Pan-African solidarity with Haiti
AFRICA FOR HAITI CAMPAIGN

 
 

 

   
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The earthquake that recently struck Haiti has caused unprecedented devastation and suffering to the country and its people. Wednesday’s aftershock aggravated an already grave humanitarian crisis. Across Africa, government, church, business and civil society leaders are mobilizing support for the people of Haiti. In South Africa, CIVICUS and its partners, African Monitor, Trust Africa, the Southern Africa Trust, Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) Southern Africa, the South African Red Cross Society; the National Welfare Forum; and Ivan May through 1485 Radio Today on 1484 AM in Jozi and through SADC (also DStv 169), the Synergos Institute, The NEPAD Business Foundation and the African Women’s Foresight Network, have agreed to join what is known as the “Africa for Haiti Campaign” and to help in co-ordinating efforts. The campaign has the support of Church, business and civil society leaders including Mrs Graça Machel, Archbishops Desmond Tutu, Njongonkulu Ndungane, Malusi Mpumlwana, Thabo Makgoba, and businessmen Trevor Ncube and Reuel Khoza.The Nelson Mandela Foundation hosted a press conference at its offices in Houghton on 22 January where more details were provided about the “Africa for Haiti” Campaign. The “Africa for Haiti” campaign will identify, in partnership with Haitian civil society organizations, initiatives in which it can assist. It also hopes to provide Africans from all walks of life an opportunity to demonstrate their collective solidarity and support for the people of Haiti thereby uniting Africans in compassion and giving.
  
  Addressing the press conference Mrs Machel suggested that the “Africa for Haiti” campaign focuses its efforts on reconstruction in Haiti. The objective of this campaign is not to provide immediate relief but rather to contribute toward the medium to long-term reconstruction of communities in Haiti.  As a result, it is estimated that fundraising for this campaign may continue for six months.

The campaign also aims to unite individuals, NGOs and corporates across Africa behind this cause by disseminating information and enlisting support from their extensive networks.		  
Supporting Statements
   

Message of support from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu:
“We were supported wonderfully by the International Community when we struggled against the vicious policy of apartheid. Today the people of Haiti, struck twice by the earthquake, are in a worse predicament than we were. As South Africans, we especially cannot but want to do our bit to alleviate the immense suffering of our sisters and brothers in Haiti. I welcome the initiative by Graça Machel and others. It deserves our wholehearted and very generous support.”
   
Statement from Archbishop Ndungane
Haiti’s worst earthquake that struck the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country on the 12th of January brought sadness and shock. As the people of Africa, we identify with and feel for the people of Haiti, particularly because of our own experience of the devastation of poverty. We comprehend that this earthquake has exacerbated an already desperate situation. When a brother or sister is in need, it is incumbent upon all of us to pool our resources to assist. The African Monitor family and I are solidly behind the ‘Africa for Haiti’ initiative, which seeks to assist the people of Haiti to recover from the destruction and devastation left by the earthquake. As Africa, we have been recipients of help in our time of need and we appreciate how this can alleviate desperate situations. Our continent can also make a big contribution towards restoring Haitian people through inner healing of hearts and memories for the traumatized people. This given that notwithstanding our own psychologically devastating past, we have picked up the pieces, healed and moved forward. I therefore appeal to Africans from all walks of life to take this as a call to action and an opportunity to verify to ourselves how we are people with proven love, compassion and sensitivity, particularly in times of need. With every good wish and blessing. Grace and Peace		    

Message from Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town
          I am glad to give my wholehearted support to this important initiative.   Across the continent of Africa over the years, so many of us have been the recipients of all manner of aid and support through many differing circumstances of need.  Now it is Africa's turn to stand in solidarity with the country and people of Haiti, and offer whatever assistance lies within our ability, in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes.  In South Africa earlier this week, Church leaders from across the Christian spectrum joined in calling for a generous response to this suffering which we can only begin to imagine, and we welcomed the commitments that our own Government is making, alongside the growing help from individuals and organisations. Yet we can and must do far, far, more.  Now is the time for all Africans to join in helping these brothers and sisters of ours within the human family.  We urge our political leaders not to be slow in joining the tide of compassion in response to this disaster.  We too can show love and care, not only in words, but in providing financial and practical help, in sharing resources and expertise, especially in the challenging times of reconstruction that lie ahead.  Therefore we look to the African Union Summit to express what it means truly to be 'Africans for Haiti'.  One of the great riches of Africa is the spirit of ubuntu - the spirit that says 'a person is a person through other persons'.  Now is the time to demonstrate our humanity through selfless generosity and tangible action.  It is therefore my prayer that the Summit will have the courage and conviction to make specific and significant commitments, which are then swiftly and effectively implemented.  And in this way, may God in his mercy use us as a channel of blessing and love to those who stand in such great need at this time.  Amen Africa for Haiti - Endorsement from the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town

        
 

Message of support from Stanley Subramony, Nepad Business Foundation
“ It is time for Africa to play a meaningful role in assisting Haiti to rebuild its economic infrastructure.  Support in industry, trade and agriculture will be central to the recovery and renewal of the Haitian nation.  The tenacity and resourcefulness of the African people will be invaluable in creating a sustainable impact.  This is indeed a difficult time for the people of Haiti but it is a time to face down adversity and proclaim that together with the rest of the world they will overcome these enormous challenges and rise to being a proud nation.”

