Clinton Foundation Launches New Partnership with Mission of Hope, Haiti on Three Year Anniversary of Earthquake

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI - Today President Clinton visited the Leveque community in Haiti, a village just outside of Port au Prince that is the site of Mission of Hope, Haiti’s community development project, where new homes for 314 displaced families have been built. This project has been cited as an example of what housing resettlement communities should be. The Clinton Foundation will provide solar power for the community’s new school, which will begin construction in Spring 2013, solar lights, and a drip irrigation system for farmers.

Austin Holmes, Mission of Hope’s Director of Partner Development commented on the new partnership, “While Mission of Hope solemnly remembers the tremendous loss of three years ago today, we are deeply moved by the resiliency of the Haitian people and the enduring hope of this nation. We gratefully receive the Clinton Foundation’s partnership as an encouragement to the incredible work of our Haitian team and an affirmation of God’s continued favor in allowing Mission of Hope to be part of a powerful redemption narrative.”

During his visit, President Clinton visited with community leaders from Leveque as well as toured the village, which houses 60 deaf families and over 250 hearing families. Some other projects visited include meeting the deaf community leaders who are served by implementing partner 410 Bridge, the community’s safe water facility installed by Water Missions International, and Leveque’s agricultural plots. Mission of Hope’s lead agronomist, Manasse Mersilus, also shared about their agricultural initiatives and partnership with Convoy of Hope, which allows Mission of Hope to resource and provide training for over 4000 Haitian farmers.

The Clinton Foundation has been actively engaged in Haiti since 2009, focusing on private sector investment and job creation in order to create long-term, sustainable economic development. Since 2010, the Clinton Foundation has spent a total of$28 million in Haiti, including relief funds as well as projects focused on priority areas such as housing, cholera prevention and support for the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, a body developed to coordinate donor aid to Haiti, co-chaired by President Clinton. In 2011, the Clinton Foundation refocused its efforts in Haiti on long-term development and strategic planning, putting emphasis on private sector investment and job creation as well as capacity building and education.

Officially founded in 1998 by Brad and Vanessa Johnson, Mission of Hope has grown into a fruitful organization that houses an onsite orphanage, medical facility, school, and church. Through partnerships, the mission also serves outside of its property through education, healthcare, agricultural, and community development programs in Mission of Hope’s surrounding region of influence. The goal of Mission of Hope’s Blue to Block campaign is to provide 650 permanent homes to displaced earthquake victims currently living in temporary blue tent shelters, including incorporating a community of 160 deaf families from the slum of La Piste. The vision for Blue to Block is not only to provide housing, but to build a thriving, self-sustaining community which will include a school, a market place, a church, clean water solution, and playing fields. To learn more, please visit www.mohhaiti.org/bluetoblock

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