{"id":17064,"date":"2024-03-16T12:49:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T12:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/16\/billions-invested-in-haiti-since-2010-earthquake-have-not-improved-country-were-still-working\/"},"modified":"2024-03-16T12:49:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T12:49:47","slug":"billions-invested-in-haiti-since-2010-earthquake-have-not-improved-country-were-still-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/16\/billions-invested-in-haiti-since-2010-earthquake-have-not-improved-country-were-still-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Billions invested in Haiti since 2010 earthquake have not improved country: \u2018We\u2019re still working\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The U.S. has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to renewed initiatives to help Haiti during its crime crisis in the country, but concerns remain about whether the country will properly utilize the money, according to an expert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Haiti received around $13.5 billion in the years following a devastating 2010 earthquake, thanks to an international effort led by the U.S. and the United Nations, around 120% of the country\u2019s GDP at the time.<\/p>\n

\u2018They never rebuilt Port-au-Prince. You\u2019re talking about a city that doesn\u2019t have a sanitation system, doesn\u2019t have basic plumbing and electricity, no basic infrastructure \u2026 people can\u2019t get anywhere, they\u2019re walking up and down the dirt,\u2019 said Jack Brewer, a former NFL player and philanthropist who has pursued initiatives to help rebuild Haiti.<\/p>\n

Brewer told Fox News Digital that he felt the funding provided after the 2010 earthquake \u2018wasn\u2019t properly spent.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018I got a chance to watch a lot of the things that happened on the ground,\u2019 Brewer said. \u2018After the earthquake in 2010, I worked with the NFL Players Association, and we partnered with the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund \u2026 it was called the Clinton Haiti Fund \u2026 and we raised a lot of money through that, and it started to be allocated.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Then other countries came in and started to allocate a lot of money,\u2019 he added. \u2018You would think that the long-term goal was to rebuild the city of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas that were impacted by the earthquake, but I was there, and a few years went on, and we\u2019re still working.\u2019<\/p>\n

The U.S. has committed to contribute the bulk of funds for a multinational security mission from East Africa to Haiti, led by Kenya and comprised of police from various countries. The Biden administration will pledge another $33 million in general humanitarian aid to the country, bringing the total committed for the effort to $333 million \u2013 as America\u2019s national debt tops $34.5 trillion.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said the crisis \u2018has been a long unfolding story\u2019 and will require the international community to help stabilize the country as gangs continue to run rampant.<\/p>\n

\u2018Having done all this work, we should be in a place where that mission goes forward,\u2019 Blinken said. \u2018It will, we believe, help reestablish security and take back control of the country from gangs.\u2019<\/p>\n

Jimmy Cherizier, known by the nickname \u2018Barbecue,\u2019 runs a gang coalition called the G9 Family and Allies, rising to a level of influence that allows him to block sitting Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning to the country until he agrees to resign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brewer said he feels that many Haitians \u2018believe that America is one of the roots of the problem,\u2019 going back to the Clintons and their rebuilding efforts following the earthquake.<\/p>\n

\u2018They think Washington, D.C., is controlling these leaders that are coming into the country, and, as you can see, most of the leaders are corrupt,\u2019 Brewer claimed. \u2018They\u2019re in, and it\u2019s kind of the culture in Haiti: As a politician, once you get there, you get that power so you can enrich yourself.\u2019<\/p>\n

When asked about their role in the Haiti recovery, spokespersons for the former president and the secretary told Fox News Digital: \u2018The Clintons worked tirelessly to address the needs of the Haitian people in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. Even as their detractors have distorted and obfuscated the facts, they have never shied away from doing all they could to lift people up. It\u2019s easy to point fingers from afar for political gain, but it impedes progress, and that\u2019s tragic.\u2019<\/p>\n

An expert on Haiti told The Associated Press that after President Ren\u00e9 Pr\u00e9val left office in 2011, he found subsequent Haitian leaders were at best easy on the gangs and at worst tied to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gangs have gained influence throughout the previous decades, but their increasing influence and ties with the country\u2019s political leadership allowed them to gain money through a mix of extortion, kidnappings, and drugs and weapons smuggling.<\/p>\n

Brewer worries that even without the fear of diverting the funds, he does not have confidence that the new money will prove effective, citing the post-earthquake humanitarian aid and lack of long-lasting improvements.<\/p>\n

In a 2016 review of some of the initiatives applied to Haiti following the natural disaster, ABC News found that a $400 million garment factory that promised to create plenty of jobs for the area had ultimately \u2018underdelivered.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019re building infrastructure with no coding,\u2019 he said. \u2018They don\u2019t have coding, so if they get hit with another earthquake, the same thing is going to happen.\u2019<\/p>\n

The country struggled to cope with a cholera outbreak that started after U.N. peacekeepers accidentally introduced the disease to the island. Around 10,000 people died as a result of the disease.<\/p>\n

Part of the issue was that money given to Haiti had already been earmarked for a number of necessary services, such as paying the Red Cross for their on-the-ground assistance, as well as other rescue services.<\/p>\n

\u2018The actual funds left on the ground, a lot of them got into the hands of the wrong people or the folks in power,\u2019 Brewer added, calling the recovery effort \u2018the worst handling of a natural disaster in the history of the planet.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s been very disappointing to see the level of corruption, particularly around things that involve children and youth, and trying to get medical supplies in and out of the country \u2026 it has been very difficult,\u2019 he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding the $333 million headed for Haiti in the coming months, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) told Fox News Digital that \u2018any interference in, or diversion of, humanitarian aid is unacceptable.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018USAID takes its duty as a steward of U.S. taxpayer funding seriously and holds implementing partners to the highest standards to ensure that taxpayer funds are used wisely, effectively, and for their intended purposes,\u2019 a USAID spokesperson said. \u2018We require our partners to have robust safeguards and risk-mitigation systems in place to ensure that principled humanitarian aid reaches those who need it most.\u2019<\/p>\n

The agency noted that it works with humanitarian partners with \u2018extensive experience working in challenging environments\u2019 and who have \u2018demonstrated their commitment to stay and deliver life-saving assistance with impartiality, neutrality and independence while ensuring the safety of their staff and facilities.\u2019<\/p>\n

The United Nations did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by the time of publication.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press and Fox News Digital\u2019s Michael Lee and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to renewed initiatives to help Haiti during its crime crisis in the country, but concerns remain about whether the country will properly utilize the money, according to an expert.\u00a0 Haiti received around $13.5 billion in the years following a devastating 2010 earthquake, thanks to an international <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}