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Former President Clinton’s Role in Haiti
The State Department issues a response to a question taken at a February 9 telephone conference call on former President Bill Clinton’s role in Haiti.
9 February 2010
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Article
Former President Clinton’s Role in Haiti
The State Department issues a response to a question taken at a February 9 telephone conference call on former President Bill Clinton’s role in Haiti.
9 February 2010
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Article
Former President Clinton’s Role in Haiti
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman For Immediate Release February 9, 2010 QUESTION TAKEN AT THE FEBRUARY 9, 2010 TELEPHONE CONFERENCE CALL Former President Clinton’s Role in Haiti Question: How does the U.S. Government view former President Clinton’s role in Haiti? Answer: The United States is pleased that the UN Secretary-General has asked former President Clinton to take on an expanded role as UN Special Envoy for Haiti. We understand that President Clinton will assume a leadership role in coordinating international aid efforts from emergency response to recovery and reconstruction in Haiti. The United States applauds this decision, and looks forward to continuing to work with former President Clinton in his expanded role. For further details on President Clinton’s expanded role, I refer you to the United Nations.
9 February 2010
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Mobile Phone Donations Break Records for Haiti Earthquake Relief
Millions of Americans have donated more than $560 million for earthquake relief to Haiti, including $31 million raised by the American Red Cross through an innovative use of mobile phone technology arranged with the help of the State Department.
4 February 2010
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Mobile Phone Donations Break Records for Haiti Earthquake Relief
Millions of Americans have donated more than $560 million for earthquake relief to Haiti, including $31 million raised by the American Red Cross through an innovative use of mobile phone technology arranged with the help of the State Department.
4 February 2010
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Former President Clinton to Lead International Haiti Coordination
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who has been the U.N. special envoy to Haiti since May 2009, agrees to lead international relief efforts for Haiti as it recovers from the January 12 earthquake. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Clinton will be “coordinating on my behalf.”
4 February 2010
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Mobile Phone Donations Break Records for Haiti Earthquake Relief
Alfons Toussaint, Valancia Desia, Jenny Minse and Patricia Janvieir check a hygiene kit distributed by the American Red Cross.By Jim Fisher-ThompsonStaff Writer Washington — After a devastating earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, millions of Americans grabbed their mobiles, but instead of calling friends or family they hit a number that automatically donated $10 to the American Red Cross, resulting in an unprecedented $31 million raised for Haitian relief through mobile phone technology. “To raise $31 million dollars, $10 at a time, with mobile phones is overwhelming and nothing short of amazing,” says Roger Lowe, senior vice president for communications at American Red Cross headquarters in Washington. “Think about it, that’s 3.1 million people,” he told America.gov in a February 4 interview. Commenting on philanthropy in general, Lowe said, “I think people want to be able to help” in an emergency instead of just waiting for government to jump in. “People all over the United States are helping with events such as concerts, food sales and raffles,” he said. “One school is trying to come up with a ‘Mile of Quarters’; another is making chains of $1 paper hearts and having different classes compete to make the longest chain.” Lowe said an 8-year-old child went so far as to send in a dollar that he said he got from the tooth fairy. [In America, children put teeth that have fallen out under their pillows and are rewarded with money their parents say comes from “the tooth fairy.”] In North Dakota, a rancher donated five cows that were to be auctioned off at the stockyard in nearby Aberdeen. Since the end of January, the American Red Cross has raised $203 million for Haiti relief. Total donations from individuals, nonprofit groups, businesses and other groups in America amounted to $560 million during that period, which compares to $402 million provided by the U.S. government. “One thing you have to understand,” Lowe said, is that “this $31 million donation obliterates every record ever set on mobile giving.” And texting the word “Haiti” to 90999 continues to bring in money for stricken Haitians, providing essential emergency supplies like clean drinking water and shelter material such as tents, blankets, tarps and sleeping mats. “Most young adults today have their mobile phones practically melded to their hands,” Lowe said, “so mobile phone giving is a way to engage a new generation of donors who want to help out somebody they’ve never met.” With help from the State Department, Mobile Accord/mGive Foundation and CTIA-The Wireless Association, Lowe said, “We were able to set up the program within hours of the earthquake and it became a great opportunity for instant giving.” The involvement of the State Department was indispensable, Lowe said, “because the day after we started the mobile giving program, Secretary [Hillary Rodham] Clinton went on the morning TV shows and promoted