Addressing the International Donors’ Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti held at the United Nations headquarters, the Prime Minister said the portion of this donation was to support education, health and provision of shelter in Haiti in recognition of the importance of the right to education as a cornerstone in the success of recovery, development and the return of the country to its normal situation.
“We shall continue coordinating with various stakeholders to enhance rebuilding and development in Haiti,” he said. The Prime Minister said Qatar was one of the first countries that had rushed to send humanitarian assistance and relief just upon receiving the news of the earthquake in Haiti.
By order of the Emir, H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, a fully equipped search and rescue team was sent to Port-au-Prince along with a cargo plane loaded with 50 tonnes of emergency relief materials from Qatar’s strategic reserve in the UN Disaster Response Warehouse Network. Two Qatari medical team participated in medical care for the injured at field hospitals and portable clinics in Port-au-Prince, and a plan is underway to send a third team in April, the Prime Minister said. He said that Qatar Red Crescent seeks, through a humanitarian donation campaign it launched in the country, to raise more than $ 1m to support relief and recovery efforts. It hopes that humanitarian assistance shall secure makeshift shelter for some 5,000 families by May, besides providing potable water.
“One of the initiatives that touched me the most, and that I would like to share with you, was pupils and their teachers in two Qatari schools volunteered to organise an internal activity and raised $ 65,000 to contribute to relief efforts in Haiti.
We, in the State of Qatar, are proud that we are always at the forefront of countries that contribute to the provision of material and in kind humanitarian assistance in response to disasters around the world, particularly in developing countries.”
The State of Qatar also provides donations through United Nations Funds,” the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani said.
At the outset of the speech the Prime Minister expressed appreciation to the United Nations Secretary-General and the governments of the United States, Brazil, Canada, France and the European Union for their initiative to convene the Donor’s Conference.
“I commend the tangible efforts exerted by the United Nations, by countries or by international charitable organisations that have promptly responded to help the Haitian people in the aftermath of the natural disaster that hit their country last January.
“Such response from all over the world is truly an honourable stance by the international community in the face of the grave catastrophe that has befallen Haiti in a difficult time causing horrendous humanitarian tragedy besides dealing a decapitating blow to the country’s recovery effort which were underway to relieve it from the social and economic hardships it had been suffering from as a result of instability in the past few years,” the Prime Minister said.
Earlier in the day, in his opening remarks, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the wholesale rebuilding of Haiti as he urged donors to provide $ 11.5bn over the next 10 years for the reconstruction of the Caribbean nation that was devastated by a massive earthquake in January.
