US Donates US$10.5 Million To Help Displaced Haitians

WASHINGTON, CMC – The United States says it will make additional contributions totalling US$10.5 million to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) to support the people of Hispaniola in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti.

The US State Department said on Saturday that Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Eric P Schwartz, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Julissa Reynoso, met recently with Dominican Republic government officials to “reiterate the United States government’s appreciation for the generous assistance of both the Dominican Republic’s government and its private citizens to the people of Haiti following the earthquake.”

The State Department said Schwartz also discussed ways in which the US government could help address “continuing challenges on both sides of the border resulting from the earthquake.”

It said Schwartz and the US Agency for International Development Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, Susan Reichle, also visited camps, where Haitians displaced by the earthquake are living.

They also met with Haitian government and United Nations officials in Port- au- Prince, the Haitian capital.

In addition, Schwartz visited the Fond Parisien area on the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is receiving Haitians returning to Haiti from the Dominican Republic and providing transportation assistance to them.

The State Department said the US$10.5 million contribution to UNHCR, UNICEF and PAHO is in addition to a US$4 million contribution made to IOM for repatriation assistance activities in the border areas and in North West Haiti by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration shortly after the earthquake.

Meantime, Spain is also providing a US$10 million grant to finance the construction of drinking water projects that will benefit nearly 60,000 people in small rural communities in Haiti.

The money is being provided by the Spanish Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean (Spanish Fund).

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which provided technical assistance for the project’s preparation and will monitor its execution, will develop it together with the Haitian government and the Spanish Fund.

The program will be executed by Haiti’s National Water and Sanitation Directorate (DINEPA).

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