(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) More than 300 persons from eleven Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States and Associate Members have so far been involved in the response to the devastating earthquake which struck Haiti on 12 January.
The Region’s initial response was spearheaded by Jamaica, the sub-regional focal point with responsibility for the northern geographic zone of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) which includes Haiti among its five countries. CDEMA is the regional response mechanism for natural disasters.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) must continue to support Haiti and allow sufficient time for that Member State to continue its efforts to participate fully in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, H.E. Lolita Applewhaite, Deputy Secretary-General, CARICOM said Monday.

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) the Hon Roosevelt Skerrit said CARICOM would have discussions with the University of the West Indies (UWI) with a view to creating special programmes for displaced tertiary students in Haiti.

He was responding to queries at a press conference, in Paramaribo, Suriname, following the inaugural CARICOM Summit on Youth Development, 29-30 January.

We, the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), meeting at the Torarica Hotel, Paramaribo, Suriname on 30 January 2010 on the occasion of a Special Regional Summit on Youth Development:

Conscious that regional integration holds the key to the optimal development of the small developing countries of the Community and the regional population, the majority of which is under the age of 30;