Haitian President Rene Preval is heading to the US discuss what is needed to rebuild his shattered country.
Preval said he planned to personally thank US President Barack Obama when they meet in the White House today for the private and public US aid that flooded into the country after the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000 people.
The Haitian president told reporters before leaving on Monday that he also hoped to discuss what next steps are needed for reconstruction. He said the country needed help with job creation and less donated food, which can undermine local producers.
International food aid to Haiti has to be scaled back so the quake-ravaged nation can find its feet through its own domestic production and employment, he said.
“If food and water continues to be sent from abroad, that will undermine Haitian national production and Haitian trade,” Preval said.
“Now we have to move more and more towards creating jobs so people are paid, and so they themselves step in to help Haiti,” he said.
He also said Haiti’s priorities now were to prepare for the coming hurricane season, which starts in June, and to get children back to school.
“Unfortunately, the finances aren’t there. We are lacking US$38 million,” he said.
The resumption of classes was necessary for the 600,000 children currently not going to school, he added, explaining it could also serve as a “trigger” in starting to thin out the crowded camps and sending people to settlements outside the capital.
Those points were being stressed by the Haitian government in the lead-up to an international donors’ conference taking place in the UN in New York on March 31.
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