opinion
One year later, Donated Money for Haiti Sits Stagnant
W
hen a 7.0 magnitude
earthquake hit Haiti on
Jan. 12, 2010 the world
community came to its aid.
Millions of private citizens in this
country and around the world
reached into their household budg-
ets and gave generously to the
Haitian people who were grap-
pling with the devastation.
We sat in front of our televisions
and watched men digging for their
families. We gave more. We heard
doctors lament the lack of sup-
plies. We gave more. In March,
the United Nations member states
and international partners met in
New York and passionately
pledged more than $5 billion over
the next 18 months to help Haiti
recover.
Despite the billions of dollars
pledged from private citizens and
t raNS a frIca
f oruM
Nicole C. Lee
the Port-au-Prince metropolitan
area. Throughout Haiti, a year
after we opened our hearts and
wallets, the latrines are not
cleaned on a regular basis and
human waste spreads into the
streams by the frequent rains.
Now, a year later, limited water
distribution continues, with little
development of sustainable,
municipal water-filtration sys-
tems.
If the Red Cross, whose mandate and
expertise lie in emergency and crises
management, is not responding to
continued immediate emergencies
on the ground, then who is?
world governments, a serious
health scare has arisen. With poor
sanitation, malnutrition, little safe
drinking water and no sewage sys-
tems, the over-crowded temporary
housing tent communities provide
an ideal breeding ground for
cholera.
One independent report has con-
servatively estimated that there is
one toilet for every 273 people in
In the face of these conditions,
Haiti remains the non-governmen-
tal organization (NGO) capital of
the world. Before the earthquake,
there were more than 5,000 organ-
izations on the ground in Haiti.
From the International Red Cross
to Save The Children to any num-
ber of church and civic organiza-
tions, Haiti is replete with people
of good will who are there to make
it a better place to live. Each of
these organizations conducted
their own fundraising campaigns
after the earthquake and collected
millions of dollars.
With millions of dollars at our
disposal do we really lack the abil-
ity to support basic sanitation and
clean water? Do we lack the abili-
ty to stop a preventable, deadly
water-borne disease right off our
coast? What happened to all of the
money?
Many of the charities on the
ground have reported they are set-
ting aside a portion of their dona-
tions (sometimes up to 70 percent)
for the “reconstruction” period.
It’s clear from the outpouring of
support many of those who donat-
ed from their own scarce family
budgets believed they were giving
to save lives immediately. In the
face of a preventable public health
emergency, like cholera, many
will be surprised that more than
half of their donations continue to
sit in U.S. banks.
My organization has attempted
for nearly a year to get the Red
Cross to account for the money
they collected for Haiti. In a recent
meeting, I was told that 70 percent
of their donations remain in
“reserve” to be used for longer-
term reconstruction.
Long-term development to
secure transitional and permanent
housing, build infrastructure out-
side of Port-au-
Prince and pro-
mote
public
health
cam-
paigns are all
extremely
important
issues. But if the Red Cross,
whose mandate and expertise lie
in emergency and crises manage-
ment, is not responding to contin-
ued immediate emergencies on the
ground, then who is? Who is
responsible for the deteriorating
quality of life and preventable suf-
the thousands of NGO’s on the
ground accountable for the money
they collected from U.S. families
and families around the world?
Moreover, who is pressuring the
international donor nations to
make good on their promises to
help to Haiti?
In the face of a preventable public
health emergency, like cholera, many
will be surprised that more than half of
their donations continue to sit in U.S.
banks
fering faced by those most affect-
ed by the earthquake?
We have asked the House over-
sight Committee, to hold a hearing
on large private NGOs and
USAID partner organizations to
ask one simple question: “What
happened to all of the money?”
Though significant promises of
donations have been made, many
communities of earthquake sur-
vivors continue to face challenges
in accessing even the most basic
of services. Our repeated requests
to determine where the money
went have fallen on deaf ears.
We need to know who is respon-
sible for coordinating the money
donated to Haiti? Who is holding
Indeed, there is very little coor-
dination of the aid to Haiti. The
Interim Commission tasked to
coordinate and assure transparen-
cy of donations has been nearly
silent. There is no central NGO
leadership to create a coordinated
effort that will assure that there is
at least clean water, decent sanita-
tion and proper housing. We all
have hope for Haiti’s future. And
yet, Haiti’s present is still at risk.
lee is the President of
transafrica Forum and a human
rights attorney who lived and
worked in haiti.
January 26, 2011 The Portland and Seattle Skanner page 5