Bill Clinton, Qatar announce $12 million to help Haiti

Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

Former U.S. President and special U.N. envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton visits the Haiti Hotel School in Port-au-Prince and watches a student perform a demonstration.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti will receive $12 million from Qatar through a special fund that aims to help the impoverished nation in the areas of health, education and housing, the Middle Eastern country’s envoy said Monday.

Amb. Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al-Rumaihi, together with former U.S. President Bill Clinton, announced that money from the Qatar Haiti Fund will go toward a range of projects seeking to help Haiti rebuild from the massive earthquake in 2010.

The projects range from a $2 million grant that goes toward a mobile health clinic set up by Partners in Health of Boston, Massachusetts, to a $5.5 million grant that goes toward the University of Notre Dame and the Xavier University of Louisiana. One million of that will be earmarked for scholarships for students who wouldn’t be able to attend school otherwise.

“I hope it will set an example for other donors who have committed funds but have not been specific yet about when they will deliver,” Clinton said about Qatar. “The Qataris have kept their word and done it in an intelligent, forward-looking way.”

A separate grant for $700,000 from the Qatar Haiti Fund will go toward the Haitian government and the City of New Orleans. The idea is to impart lessons from Hurricane Katrina to Haiti’s Prime Minister office.

The Qatar Haiti Fund and the United States Agency for International Development also signed a memorandum of understanding to build about 150 to 200 permanent homes for people displaced by the earthquake on a piece of land donated by the Haitian government. The homes will be built in Cabaret, a town northwest of the capital.

Clinton, the U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti, also announced a new partnership with New York University’s Stern School of Business and the Center for Investment Facilitation. The effort aims to make it easier to invest in Haiti through the creation of what Clinton called a “one-stop shop for potential investors.”

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