Africans Extend Solidarity to Haiti

Africans Extend Solidarity to Haiti: Money, Food and Medicines from “Mother Africa” to Her Diaspora, by Ernest Harsch, Africa Renewal (UN Publication), April 2010, pg. 22 In the broad international mobilization to help the stricken people of Haiti, Africa is not lagging behind. Government officials, religious leaders, students, artists and many other Africans responded to the news of the devastating earthquake of 12 January with an immediate outpouring of support and solidarity. By end-March, some 24 countries in Africa had either donated or pledged more than $51 mn for Haitian relief efforts, according to available reports. That was just a tiny fraction of the total of $3.5 bn given or promised worldwide, but notable nonetheless for the continent with the world’s highest poverty rates. More...