MELINDA MILES
Founder and director of Let Haiti Live, a project of TransAfrica Forum, Miles has been doing relief and advocacy work on Haiti for more than a decade. She said today: “One year after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, there are over 1 million IDP’s [internally displaced persons], over 3,600 have died from a cholera epidemic and women and girls remain highly vulnerable to rape and violence in IDP camps. Despite all this, only 38 percent of the $1.4 billion Americans donated for relief, and only 63.6 percent of $2.01 billion pledged by 55 top donor countries, has actually been spent. Less than 20,000 transitional shelters out of the year one goal of 125,000 have been built — among all NGOs and agencies combined. The next step for Haiti’s elections, meanwhile, remains in doubt following news of conflicting analyses of vote counts: while a leaked report by the Organization of American States suggests removing the government-backed candidate from the run-off, an independent analysis of all the vote tally sheets finds that it is impossible to determine who should advance to a second round. [Read more...]