Skip to main content
  • News
    • MTV News
    • Trending News
    • Videos & Interviews
    • Taylor Swift
    • Kim Kardashian
  • Music
    • Music Highlights
    • Music Videos
    • Charts
    • Playlists
    • EMAs
    • MTV PUSH
    • Artists
  • Shows
    • Latest Shows
    • The Charlotte Show
    • Geordie Shore
    • Ex on the Beach
    • Just Tattoo Of Us
    • Teen Mom UK
    • The Royal World
  • Movies
    • Movies Highlights
    • New Movies Coming Soon
    • Videos & Interviews
    • Trailers
    • Moana
  • Travel
    • Videos
  • Style
  • Life
    • Life
    • MTV Breaks
    • Sex
    • WTF
    • SRS
    • Travel
    • Fitness
    • Generation Change
  • Pictures
  • Win
  • MTV Play
  • TV Guide
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Search
  • Pictures
  • Win
  • MTV Play
  • TV Guide
Home
  • News
    • MTV News
    • Trending News
    • Videos & Interviews
    • Taylor Swift
    • Kim Kardashian
  • Music
    • Music Highlights
    • Music Videos
    • Charts
    • Playlists
    • EMAs
    • MTV PUSH
    • Artists
  • Shows
    • Latest Shows
    • The Charlotte Show
    • Geordie Shore
    • Ex on the Beach
    • Just Tattoo Of Us
    • Teen Mom UK
    • The Royal World
  • Movies
    • Movies Highlights
    • New Movies Coming Soon
    • Videos & Interviews
    • Trailers
    • Moana
  • Travel
    • Videos
  • Style
  • Life
    • Life
    • MTV Breaks
    • Sex
    • WTF
    • SRS
    • Travel
    • Fitness
    • Generation Change
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Search

Wyclef Jean

  • Main
  • Videos
  • News

Wyclef Writes For Help

The ex-Fugee member tries to keep Haiti in the public eye

  • Share to Facebook
  • Tweet to Twitter
  • Share to Google plus
Monday, May 10, 2010 - 17:00

Wyclef has been working extremely hard on raising money and awareness for Haiti - he’s already raised $10 million and is planning to raise a lot more to help the victims of the earthquake. He recently penned a letter to CNN further detailing Haiti's current plight and efforts to find shelter for ‘displaced brothers and sisters’.

The letter reads:

The headlines are less frequent, but Haiti is still pumping through the bloodstream in our house.  Haiti, where I was born, is my heart and soul and the heart and soul of my family, and we've been working really hard to get food, clean water and medical attention to the millions of people affected by the January 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince.

Now that it's the rainy season, we have another serious problem: About a million Haitians are living in massive tent cities, struggling to keep dry.
The season will last through July, and we could end up with some serious flooding. Our organization, Yéle Haiti, has been distributing tents, as have other organizations, but no matter how many people we help, some people are still living under sheets or in cardboard boxes. Nobody would really call that "shelter," and for basic human dignity, people need to live in a place that keeps the rain and wind out. They can't survive much longer like this. We have to do something fast.

My wife, Claudinette, a fashion designer and someone who cares passionately about our homeland, is leading a project to relocate families from the tents to temporary houses all across Haiti. She's part mom, part wife, and part warrior when it comes to Yéle and our mission.

We're going to build temporary wood-frame houses with cement foundations that will last for several years. The units are 12-by-12 feet, with windows, front doors and well-constructed metal roofs, and they'll house up to six people. The houses will stay dry even if it rains day and night, which sometimes happens. Yéle will build 100 homes in five sites in the Port-au-Prince area to start and 400 additional houses in the second phase.

It's Claudinette's experience in managing construction projects that makes her ideal to run this project. The women and children living in the tents in bad conditions are going to be first to be set up in the temporary houses, which will be ready for the initial tenants soon.

Claudinette, the heart and soul of our organization, has been making regular trips to Haiti since the quake, distributing food, clothing and medical supplies and working on several projects that we're doing at Yéle Haiti. We estimate that Yéle will spend more than $1 million on this project.

We also have to make progress on rebuilding permanent housing. I don't just want to build houses; the key to long-term progress is building whole communities that run themselves. You need to start with agriculture and establish a job corps. You need to teach people the skills they need to do for themselves. Once you restore basic human dignity and pride, and you give people a chance, you give them hope and something to work toward.
Yéle Haiti has plans to build a permanent agricultural community.

