UNITED NATIONS, March 23 (UPI) -- The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Tuesday formally launched its $35 million Flash Appeal to help Haiti's needy for six months.
"Urgent needs are for food aid, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, and public security," OCHA said. "Projects to facilitate recovery are those that seek to restore stocks, rehabilitate infrastructures, build capacities; advocacy for human rights and humanitarian principles; disarmament; and conflict resolution."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's chief spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said shortly after the appeal was launched that Annan's special adviser on Haiti, Reginald Dumas, will leave the island nation Wednesday to attend a meeting of the Caribbean Community, known as CARICOM, in St. Kitts and Nevis.
CARICOM played an important role in trying to work out a compromise between then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his opponents earlier this year. He departed for the Central African Republic Feb. 29 as violence swept the nation.
