 Wyclef Jean, Bill Clinton and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Haiti Goodwill Ambassador, Wyclef Jean, arrived in Port au Prince last Wednesday (Mardh 11) with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, in an effort to bring worldwide awareness to his home country of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Haiti, which has been hit by a series of devastating storms over the past year, desperately needs help after more than 800 people died and over 1 million people were left homeless, or in desperate need of recovery and reconstruction efforts.
Jean, who was born and raised in Haiti, has lead efforts to help rebuild, educate, and create jobs, via his own Yéle Haiti foundation. He founded the movement with the goal to help bring hope back to the country, in which his projects are designed to make a difference in the fields of education, health, environment and community development. The power and reach of music, sports and the media is used to increase the impact of these projects.
The former Fugees rapper was invited to accompany Clinton and Ban tour the region. "I was honored to show my support when they asked me to join them on this important humanitarian trip, which also gave them the opportunity to experience the beauty underneath the devastation my country and its people have had to face," he says. "It's crucial for me to do all I can to raise awareness and help Haiti get through this tough time."
The threesome visited a Yéle sponsored feeding program at a school in Cité Soleil and an education leadership program in Turgeau. They also met with President René Preval and senior government officials, where they took in the Sonapi Industrial Park in a walking tour.
Before traveling back to the US, Jean attended a press conference where Clinton and Ban summarized their trip and discussed the Hope II US trade deal, which gives Haiti direct access to US markets for apparel without duty; a bill that Jean lobbied for extensively before it was passed.
For more information on the Yéle Haiti foundation, go to Yele.org.
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