By Steve Purcell on
Musician Wyclef Jean announced on Tuesday that his Yele Haiti Foundation has formed a partnership with two other charities to help address the growing food crisis in Haiti.
Rising food and fuel costs have left the Caribbean island nation’s poor unable to afford food, resulting in widespread hunger and even rioting. Haitian native Jean, who first made his name as a member of The Fugees, is joining forces with the United Nations World Food Programme and the Pan American Development Foundation to form Together for Haiti.
The programme hopes to raise $48 million, with which it will provide targeted food distribution, employment in agriculture regeneration programmes, and micro-enterprise grants.
At the Manhattan launch of the partnership, Wyclef Jean stressed the importance of helping the Haitian poor to help themselves:
“How can you make people in a poor economy entrepreneurs? Well, if you give these families five chickens and you give them food for these chickens and give then a cage they automatically become entrepreneurs. Because, they can eat now and they can raise the chickens and sell chickens.”
Together for Haiti is a natural extension to Jean’s Yéle Haiti Foundation, the goal of which the musician says is “to restore pride and a reason to hope, and for the whole country to regain the deep spirit and strength that is part of our heritage.”
For more information, or to make a donation, visit www.togetherforhaiti.org. Just 25 cents can buy a school meal for a hungry child.
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
