A letter from the President of AmCham Haiti

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Dear Members:

The American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti (AmCham Haïti) is deeply concerned about the impact Hurricane Matthew has on the affected communities.

Following the storm landfall into the southwestern coast of Haiti last week, the Board of Directors of AmCham Haïti had an emergency meeting the next morning.  The Chamber decided to work with the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) to respond in the hardest hit areas.  This is being done under the guidance of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA) and PADF on Natural Disaster Reduction, Preparedness and Response.

AACCLA is currently working with PADF to set up a fund where people from around the world will be able to donate and we need to bring our own contribution to this great effort.

For the Emergency Phase PADF estimates that for 50,000 families (approximately 250,000 people), $3 million dollars are needed.  A team has already been mobilized, during the weekend, to deliver drinking water, chlorine and emergency kits.  As we jointly continue to reach the affected municipalities we need your help.  Donations can include cash, volunteered services or reduced prices on products and services.

The needs for the Recovery Phase are still being evaluated.  There are over 20,000 people that are homeless due to the storm.  In this phase we will implement actions to assist affected communities in order to help them to recover economically.  We will need your help to implement the immediate response and the recovery efforts.

I know that many of you have already started assisting the victims of Hurricane Matthew and I commend you for your spontaneous and generous support.  I would like to encourage you to let us know all that you have done or plan to do to assist the affected communities and call on you to consider additional support that will allow us to bring supplementary relief to the victims in a timely manner as well as support to recover from the disaster and rebuild their economy.

I thank you in advance for your help and your solidarity towards our brothers and sisters affected by Matthew.

Carl-Auguste Boisson

President of the Board of Directors

If you want to contribute please call us or send an email to: info@amchamhaiti.com

 Click here for official version of the letter