We are compelled by the worst imaginable circumstances to unify in support of our suffering brothers and sisters and to ensure the survival of Haiti in wake of an earthquake of Biblical proportions that strike the country. To that end, leading Haitian Diaspora organizations -- The Haitian League, the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitian People, Haitian American Engineers & Scientists, the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad and the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce -- have conferred and reached an unprecedented consensus to form the Haitian Diaspora Federation. We are inviting you, your friends and other countries’ alliances to rise to the occasion and join hand to become the global platform of the Haitian Diaspora.

The Federation goals is to harness resources for the Haitian Diaspora organizations and ensure their active integration and participation, along with the international donors’ aid, in the delivery of an integrated plan of relief, restoration and local capacity-building for the short and long-term welfare of the victims, sandwiched in Haiti’s long-term comprehensive reconstruction and sustainable development. The Federation is looking forward to closely work with the International community, the Haitian government and all sectors of Haiti’s society to ensure maximum efficiency of the relief and rebuilding effort.

An estimated one third, if not half, of all Haitians live outside Haiti. Recently, the World Bank estimated that more than 80% Haiti’s professionals -- Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Architects, Financiers, and project Managers, etc. -- are among them. This “Diaspora” mostly resides in the United States with 2.5 million or more -- 700,000 in New York, 500,000 in Florida, 150,000 each in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois, 80,000 in Georgia and then across the country, even to California. Others reside in Canada [up to 100,000], Europe and Africa [up to 30,000 each] and the Caribbean islands, predominantly the Dominican Republic [up to a million] and an estimated 25 percent of the population of the Bahamas.

The Federation is opened to all Haitian-American organizations. We need you and your organization to take part in this new undertaking. The urgency of the moment requires that we rise above our diversity for a common purpose. This is your and your friends‘opportunity to get involved in Haiti’s Reconstruction and Development, please fill out the attached application and return it to Marisel Astudillo mariselastudillo@gmail.com.

Best Regards