Thanks in part to your advocacy efforts, Congress has passed the FY 2010 Supplemental Appropriations bill.  This bill will provide critical support for people suffering from emergencies around the world including urgently needed funding to help Haiti recover from January’s devastating earthquake, assist refugees, and support humanitarian efforts.

What was the Church’s position? As stated in letters to House and Senate appropriators, CRS and USCCB requested:

• $2.5 billion for longer-term reconstruction in Haiti and
• $1.597 billion for other global emergency needs, including;
• $702 million for International Disaster Assistance
• $580 million for Food Assistance
• $165 million for Migration and Refugee Assistance
• $97 million for the Office of Refugee Resettlement
• $53 million for Economic Support Fund in Sudan

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This morning, Nicole Balliette, Deputy Director of the Haiti Earthquake Emergency Response effort, will testified before Congress about the emergency response effort.

Below is her testimony to the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, part of the  House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Thank you Chairman Engel (NY) and Ranking Member Mack (FL) for calling this important hearing and giving Catholic Relief Services an opportunity to testify. My name is Nicole Balliette and I am the CRS Deputy Director for the Haiti Earthquake Response. With the committee’s permission, I would like to enter my full written testimony for the record and I will summarize it orally. At this time, I would like to thank the members of this committee for the passage of the Haiti Economic Lift Program Act, the Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act, and for swift passage of the Haiti supplemental. CRS would also like to thank Mr. Conyers (MI) for introducing the HEAR Act.
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You may have seen or heard about a report on the Wednesday, May 12 edition of the CBS Evening News titled “Following the Aid Money to Haiti.” The piece looked at the top five U.S. aid agencies that have raised the most money for Haiti and how much they’ve spent so far. The implication is that these aid agencies, including Catholic Relief Services, are not spending the money given by U.S. donors fast enough, and as a result, people in Haiti are being neglected. That’s not true.

This is far from telling the whole story.

-       All CRS Haiti donations will be spent on Haiti relief, recovery and rebuilding per CRS donor expectations.

-       CRS does not “hold back” money or neglect those in immediate need.

-       CRS provides donors with a thorough accounting of donations and expenses

-       Because CRS also provides beneficiaries with non-monetary donations, such as large amounts of food, we’re actually providing more aid than is reflected in early financial reports

-       CRS has been in Haiti for 55 years. Most of our employees there are Haitians. They and CRS will continue relief and recovery work long after the media spotlight fades.
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Issa Bitang (far right), who works for CRS Dominican Republic, talks with youth in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. CRS is considering starting a youth employment project there. Photo by Lane Hartill/CRS

Issa Bitang knows a thing or two about youth employment. In 1990, after his parents separated, the 15-year-old quickly became an adult. He cared for himself, paid his school fees, and scraped together $12 a month to rent a room on the back streets of Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital. To afford this, he set up a stand selling candy, chewing gum, and crackers. But cigarettes paid the bills. He sold singles for a few cents, and the wealthier men would spring for a pack. He sometimes walked the streets with his selection displayed on a platter on his head. This is how he’d make $30 to $50 a month.
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Pouchaina, 11, pushes her 3-year-old sister, Ashlinda, down a street in Ounaminthe, Haiti, as she sucks on a frozen treat. Their home collapsed in the January 12 earthquake. Photo by Lane Hartill/CRS

Pouchaina stood in the shade of the mango tree, legs crossed, surrounded by adults.

She talked to no one. And nobody talk to her. You could look right at her and almost forget she was there.

White barrettes swung from her pig tails. And like most school girls in Haiti, her hair is an explosion of ribbons. But she cut school today; she had more pressing issues, like picking up the food vouchers for her mom.
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At the Foundation Renmen (known as the house of love) they escaped the January 12 quake with no loss of life. Three of the children were hurt when a wall fell but they are doing well now. The buildings sustained heavy damage though.

Foundation Renmen is an orphanage in Port-au-Prince Haiti that is home to 50 children between the ages of two and 18, and 45 of them girls. The girls and the staff members all sleep in tents in the orphanage courtyard and lessons are held under a giant tarpaulin. In days following the quake, entire families of staff and the children stayed in the courtyard. Three more children have arrived at the Foundation since the quake.

Catholic Relief Services was supplying food to Foundation Renmen before the quake as part of a vulnerable groups feeding program. Since the quake, CRS has been providing medicine, tents, food and water.

Despite the devastation around them, the children receive loving care, and are free to play and learn. The older girls formed a singing group and lead the rest of the children is singing popular Haitian songs.

Story and video by Tom Price, communications manager reporting from Haiti

The Patalinghug siblings have at least two up on the Jackson 5 – an additional member, and singing for a purpose. The 4 brothers and two sisters are motivated by family, faith, loving music and, most recently, the plight of earthquake survivors in Haiti. The group, Musix, put on a benefit concert at their parish Church of St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park, Maryland, and raised $1,911 for Catholic Relief Service’s efforts in Haiti.

They formed the group 5 years ago to surprise their dad Carlos for his 40th birthday. After practicing together, they realized that they were having fun and had some real talent. C.J., the oldest at 18 and the group’s songwriter/choreographer, enjoys working with Alyssa (17), Emmanuel (15), Gabriel (12), Angelique (12) and Jared (9). He smiled when asked how the siblings get along during long hours of rehearsals.
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Monday, April 12, marked the three month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, Catholic Relief Services’ chairman of the board, expresses his heartfelt thanks to our generous donors. We know that many generous CRS supporters have donated through their parish’s special collection or at CRS fundraising events, but we have no way to contact them to say how grateful we are. We are asking for your help to spread this video message so others may be thanked as well.

PBS’ Religion and Ethics Newsweekly offers this report on reasons for hope in Haiti.

During a visit to Haiti yesterday by former U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, CRS Haiti country representative Scott Campbell had an opportunity to brief them on the humanitarian relief effort to date, as you can see from this video clip from the BBC.

Bush and Clinton, who spent a day in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince meeting with various government and humanitarian officials, were asked by President Barack Obama to lead U.S. fundraising after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake. Together, the two former presidents lead the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which has raised $37 million for Haiti relief.