Diaspora asked to aid devastated Haiti

Despite a multi-year drought and lingering devastation from the 2010 earthquake, there are small success stories in Haiti as special programs help bring food-producing agriculture back to life. By Gerald V. Paul
Despite a multi-year drought and lingering devastation from the 2010 earthquake, there are small success stories in Haiti as special programs help bring food-producing agriculture back to life.
By Gerald V. Paul

The Haitian Diaspora is reaching out to the Caribbean community for help in light of the lingering drought in their homeland.
In an interview with a major importer and exporter of Haitian products and goods, Lec Worldwide Inc. President and owner Luc-Elie Cineus and his son Lukas Cineus told The Camera, “Lots of people have difficulty with the access to clean drinking water and for other purposes.”
Cineus Jr. said the country desperately needs help.
Haiti is now in the third year of a major drought that is ravaging much of the island nation and effects of the 2010 earthquake are still felt in many areas.
In one area, in a case of too much water, Cineus Jr. noted a river between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is overflowing and that adds to the difficulties.
He said they plan a fundraising event to help their countrymen, noting they organized a fundraiser for another cause which raised $2 million.
He said many Haitians go to bed hungry with the country facing food insecurity. Cineus agreed with a UN report that more than 1.5 million Haitians are threatened with malnutrition.
The agency, the World Food Program, classified these people as the “severely food insecure,” a subset of 3.6 million Haitians facing lack of access to a reliable and affordable food supply.
As the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, this only compounds problems in Haiti, he said.
Wendy Bigham, World Food Program deputy country director, said, “This is really a severe food crisis. The crisis couldn’t come at a worse time for Haiti, which is facing a power vacuum after its president left office without an elected successor”
For more information on how you can help, visit www.lecdiximworldwideinc.