practices and ability to function in earthquake-hit Haiti.

 

Even as more than $2 million poured into The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. via text message after just two days, experts questioned how much of the money would help those in need.

 

“It’s questionable. There’s no way to get around that,” said Art Taylor, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, based in Arlington, Va.

 

Taylor reviewed Internal Revenue Service tax returns for the organization also known as Yele Haiti Foundation from 2005 through 2007. He said the first red flag of poor accounting practices was that three years of returns were filed on the same day — Aug. 10 of last year.

 

In 2007, the foundation’s spending exceeded its revenues by $411,000. It brought in just $79,000 that year.

 

“Here’s the bottom line: for an earthquake of catastrophic proportions, do people really believe that this organization is in a position to do anything right now?” he said.

 

Jean, a 37-year-old Grammy-winning artist, has been imploring followers to text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to his foundation in support of Haitian earthquake victims.

 

The foundation, founded in January 2005, intends to airlift supplies using a FedEx plane into Haiti early next week carrying medical supplies, water and Clif Bars, according to foundation president Hugh Locke.

 

Intertwined with businesses

An Associated Press review of tax returns and independent audits provided by Jean’s foundation showed that it was closely intertwined with Jean’s businesses.

 

Three of the five foundation board members — Jean, Jerry Duplessis and Seth Kanegis — are involved in his personal music and business endeavors.

 

According to an IRS tax return from 2006 reviewed earlier by the Web site The Smoking Gun, the foundation paid $250,000 to buy airtime from Telemax S.A., a for-profit TV station in Haiti that is majority owned by Jean and Duplessis.

 

Part of that money went to pay for a concert in Haiti put on by Jean himself, Locke said.

 

Another $160,000 that year was spent on a concert in Monte Carlo that Jean participated in, of which $75,000 paid for backup singers and $25,000 went to Jean through a company he owns with Duplessis, Platinum Sound Recording Studios Inc., Locke said.

 

“I’m not saying he didn’t benefit from it,” said Locke, who says his own salary is $8,100 a month after taxes. “We were paying that to Platinum Sound because that covered the cost of him participating in the event.”

 

Locke argued that the foundation took in “several hundred thousand” dollars in exchange for Jean’s work through the proceeds of an auction.

 

The foundation also rents office space from Platinum Sound, paying about $2,600 a month in New York. Locke said the foundation also plans to partner with Jean’s Sak Pase Records to build a music studio to provide vocational training to Haitian children.

 

‘We have a niche’

Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing for Charity Navigator, an organization that evaluates charities, said the foundation was too small to have been examined recently, although the current flood of goodwill may change that. Its revenue in 2008 was $1.9 million.

 

“My concern is it goes against our first tip, and that is to give only to groups with experience with disaster relief,” Miniutti said. “I think it’s very hard for a new organization even with the best intentions to handle something on this magnitude.”

 

Locke said the foundation has been directly involved in delivering food and providing clean-up services in many disasters, including the hurricanes that devastated Haiti in late 2008. Jean’s standing among Haitians can help the foundation gain access to gang-controlled or other troubled regions, he said.

 

“We have a niche which no one else occupies,” Locke said.

 

He said the foundation is now seeking bridge financing to allow it to use money that has been pledged in unprecedented volumes by text message.

 

It could take at least a month for donors’ money to flow in because it is not released until they pay their phone bills.

 

That delay presents a challenge and an opportunity, the Better Business Bureau’s Taylor said.

 

“The challenge is they can’t do anything until they get the money,” Taylor said. “The opportunity is that some people may change their minds and decide that $10 or whatever they text to him might be better used somewhere else.”

 

© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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That delay presents a challenge and an opportunity, the Better Business Bureau’s Taylor said.

“The challenge is they can’t do anything until they get the money,” Taylor said. “The opportunity is that some people may change their minds and decide that $10 or whatever they text to him might be better used somewhere else.”

