Wyclef Jean and UN Announce Food Program For Haiti

Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Haiti and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced the launch of a new joint food distribution program in two of Haiti’s worst neighborhoods today (Nov. 14). Cité Soleil and Bel Air rank among the poorest slums in Haiti, which itself is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. To add […]

Wyclef Jean’s

Yéle Haiti and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced

the launch of a new joint food distribution program in two of Haiti’s worst

neighborhoods today (Nov. 14).

Cité Soleil and Bel Air rank among the poorest slums

in Haiti, which itself is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

To add to the country’s issues, the interim government

filed a lawsuit against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last week,

accusing him of stealing tens of millions of dollars from the Haitian treasury

and the state-owned telephone company.

Cité Soleil and Bel Air were devastated by tropical storm

Jeanne in 2004 and violence and crime prevent aid from reaching the disaster

stricken areas.

“Children fear not the storm, because after the storm,

it gets calm, and that’s when the sun comes out. Yéle Haiti,”

Jean said.

Unemployment rates have reached 80 percent in the area, where

open sewers run and residents bake and eat mud pies for a small amount of nutrients.

Jean’s organization and WFP will distribute food to the

region twice a month and feed almost 3,000 people per day.

“Working with Yéle Haiti has allowed us to reach

out to some of the most vulnerable people in Haiti, namely the women and children

of Cite Soleil and Bel Air. We are therefore very happy about this new cooperation,”

said WFP Haiti Country Director, Mamadou Mbaye.

Yéle Haiti

is a U.S. 501 (c)3 organization. For more information visit

www.yele.org.