Foundation - Haiti Observer Blog

Internationally-recognized Haitian-American and Hip-Hop musician, Wyclef Jean, established his Yele foundation, in 2005. After the 2010 earthquake struck Haiti, Yele contracted with HVS Global Hospitality Services to offer a six-month hospitality training course. Yele's payout in monthly installments was to total $285,000. To date HVS has been paid only 61% of the total, causing HVS to file suit in New York City's Supreme Court.

Wyclef Jean's celebrity allowed his foundation to collect nearly $2 million from international donors within a short time-period post-quake. But after some Haitian businesses filed their own lawsuits against Yele for defaulting on debt payments to them, an auditing firm examined the foundation's books and uncovered an embezzlement scheme. Yele had been funneling money to Jean, his business contacts, and family members from $16 million in foundation funds accrued over several years. It was also discovered by the Attorney General of New York Yele had not paid income taxes for a number of years. In response Yele liquidated its assets and hid them.

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After being away from the limelight for so long and finally returning to Haiti from seven years of exile just last year, former president and Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide is faced with another big controversy. Only this time, it does not involve his rather unfavorable presidency in the past.

Former street children who were rescued by La Fanmi Se Lavi, a foundation established by Aristide when he was still a priest and before he was elected as the president of Haiti in 1990, recently filed a complaint against Aristide under the "Association of Victims of exploitation of the Fanmi Se Lavi". According to the association's president, Junior Restauno, the former Haitian priest and president used the foundation and the children for his personal gain. They have only received a few trips abroad while in the care of the foundation but have not yet been able to receive any other kind of needed assistance from the aid, especially in the financial aspect, Aristide acquired from the foundation's benefactors. Aside from this, the association's complaint also mentioned the former religious leader's physical violence and corruption.

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After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he launched The Jonathan Vilma Foundation. The foundation was made to help rebuild the country of Haiti and in particular to help provide basic education to the youth of Haiti. Though he is a successful American football linebacker, Jonathan Polynice Vilma has his native nation Haiti at heart.

Vilma currently plays for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. He was born on April 16, 1982 in Coral Gables, Florida. His parents are natives of Haiti who had migrated to the United States in 1970.

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Haiti's aim for socio-economic development has paved way for both local and international bodies and institutions to cooperate in providing the country and its people different means to attain this. Through technology, these entities have found various innovative ways to assist most especially the poor sector of Haitian society. The Mobile Money initiative, which was launched in the country last 2010 by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), continues to offer promising results.

The Haiti Mobile Money Initiative organized by the Gates Foundation has recently reached a five-million worth of transactions. This resulted in Digicel and Voila, two of the country's mobile network companies, sharing an award worth 3.2 million dollars for this milestone, which marks the final award of the initiative's ten-million-dollar incentive fund. The growing success of mobile money assists Haitians with a more practical and easier way through their mobile phones in taking care of monetary transactions as ninety percent of them do not have bank accounts. Aside from the HMMI, the government has launched two projects involving mobile money called "Aba Grangou" and "Ti Manman Cheri". The "Ti Manman Cheri", otherwise known as "Dear Little Mother", aims to help Haitian youth that are facing extreme poverty.

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