• Submitted by: admin
• Caribbean
• Havana
• international
• personalities
• Society
• Health and Medicine
• Personalities
• Politics and Government
• 01 / 30 / 2010

---

“The response of the international community was very important to us, but of all, Cuba was the first country to help us,” Haitian government advisor Jean Rénald Clerisme told the media.
  
The former foreign minister said that the Hispanic region of the continent with Cuba on the lead played an important part in the world efforts to help his country overcome the disaster.

“We have to thank Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and President Raul Castro and Cuba for initiating the Comprehensive Health Program and also our friend Esteban Lazo [Cuban VP], who has helped us throughout so many years,” Clerisme said.
He explained that approximately 200,000 Haitians died as a consequence of the earthquake, while Cuban doctors have saved thousands of lives since right after the natural phenomenon shook the country.

Clerisme admitted that the distribution of the international aid has been hindered by coordination problems.

He explained that the Government had assigned a mission to each of the ministers concerning the distribution of aid and other tasks since the very beginning, but it was very hard to find cooperation amidst the catastrophe, he noted.

“Day by day, we step up in the coordination efforts so that our people can receive what it is being sent over for them.”

Regarding the emigration of Haitians from Port-au-Prince, Clerisme said experts had originally considered establishing 10 sites for the quake refugees on the outskirts of the devastated city, but this number was later expanded as some 60 are needed to relocate the estimated 600,000 homeless.
 
Source: ACN