News

May 11, 2005

Wyclef Jean’s Foundation Yéle Haiti and Comcel Award Funding to Schools in Gonaives

Funding to be Awarded in the Areas of Scholarships, School Renovations and Teacher Training Workshops.

May 11, 2005 – Gonaives, Haiti - Yéle Haiti, Wyclef Jean’s foundation, and Comcel, Haiti’s largest wireless service provider, today announce that they are awarding funding to schools in Gonaives for educational scholarships, renovation and teacher training workshops. Gonaives, approximately four hours outside of the capital of Port-au-Prince, is one of the poorest communities in Haiti, which is currently the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Gonaives was significantly damaged by Hurricane Jeane in 2004. Thousands of people were killed by the floods that left many children parentless or with single parents, and many school buildings were damaged which have not yet been repaired due to lack of government funding. Being in the midst of rainy season at this time, fears are reviving in children who have not forgotten the floods.

Yélé Haïti, 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.

Today in Gonaives, Yéle Haiti and Comcel are helping the youth of Gonaives by awarding 3,600 much needed scholarships to children whose parents, families or others cannot afford to pay their tuition and would not otherwise be able to go to school. Chosen from hundreds of schools based on strict criteria and managed by NGO Fonds de Parrainage’s Executive Director Antoine Levelt, the scholarships will be distributed among 70 Gonaives schools. This is significant because this scholarship program, awarded by Yéle Haiti and funded entirely by Comcel, is the largest awarding of scholarships by a Haitian company to date. Comcel is dedicated to helping the community in Haiti in the area of education. Comcel’s Executive Director, Bernard Fils-Aimé, will speak on Comcel’s behalf at the press conference about these programs.

In addition, Yéle Haiti will announce the 20 schools that will receive renovations for damage caused by the floods. Also chosen from a large pool of schools and based on many points of criteria, this project will be overseen by NGO the Pan American Development Foundation’s Resident Representative John Currelly and managed by their representative present today, Martial Bailey. The school renovations will include the payment of teacher salaries and school supplies. PADF will announce the first Haitian contractor to be identified to work on the school renovations. This portion of the project is jointly funded by Comcel and USAID.

Further, Yéle Haiti will announce the 15 schools that will receive teacher training workshops, intended to provide teachers with an increased level of teaching skills. Chosen from a large pool of schools based on need, this project will be overseen by the NGO Centre d’Apprentissage et de Formation Pour la Transformation’s Executive Director Linda Gershuny. This portion of the project is funded entirely by Comcel.

Also attending and speaking at the press conference today will be Jean Charles, the Deputy Mayor of Gonaives; Jean Audain Duroseau, an official from the National Commission on Education; and Jacque Yvon Pierre, the Special Representative of the Ministry of Education.

Each school will receive a certificate commemorating their specific funding award signed by Yéle Haiti founder Wyclef Jean.

Immediately following the press conference, there will be buses to take the attending members to Collhge Immaculie Conception where the 3,600 scholarship recipients will be gathered, in their school uniforms, for a photo op. All members of the press conference audience are welcome to attend.

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

# # # # #

Wyclef Jean, Statement Read at May 11 2005 Press Conference

Yele Haiti is a non-political movement to give people, particularly our youth, the resources and the inspiration to rebuild this nation of ours that we love. Our focus at Yéle Haiti is on education, health and the environment, and we work on projects that can expand to other parts of the country.

You are gathered here today in Gonaives so that we can show you exactly what we have been doing for our kids and their education since we launched Yéle Haiti in mid-January. You are about to meet the principles of the 20 schools we will be rebuilding, starting next week, with the help of the Pan American Development Foundation. You will meet the principles of the 70 schools that have already received a total of 3,600 scholarships for this current academic year through a partnership we have with Le Fonds de Parrainage National. And you will meet the principles of the schools in which we are giving teacher training workshops conducted by the Centre d’Apprentissage et de Formation Pour la Transformation. This is real, and it’s happening.

After this press conference we will be going to a nearby school where we will have all 3,600 of the kids who have received Yéle Haiti scholarships. They are what Yéle Haiti is all about. These kids and kids like them throughout the country are the hope for Haiti. We want to give them the chance to dream about their future, to have a future, and help them to make those dreams come true.

There have been a lot of promises of aid and assistance for Haiti from all sorts of groups. When we launched Yéle Haiti we made promises too. And today we invite you to see the results of these first promises. We have more projects in the works and I can’t wait to tell you about them when we are ready. Here today I want to pay special tribute to ComCEL as the first company that stepped forward to work with us in making all this possible. Their generous contribution has made it possible to turn the dream of Yele Haiti into a reality. I hope you will give a round of applause for my good friend Bernard Fils-Aime, the Director General of ComCEL, here today to talk to you. I also want to thank our NGO partners who have also worked very hard for us to make this dream a reality, for us and for the kids, – Antoine Levelt, Martial Bailey and Linda Gershuny -- because without them you wouldn’t see the results here today.

I want you to know that I appreciate that all of you are here today. Thank you for your interest in Yéle Haiti.