the effort, which was a great help.” A big benefit of mobile phone giving, Lowe said, is that “the mobile carriers, who charge the $10 gift to the caller’s phone bill, are able to advance us the money.” The Salvation Army also raised $82,000 via text messaging, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The $10 pledges are being put to use by the Red Cross almost immediately, Lowe said. A pledge can provide a family with two water cans to store clean drinking water, basic first aid supplies or a blanket. The donations will also help support training from the Red Cross that “will help them recover and rebuild for years to come.” Internet giving is also on the increase, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy. It states that nonprofit organizations like Network for Good, an online charity portal, received $5.2 million in donations that it distributed to 140 charities providing aid to Haiti. JustGive, which also collects online gifts for charities, received $3.8 million in donations by the end of January. Businesses and corporations are contributing with the Business Civic Leadership Center, affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The center announced that 299 companies in the United States had contributed more than $122 million to Haiti relief within two weeks of the disaster. One hundred companies have also launched employee-giving campaigns in coordination with the American Red Cross. Shortly after the earthquake, Jeffrey Towers, chief development officer for the American Red Cross, told the press, “We are rushing supplies and disaster management staff to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake and are very grateful for the support of these companies for humanitarian mission.”
4 February 2010
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Former President Clinton to Lead International Haiti Coordination
Former President Bill Clinton will travel to Haiti February 5, his second visit since the January 12 earthquake.By Stephen KaufmanStaff Writer Washington — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed former U.S. President Bill Clinton to lead the international coordination for Haiti earthquake relief, with responsibilities ranging from continuing emergency response efforts to focusing on long-term reconstruction needs, as well as coordinating a new U.N. funding appeal. In agreeing to accept the expanded leadership role, Clinton, who has served as the U.N. special envoy to Haiti since May 2009, will be “coordinating on my behalf,” the secretary-general told reporters in New York February 3. “In particular, he will provide strategic guidance in our work for Haiti’s early recovery and long-term reconstruction, with a special emphasis on mobilizing international support and donor funding,” Ban said. Clinton has been asked to launch a revised U.N. flash appeal on February 17 that will raise funds for Haiti’s long-term reconstruction effort. The first funding appeal, launched in January for $575 million, has received 82 percent of its requested funding, according to press reports. Clinton is also being asked to help prepare for a March donor’s conference for Haiti that will be held in New York. “Needless to say, he has hit the ground running,” Ban said. “He will be in Haiti on Friday.” In a February 4 statement released by the Clinton Foundation, the former U.S. president said that while relief efforts in Haiti have been increasing to meet the country’s “staggering needs,” “the long road to recovery has just begun.” On February 5, “I will return to Port-au-Prince for the second time since the disaster to unload supplies and talk to Haitian officials to ensure assistance continues to be effective, coordinated and sustained in the weeks and months to come,” Clinton said. Clinton previously traveled to Haiti on January 18 for meetings with Haitian and U.N. officials and to deliver water, food, medical supplies, solar flash lights, portable radios and generators provided by private and corporate donors, according to the statement. Clinton has followed Haiti for more than three decades, ever since he and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, visited there for the first time in the 1970s. “I think I understand what its shortcomings have been, but I’ve always believed most of its problems were not as some people suggested: cultural, mystical. I think they were subject to misgovernment,” he told the Miami Herald in a May 2009 interview. “They were either oppressed or neglected, and they never had the benefit of consistently being rewarded for effort in education, in agriculture, in industry and in any area. And, therefore, they were forced to become incredible … social entrepreneurs and to make the most of daily life.” Since the January 12 earthquake, Clinton has been leading relief efforts through his foundation’s Haiti Earthquake Fund to provide immediate financial assistance to nongovernmental organizations working in Haiti. President Obama has also asked him and former President George W. Bush to raise funds and coordinate relief aid through the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, similar to Clinton’s efforts with former President George H.W. Bush after the Pacific tsunami in 2004. In an interview with the television channel CNBC aired February 2, Clinton expressed his respect for the Haitian people, saying they often have “either been ignored or abused or patronized.” “I don’t want people to say I’m doing this because I feel good and these poor people need my help,” he said. “They do right now … but you have got to understand, these are smart, innovative people who have survived against odds that most of us couldn’t live in on a daily basis for a long time.”