It's going to be a farming community for about 5,000 people near Croix-des-Bouquets. The idea is to introduce simple and sustainable techniques for improved farming, education, health and other services that begin to spark changes at the community level in other parts of the country.
We are also working on plans for a large kitchen, based at Yéle headquarters in La Plaine, that will be modeled on a program we have run for several years in Cité Soleil called Yéle Cuisine. The concept in both cases is hiring local women who traditionally sell meals at the side of the road and train them to improve the quality of the food they prepare, learn business skills and learn to read. The scale in this new kitchen is much larger and the output will be up to 15,000 meals a day for schools, orphanages and for sale by market women as micro-entrepreneurs. We hope to start construction by June.

I meant to write this as a Mother's Day salute to Claudinette, but, like most things we do since the earthquake, I find myself instead talking about our people and their needs. Call it our family distraction -- mine and that of everyone in the Haitian diaspora. It might even be your family distraction, too, because what mom, dad, son or daughter hasn't been affected by the families disrupted and lives lost in Haiti?

Now is the time to be focused on helping Haitians find shelter from the storm.

You can still help support the cause - www.yele.org

Latest News

Get To Know - Moonchild Sanelly
Get To Know: Moonchild Sanelly
Get To Know: FLO
Get To Know: FLO
Get To Know - Poppy Ajudha
Get To Know: Poppy Ajudha
Get To Know: Bru-C
Get To Know: Bru-C
Get To Know: Alissic
Get To Know: Alissic
Get To Know: French The Kid
Get To Know: French The Kid
Get To Know: Daisy Brain
Get To Know: Daisy Brain
Get To Know: Dylan
Get To Know: Dylan
Get To Know: Flowerovlove
Get To Know: Flowerovlove
Get To Know: Luude
Get To Know: Luude
Our Music Portfolio Is Changing
Get To Know: Belters Only
Get To Know: Belters Only
Get To Know: CMAT
Get To Know: CMAT
Get To Know: Rêve
Get To Know: Rêve
Get To Know: Lauran Hibberd
Get To Know: Lauran Hibberd
Bad Boy Chiller Crew
Bad Boy Chiller Crew Win MTV PUSH UK & IRE 2022!
MTV’s Catfish UK: Apply Now
The BRIT Awards 2022 Hosted By Mo Gilligan
Win Tickets To The BRIT Awards 2022!
Wet Leg
Wet Leg Found It "So Weird" When People Sang Their Songs
Thomas Headon
Thomas Headon: “If You Vote For Me, I Will Be A Step Closer To Meeting Harry Styles”

More From Wyclef Jean

Music
This Week's Must-Hear New Music Round Up: Major Lazer, Gorgon City and Bear's Den
Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj And Lil Wayne For American Music Awards
Chris Martin, Billie Joe Armstrong To Feature On New Aviciii LP
Avicii Teams Up With Wyclef Jean, Carlos Santana For World Cup Anthem
Music
Duke Dumont Kept Original Whitney Sample 'Out Of Respect'
Amanda Bynes Reveals She's Had More Cosmetic Surgery
Charlie Sheen Lands Film Role After Two And A Half Men Exit
Jason Derulo To Co-Host 2011 MOBO Awards
Wyclef Jean Shot In Haiti
Wyclef Jean
Election Time
Wyclef Jean Will Stand Again For Haiti Presidency
Wyclef Jean Ends His Pursuit To Become Haitian President

Trending Articles

10 Things Your Heartbroken Friend Needs To Hear
22 Ways To Look Busy At Work While Doing Absolutely Nothing
18 Most Naked Of Naked Moments To Have Ever Hit Geordie Shore
Get To Know - Moonchild Sanelly
Get To Know: Moonchild Sanelly
Life
Here's Why Celebs Are Holding Four Fingers Up In Their Selfies
21 Types Of People You'll Find In Every Friendship Group
Celebrity
10 Celebrities Who Have Some Seriously Kinky Sex Likes In The Bedroom
What 15 Of The Most Common Sex Dreams ACTUALLY Mean
Dixie D’Amelio Speaks Out After She And Charli Were Criticised For Being “Rude” To Their Chef
Shannon Purser at the premier of Sierra Burgess Is A Loser.
Who Is Shannon Purser? Everything You NTK About The Star Of Sierra Burgess Is A Loser
  • Contact Us
  • Access Services
  • Website Terms
  • Mobile Terms
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • MTV Jobs
  • MTV Press
  • Anti-Slavery
  • Global Tax Policy Statement
Hit us with some keywords!