OUCH! It's almost like they're telling people that they can cancel their donation to this group and put it somewhere else.

 

I can see the concern regarding accountability, but they do have a point that they have a presence in Haiti and can help with the gangs, etc. Perhaps if he donates his time (for free!) to help the larger organizations, that would be the best way he can truly help. It will be interesting to see what happens with this now. Maybe with the huge spotlight on this, they'll have to do the right thing with the money. A bridge loan is a good start!

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Haitian hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean defends his charity

Jan 18, 2010 16:37 EST

 

Haitian-born hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean, who is leading fundraising for his earthquake-devastated homeland, rejected on Monday accusations that he had profited from his foundation but admitted mistakes were made.

 

The Grammy Award-winner dismissed accusations raised by The Smoking Gun website that he had made money from Yele Haiti, a charity he founded in 2005 to raise awareness of Haiti and run education, sports, arts and environment programs.

 

”As a young N.G.O. (nongovernmental organization) … have we made mistakes before? Yes,” Jean said at a news conference in New York. “Did I ever use Yele money for personal benefits? Absolutely not.”

 

He did not elaborate on what mistakes he believed the organization had made.

The Smoking Gun on Thursday posted the 2005, 2006 and 2007 tax returns for the Wyclef Jean Foundation, which it said operates as Yele Haiti and showed the charity paid Jean and his business partner at least $410,000 for rent, production services and Jean’s appearance at a benefit concert.

 

Jean, who also posted a video on YouTube rejecting the accusations, said Yele Haiti’s finances had annually been given “a clean bill of health by an external auditor.”

 

A texting campaign launched by Jean after the Jan. 12 earthquake killed as many as 200,000 people and left its capital, Port-au-Prince, in ruins has already raised more than $2 million for the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund.

 

The musician, who carries a Haitian passport and has a U.S. green card, spent three days in Haiti after the earthquake and became emotional after speaking about his time there. He said he plans to return to Haiti on Saturday.

 

“We carried bodies to the cemetery … My three days in Haiti, for me personally, there’s no words to explain it,” he said. “My people are dying and I have to go back.”

 

Jean is also due to join actor George Clooney on Friday for a commerical-free telethon called “Hope for Haiti, which will be broadcast by major U.S. networks.

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Source. (There's a video of him speaking at the link).

 

Wyclef Jean Defends His Charity

Calls For Evacuation of Haiti's Capital

 

Updated: Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 7:11 PM EST

Published : Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 5:17 PM EST

 

BY LUKE FUNK

 

MYFOXNY.COM - Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean defended his charity against questions about its accounting practices as he called for the evacuation of Port-au-Prince at a Monday news conference.

 

He is asking for international aid to help set up tent cities nearby to house 100,000 people.

 

Jean is one of Haiti's most famous sons and has been a prominent voice in relief efforts since Tuesday's earthquake. He has raised more than $2 million through his charity, The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. It is also known as Yele Haiti.

 

But he has also faced questions about its accounting practices.

 

Jean said, "Let me be clear: I denounce any allegation that I have ever profited personally through my work with Yele Haiti. These baseless attacks are simply not true."

 

The site SmokingGun.com- CLICK HERE TO READ THE DOCUMENT posted a report claiming that Internal Revenue Service records show the group has a lackluster history of accounting for its finances, and that the organization has paid the performer and his business partner at least $410,000 for rent, production services and Jean's appearance at a benefit concert.

 

Jean called it a "fringe website with a history of pursuing sensationalist story lines."

 

Wyclef Jean defended the charity on Monday as a young organization that had made mistakes but has also been effective.

 

Any lingering questions about Jean's charity could cause some awkwark moments for executives at the major television networks. Jean is set to co-host a fundraiser that airs on Friday night.

 

==============

 

Like I said earlier, I think his heart is in the right place with trying to help, and I hope the spotlight on his financial troubles will help him clean up his books so he can continue to help over there.

