News

June 6, 2005

Wyclef Jean and Yéle Haiti Announce Project Clean Streets

Massive citywide effort will clean up Port-au-Prince municipalities and employ hundreds of Haitians

June 6, 2005 – Port-au-Prince, Haiti – Wyclef Jean, on behalf of his organization Yéle Haiti (www.yele.org), today announced the launch of the foundation’s latest sustainability program, Project Clean Streets, a citywide initiative to collect garbage on a regular basis in six municipalities in metropolitan Port-au-Prince. The project will include removing urban waste, creating employment, reducing health risks, building public awareness of sanitation issues and engaging local populations in improving the quality of their lives. Project Clean Streets will employ 600 workers per day, utilize 50 trucks and will operate through to the end of 2005.

“To get respect, you must first show respect,” said Wyclef Jean. “It starts by us cleaning our streets.”

Community-based removal of solid waste began this morning in Tabarre, Carrefour, Crois-des-Bouquets, Delmas, Port-au-Prince and Pétion-Ville. Estimates of garbage production in Port-au-Prince alone are at approximately 1.5 million cubic meters per month. Garbage collection is currently limited and, apart from limited support form the Public Works Department, is predominantly collected by private companies servicing only families and companies that can pay for it. As a result, the majority of street garbage does not get collected. The failure to collect and dispose of garbage creates a debilitating social climate and seriously threatens public health and safety. Health problems such as respiratory, gastrointestinal, and mosquito-borne diseases remain high.

Garbage collection will work in two ways. One, workers organized by teams will collect garbage on the streets and take it to designated neighborhood collection points. Two, citizens will bring their garbage to the same points. Garbage trucks will take the refuse to a municipal dump. Currently, about 15% of garbage placed at collection points is taken to a municipal dump.

In addition, up to 30 selected schools in Port-au-Prince (including Wyclef Jean’s home town of Croix des Bouquets) will have two opportunities to take part:

Cleanup Week: for a one week period, students in participating schools will be involved in cleanup activities in their immediate neighborhoods. A condition of participation will be that they have a visit from the CARE team who will give a presentation on civic responsibility as it applies to garbage. For their participation the schools will be awarded a certain number of one-year scholarships for the academic year beginning in October, 2005.

School Grounds Competition: in the fall, there will be a competition and awarding of school equipment for the school with the best-kept grounds.

Yéle Haiti is a U.S. 501(c)3 and a Haitian NGO with a focus on education, health and the environment. This initiative is financed by USAID and implemented in partnership with the Pan American Development Foundation and CARE.

June 6, 2005

Yéle Haiti Completes Renovations of the First Three Schools in Gonaives

Wyclef Jean Visits Schools, Dedicates Plaques and Plants Grove Dedicated to His Daughter

Gonaives, Haiti – Monday, June 6 – Wyclef Jean, with his foundation Yéle Haiti (www.yele.org), today announced the renovation completion of the first three schools in Gonaives. Jean will visit the three schools today with Bernard Fils-Aimé, Directeur Général for Comcel, beginning with Collège Diocésain Saint Paul to unveil plaques commemorating the completion.

Gonaives was devastated by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. Yéle Haiti, launched in January of 2005 and with funding by Comcel, directed its first efforts to Gonaives, sponsoring projects in education as a way to help with recovery. Through Yéle Haiti, Comcel sponsored scholarships for 3,600 children, the renovation of 20 schools, and teacher training improvement workshops for 16 schools. Among these, the school renovations are jointly sponsored by Comcel with additional support from USAID. On May 11, 2005, 70 schools were awarded certificates to receive a minimum of 50 scholarships each, 20 schools were awarded certificates for being chosen for renovations, and 16 schools were awarded certificates for being chosen to receive workshop training.

Three of the twenty schools have completed their renovation work. Today, Wyclef Jean will unveil a plaque commemorating the completion of the renovations and break ground to plant a grove at one of the schools, Collège Diocésain Saint Paul. Accompanying him will be students from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) and Yéle Haiti scholarship recipients in Gonaives. Students from Morehouse College and the G.E.N.E.S.I.S. project will be planting trees for Yéle Haiti in Haiti during the summer. The grove will be dedicated to Wyclef’s daughter and named Angelina Grove.

“Before a rose blooms, the seed has to be planted in the ground. Everything starts off with the seed and the roots,” said Wyclef Jean. “And for our young kids, the seed and the roots is education. We must instill the importance of education in these future roses.”

Yéle Haiti, founded by hip hop superstar and Haitian native Wyclef Jean, is a Haitian NGO and a U.S. 501(c)3 organization. Wyclef is committed to helping the people of Haiti through Yéle Haiti, which identifies and works with successful NGOs in Haiti to accomplish goals in three key areas: education, health and environment.

Yéle Haiti’s programs are fully developed, implemented managed by Orsa Consultants (www.orsaconsultants.com), a corporate social responsibility consultancy.