        
The Members of the Arican Women's Foresight Network
       

Bisi Adeleye Fayemi
Bineta Diop
Aleya Hammad
Graça Machel

Gertrude Mongella
Gisele Yitamben
Mamphela Ramphele
Mary Wandia 		       

For more information contact:

        
Buhle Mpofu-Makamanzi

Bhekinkosi Moyo

        

TEL: +27 21 713 2801
Mobile: +27 82 898 8488
EMAIL: buhle@africanmonitor.org
WEB: www.africanmonitor.org

Trust Africa
Tel:  +221 33 869 4693
Mobile:  +27 78 111 2091
Email:  moyo@trustafrica.org
Web:  www.trustafrica.org

        
How you can help ->
 STANDARD BANK
Account Name – The African Monitor – Haiti Campaign
Account Type – Money Market Call Account
Account Number – 078431441-007
Branch Code – 020009
Swift Code – SBZAZAJJ		        
       
[Above] An example of the print campaign
        
       
[Above] An example of the billboard campaign
        
In Haiti, the survivors of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck about two and a half months ago continue to struggle, with a few signs of hope as international assistance is beginning to make measurable progress, some international debt is being forgiven, and some businesses and institutions start to come back to life. In a country still mourning the loss of a now-estimated 230,000 citizens (on par with the 2004 Indian Ocean quake), over one million people remain housed in makeshift tent cities, uncertain about their future or security. According to a recent draft summary of the Haitian government's damage and needs assessment, the country will need $11.5 billion to rebuild. Collected here are a handful of recent photographs from Haiti, a country still in need.
        


A child cries as he is questioned by police officer Carl Henry Boucher after he witnessed a gunfight in La Saline slum in Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, March 16, 2010. According to police at the scene, two police officers were ambushed and killed by suspected gang members who police believe may have escaped from prison after the Jan. 12 earthquake. A third man was also killed, who police believe was a bystander. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Joseph Dieujuste reacts as a mechanical shovel removes the wooden roof that fell on top of him in a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince, Friday, March 12, 2010. Dieujuste and at least two other men were injured while scavenging inside a quake-damaged government building. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A boy looks at the ruins of his Fort National neighborhood in Port-au-Prince March 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Matthew Bigg) )

A man, who was injured in last month's earthquake, wears a marked bandage on his head at at the Sacre Coeur field hospital in Port-au-Prince Thursday Feb. 18, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A woman walks downtown in earthquake-torn Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Elvilhomme Desboules's face is covered in dust while digging in rocky soil to prepare for the burial of about 30 unclaimed and unidentified earthquake victims February 25, 2010 in Titayen, Haiti. About a dozen grave diggers work each week to bury the dead from the Port-au-Prince General Hospital in the same area where tens of thousands of people were buried in mass graves after last month's earthquake. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A girl smiles inside a makeshift tent in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince February 28, 2010. Seasonal rains and hurricanes spell trouble for Haiti in the best of times, but with hundreds of thousands of people living in flimsy makeshift shelters after last month's earthquake, this year the dangers are much greater. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

People wait in line to get bottled water and plastic sheeting at an aid distribution operation set up outside of a camp for homeless earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Feb. 26, 2010. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A premature baby, named Fred Jr., is carried to a scale to be weighed at the Project MediShare field hospital on the grounds of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport February 20, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A female patient of the Haitian government's Mars and Kline Psychiatric Center who escaped during January 12, 2010 earthquake remains handcuffed at a hall of the center in downtown Port-au-Prince on February 24, 2010. The Haitian government's Mars and Kline Psychiatric Center was founded in 1958, which might be when its wards received their last coat of paint, and was in a desperate situation even before the January 12 catastrophe. Now, many of its patients have gone off to fend for themselves and its courtyard has become a makeshift refugee camp for local families left homeless by the quake and for a handful of wandering mental patients. (EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty Images)

A boy eats grains of rice with his hands in his bed during breakfast at the Wings of Hope, a home for abandoned children with severe disabilities in Fermate, Haiti on March 5th, 2010. (Globe Staff/Bill Greene)

A boy poses for a photo during the inauguration of a school that will be run by an Israeli NGO at a camp for earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince, Friday, March 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A man weeps as he prays during a national day of mourning outside the national palace in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

An amputee sits in the general hospital as he waits for medical attention in Port-au-Prince March 17, 2010. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)