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Haiti gives conflicting counts for quake deaths

 

TITANYEN, Haiti – Haiti issued wildly conflicting death tolls for the Jan. 12 earthquake on Wednesday, adding to confusion about how many people actually died — and to suspicion that nobody really knows.

 

A day after Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue raised the official death toll to 230,000, her office put out a statement quoting President Rene Preval as saying 270,000 bodies had been hastily buried by the government following the earthquake.

 

A press officer withdrew the statement, saying there was an error, but re-issued it within minutes. Later Wednesday, the ministry said that due to a typo, the number should have read 170,000.

 

Even that didn't clear things up. In the late afternoon, Preval and Lassegue appeared together at the government's temporary headquarters.

 

Preval, speaking English, told journalists that the number was 170,000, apparently referring to the number of bodies contained in mass graves.

 

Lassegue interrupted him in French, giving a number lower than she had given the previous day: "No, no, the official number is 210,000."

 

Preval dismissed her.

 

"Oh, she doesn't know what she's talking about," he said, again in English.

 

Whatever the death toll, there is no doubt it is one of the highest in a modern disaster.

 

A third of Haiti's 9 million people were crowded into the chaotic capital when the quake struck just to the southwest a few minutes before 5 p.m. Many were preparing to leave their offices or schools. Some 250,000 houses and 30,000 commercial buildings collapsed, according to government estimates, many crushing people inside.

 

For days, people piled bodies by the side of the road or left them half-buried under the rubble. Countless more remain under collapsed buildings, identified only by a pungent odor.

 

No foreign government or independent agency has issued its own death toll. Many agencies that usually can help estimate casualty numbers say they are too busy helping the living to keep track of the dead. And the Joint Task Force in charge of the relief effort — foreign governments and militaries, U.N. agencies and Haitian government officials — quotes only the government death toll.

 

That toll has climbed from a precise 111,481 on Jan. 23 to 150,000 on Jan. 24, to 212,000 on Saturday, to 230,000 on Tuesday. Preval's count of 170,000 bodies buried in mass graves may represent only a piece of the toll — but nobody at his office was available to clarify.

 

It's common in major disasters to see large discrepancies in death tolls: Governments may use lower figures to save face, or higher figures to attract foreign aid. In Haiti's case, however, where the very institutions responsible for compiling information were themselves devastated, reaching a death toll is particularly difficult.

 

Even some officials express skepticism that the government is keeping count.

 

"I personally think that a lot of information being given to the public by the government is estimates," said Haiti's chief epidemiologist, Dr. Roc Magloire.

 

Many citizens are even more cynical, accusing the government of inflating the numbers to attract foreign aid and to take the spotlight off its own lackluster response to the disaster.

 

"Nobody knows how they came up with the death count. There's no list of names. No list of who may still be trapped. No pictures of people they buried," said shop owner Jacques Desal, 45. "No one is telling us anything. They just want the aid."

 

A few days after the quake, the state-run public works department, known as the CNE, began picking up bodies from the streets and dropping them in trenches dug by earth movers in Titanyen, just north of the capital, amid rolling chalk and limestone hills that overlook the Caribbean Sea.

 

The trenches are 6 meters (20 feet) deep and piled 6 meters (20 feet) high.

 

Preval said the government has counted 170,000 bodies during those efforts, and that the number does not include people buried in private ceremonies. But at Titanyen on Wednesday, worker Estelhomme Saint Val said nobody had counted the bodies.

 

"The trucks were just dropping people wherever, and then we would move in and cover them up," he said. "We buried people all along the roads and roadsides. It was impossible to do a count."

 

And although the government death toll jumped by the thousands from Saturday to Tuesday, Saint Val said at noon Wednesday that only one truck had arrived this week, and it carried two bodies. He said workers received 15 truckloads of bodies a day just after the quake, but the numbers dropped off about 10 days ago.