4 February 2010
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Article
Mobile Phone Donations Break Records for Haiti Earthquake Relief
Millions of Americans have donated more than $560 million for earthquake relief to Haiti, including $31 million raised by the American Red Cross through an innovative use of mobile phone technology arranged with the help of the State Department.
4 February 2010
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Article
U.S. Medical Library Offers Free Information for Haiti Relief
Health care workers battling disease and infection in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti January 12 are being aided by free access to online medical information provided in a collaborative effort by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and medical publishers.
3 February 2010
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U.S. Medical Library Offers Free Information for Haiti Relief
Dr. Dan Purdom of the Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team feeds a Haitian child with an untreated congenital condition.By Jim Fisher-ThompsonStaff Writer Washington — Doctors and health care workers battling infection and disease in Haiti since the January 12 earthquake are being aided by an innovative collaboration between the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) and medical publishers. Access to 213 biomedical journals and 69 medical textbooks is available to relief workers in Haiti on the Internet without cost for four weeks through the NLM’s Emergency Access Initiative (EAI), a clearinghouse of information made available through NLM’s MedLine/PubMed digital database. Launching the initiative on January 25, Donald Lindberg, NLM director, said, “In light of the medical disaster unfolding in Haiti, it’s hard to imagine a more urgent need. We know that Haiti’s medical challenges will continue beyond the immediate emergency needs of the earthquake’s aftermath.” Sheldon Kotzin, NLM’s associate director for library operations, told America.gov, “We started [EAI] up in early 2009 to address man-made and natural disasters in the United States. It’s really a temporary medical library trying to meet the needs of health professionals dealing with patient care in clinical settings.” Kotzin explained that while NLM’s PubMed database includes information from more than 5,300 journals, the choice of the journals and books in the EAI offering came about because of a natural disaster in the United States. After Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, Kotzin said, “we examined all of the requests for journal articles received at the library here and winnowed that down to a small number. At the same time, we asked the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and World Health Organization for titles they would recommend.” “What we saw with Katrina is that after the first responders got in and did their jobs of search, rescue and emergency medicine, usually in the first few weeks, we began to see them having to deal with the chronic illnesses and infectious diseases that followed the disaster. That’s why we didn’t start EAI on day one” of the Haiti earthquake, he said. “Basically, we see the EAI as a temporary library for those people treating patients not only on an emergency basis but also for information useful to treat and forestall the outbreak of communicable diseases.” Participating publishers are: American Academy of Pediatrics, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American College of Physicians, American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists, ASM Press, B.C. Decker, BMJ, Elsevier, F.A. Davis, Mary Ann Liebert, Massachusetts Medical Society, McGraw-Hill, Merck Publishing, Oxford University Press, People’s Medical Publishing House, Springer, University of Chicago Press, Wiley, and Wolters Kluwer. The nonfee arrangement with the publishers lasts for four weeks, Kotzin said. “After that, it was decided there would be every opportunity to extend free use upon mutual agreement of the publishers and NLM. We went to the publishers of those journals and asked: ‘Would you be willing to provide free access in times of emergency’ and in most cases they said ‘Yes.’” The NLM, which is the nation’s largest medical library, is part of the National Institutes of Health — the U.S. medical research agency that comprises 27 medical institutes, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). According to the HHS Web site, HHS medical teams have treated more than 23,200 Haitian earthquake victims, performed 98 surgeries and delivered 28 babies. HHS has about 275 people in Haiti through its Disaster Medical Assistance Team and the International Medical Surgical Response Team operating at temporary medical stations set up in a soccer field near Port-au-Prince. Other HHS teams are providing primary medical care at Thebaud, at the U.S. Embassy, and at a base in Petionville, in addition to evaluating patients sent aboard the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort off the Haitian coast. As of January 31, the U.S. government has devoted more than $402 million in disaster assistance to Haiti, including approximately $40 million for health-related programs.
3 February 2010
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State, USAID Officials Brief on the Way Forward in Haiti
Officials from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development brief reporters on developments in Haiti.
2 February 2010