(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Special Representative on Haiti, the Most Honourable Percival Patterson and CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General Foreign and Community Relations, Ambassador Colin Granderson are in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic attending a preparatory meeting for the Pledging Conference on Haiti convened by the United States and scheduled for 31 March at the United Nations headquarters, New York, USA.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Without the assistance of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) even with its limited financial resources, and the resources of the international community, Haiti would not be able to recover from the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country earlier this year, H.E Rene Preval, President of Haiti said Friday.

The earthquake of January 12 ranks as being among the worst catastrophes to befall a single nation. The loss of life, the toll of severe injuries, the destruction of the physical infrastructure, the demolition of public buildings and its consequent damage to the apparatus of governance combined to make the natural disaster one of the worst ever in recorded history.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The World Bank has indicated its support for a special multi-donor fund for the reconstruction of CARICOM Member State, Haiti.
The fund will ensure that all donors’ resources are pooled. Such an approach would help to streamline the assistance to Haiti.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Barbadian Rosina Wiltshire has been appointed the First Caribbean Community Advocate for Gender Justice for the year 2010.

As part of her terms of reference, Dr. Rosina Wiltshire will be required to coordinate the research on Gender Based Violence (GBV) within the Caribbean Region and raise awareness of the need for further action to develop and strengthen integrated responses that will “address all social and legal sectors for the purposes of protection, provision of services; justice; and prevention.”