 

Lassegue, in announcing the Tuesday death toll, refused to say how it was calculated.

 

"For the moment we count 230,000 deaths, but these figures are not definitive," she said. "It's a partial figure."

 

U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs in Geneva, who has often cited Haitian government figures, said Wednesday that she said she doesn't know how Haiti is calculating the death toll: "We cannot confirm these figures."

 

Finding someone who can is difficult.

 

The government says the CNE is orchestrating the count. The CNE referred questions to the prime minister's office. The prime minister's chief of protocol referred questions to the prime minister's secretary-general. The prime minister's secretary-general could not be reached.

 

A report by the U.N. on Tuesday attributed the death toll to Haiti's Civil Protection Agency instead of the CNE. Civil Protection director Alta Jean-Baptiste referred questions to the Ministry of Interior. Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said Wednesday that the Civil Protection toll is "217,000-and-some deaths," despite the higher number given by his government.

 

"Civil Protection, before giving out the numbers, really is doing a precise count and the numbers that they give out are numbers that are proven," he said.

 

He would not say how that count is being done.

 

A death toll of 230,000 would equal the number of people killed in the tsunami that devastated a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean following a magnitude-9.2 earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004. That disaster generated an outpouring of international aid — in part because of the number of dead.

 

An extremely high toll "probably elicits more public sympathy, so it might generate more visibility, more funding," said Chris Lom, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.

 

But Byrs says inflating numbers can backfire.

 

"Regarding every estimate, we have to be very careful because we could lose credibility with donors, with humanitarian partners," she told The Associated Press. "If you boost the figure, it's counterproductive. It doesn't help when you try to match assistance to needs."

 

___

 

Associated Press Writers contributing to this report included Frank Bajak and Paisley Dodds in Port-au-Prince and Frank Jordans and Bradley Klapper in Geneva.

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Haiti judge to free U.S. missionaries

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – A Haitian judge has decided to release 10 U.S. missionaries accused of kidnapping 33 children and trying to spirit them out of the earthquake- stricken country, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

 

The source said the missionaries, who have been in jail since they were stopped at Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic on January 29, could be released as early as Thursday.

 

"The order will be to release them," the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The decision has not yet been made public.

 

"One thing an investigating judge seeks in a criminal investigation is criminal intentions on the part of the people involved and there is nothing that shows that criminal intention on the part of the Americans," the source said.

 

The missionaries, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based Baptist church, were arrested trying to take the children across the border to the Dominican Republic 17 days after a magnitude 7 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

 

The five men and five women have denied any intentional wrongdoing and said they were only trying to help orphans left destitute by the quake, which shattered the Haitian capital and left more than 1 million homeless. But evidence has come to light showing most of the children still had living parents.

 

As part of Haiti's legal requirements, investigating Judge Bernard Sainvil must send a notice of his decision to the prosecutor. That will be done on Thursday, the source said.

 

PARENTS PLEAD FOR RELEASE

 

Once he receives the order, the prosecutor could offer an opinion that one or more of the Americans should be held but that would have no legal effect on the judge's decision, the source said.

 

During hearings in the case, Sainvil heard from 10 parents of children handed over to the Americans. They said they had turned over their children because they had no food or water to give them, and believed they would have a better life elsewhere.

 

"All of them pleaded for the release of the Americans," the source said.

 

The case has been a distraction to the Haitian government as it tries to cope with the aftermath of the earthquake and was diplomatically sensitive for the United States as it spearheads a massive international effort to feed and shelter Haitian quake survivors.

 

The U.S. government had said it was providing the Americans with consular access and monitoring their case, but made clear it did not want to interfere.

 

"Obviously this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington on Saturday.

 

Haiti's beleaguered government had warned that unscrupulous traffickers could try to take advantage of the chaos that followed the quake by taking away vulnerable children, and it tightened adoption procedures.

 

(Writing by Jim Loney; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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