What Is Haiti Week?

Haiti Week was officially launched in Dublin on October 9th by President Bill Clinton and will take place from January 21st – 28th 2012. Events and activities will be held throughout Ireland. The objective of Haiti Week is to raise awareness of Haiti through art, music and the business community, and to celebrate a special island that is bravely struggling to meet a range of challenges. January 2012 is the second anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti that killed over 300,000 and displaced more than 1.6 million people from their homes.

While huge efforts in the recovery process are ongoing, particularly through input from the Irish business community, there are still nearly 600,000 people in Haiti living in tents and under tarpaulins (plastic sheeting). This is nearly twice the population of Cork city and surrounds, living in these conditions on an island one third the size of Ireland.

Through Haiti Week we hope we can bring together members of the public and business community to help solve some of the many remaining problems this small country is courageously facing. Haiti Week, the first initiative of its kind in Ireland, is an innovative partnership developed by a number of Irish charities and businesses to assist the development of new ideas and approaches that will help hundreds of thousands of Haitian people.