By Miranda Buttram Posted April 28, 2010
The earthquake on January 12, 2010, destroyed buildings and turned Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, into rubble. Almost three months have passed since that devastating day and the country of Haiti is beginning to rebuild with the help of other countries.
The United Nations met in New York to pledge funding and assistance to help rebuild a demolished Haiti. Delegates from more than 130 nations are gathering, to acquire the support needed to secure financial resources for the project.
When the earthquake hit, it killed nearly 300,000 people and left one-third of the country’s nine million people in need of aid. The UN Development Programme is estimating $7 billion worth of damages due to the earthquake (cananews.net).
The pledges from international organizations and 59 nations added up to nearly $5.3 billion over the next two years and a total of $9.9 billion for three more years. The United States itself was one of the largest donors to the Haitian cause, committing to $1.15 billion on top of the more than $900 million already spent (nytimes.com). The country of Haiti has an estimated $828 million dollar debt to international institutions. The debt relief is one of several approaches to help Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake (ap.org).
However, aid experts state that there is a lack of adequate shelter, which is a critical issue for safety and public health. Although most rebuilding efforts are still slow, the small country now has the funds pledged at the United Nations meeting to help speed up the recovery process of the devastated country.
