Groups commit almost $600 million to help Haiti
By JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
The Green Family Foundation, a Miami-based nonprofit organization working to improve health in Haiti, is pledging $280,000 to help fight poverty in the central region of the Caribbean nation through its Millennium Village Project Haiti.
The pledge is part of a five-year, $680,000 commitment the Green Family Foundation made.
It was announced Wednesday during the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York where former President and U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti Bill Clinton once again made a call to action around Haiti.
The results: 21 new commitments valued at $258 million. Along with a similar call last year to help the storm-battered Caribbean nation build back better, CGI has raised almost $430 million in the last two years to provide humanitarian aid, housing, disaster training and employment opportunities to the Haitian people.
Among the new commitments: $1.5 million by Ireland's Jacob Fruitfield Food Group over three years to be spent on high priority humanitarian and entrepreneurial projects; and $250,000 for disaster training for women.
Actor and part-time Miami Beach resident Matt Damon, along with Gary White, executive director of water.org, also pledged $2 million over three years to bring safe water and sanitation to at least $50,000 Haitian citizens.
The commitments aren't just about saving lives. Some also touch on preserving cultural, and paying tribute to the Haitian spirit.
The Green Family Foundation also is pledging $56,000 to help bring to light original recordings made by famed American musicologist Alan Lomax in Haiti for the Library of Congress in 1936-37.
The collection includes more than 50 hours of recorded folk and popular music by Lomax. It also includes film footage and more than 250 pages of Lomax's diaries, notes and correspondence about his fieldwork in Haiti.
``We are grateful to President Clinton for helping to shine a light on the challenges facing Haiti and are proud and inspired by the seeds of positive change that have been planted in the past year alone,'' said Kimberly Green, a Miami Beach philanthropist and president of the Green Family Foundation. ``Through these dual commitments, GFF is working to build a stronger future for Haiti while paying tribute to the rich history and proud cultural traditions of its past.''
Clinton, who is hosting a number of business and world leaders this week including Haitian President René Préval, founded CGI in 2005 to help people in need around the globe by transforming ideas into results.
Clinton's annual summit comes days before he is set to make a Miami appearance. He will be among several high-profile speakers at this year's Americas Conference, Sept. 29-30 at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. The event is co-sponsored by The Miami Herald, The World Bank, Florida International University and the state.
Clinton will speak about his Haiti initiatives Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. He will discuss his ongoing efforts to help Haiti rebuild and his upcoming mission, where he will lead dozens of well-heeled U.S., Latin America and European investors to the country in hopes of creating jobs.
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