CLEMENT PAYNE MOVEMENT
9 August 2010
The day after the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Clement
Payne Movement of Barbados established a "Haiti Relief Fund"
at the Bridgetown branch of RBTT Bank Barbados Ltd, and initiated an effort to
collect money and pharmaceutical supplies for Haiti.
Within less than one week after the earthquake the Clement Payne
Movement was able to make arrangements with the "Regional Security
System" to transport its cargo of medical supplies to Haiti, and to
actually secure the almost immediate landing of these supplies in Haiti.
The Clement Payne Movement subsequently followed up this initial
humanitarian effort, by partnering with the "Caribbean Association For
Feminist Research And Action" (CAFRA) to stage several grand parties
for young orphans and destitute children living in the several makeshift camps
in Haiti.
These children’s parties were staged between the 20th and 21st
of June 2010 and sought to bring some element of joy into the lives of these
still traumatized children by providing them with toys and gift bags, and with
a day of games, food, music singing and merriment.
(Please find attached hereto a report on this activity by Ms Flavia
Cherry, chairperson of CAFRA, along with photographs of the events).
It is against this background therefore that the
Clement Payne Movement believes that it has the right to publicly ask -
"What have CARICOM and the government of Barbados done for Haiti since the
earthquake?"
Immediately after the January12 earthquake the Caribbean people were
informed that the CARICOM nations were going to assist Haiti by focusing all of
their contributions on the establishment of a CARICOM medical mission in Haiti.
After several months of inaction, it was announced that it had been
decided to shelve the medical mission project, and to instead provide the
Haitian government with a substantial financial grant, to be used in financing
the operations of the Government of Haiti.
The Clement Payne Movement is now hereby requesting that the CARICOM
Secretariat make a public announcement and inform the Caribbean people whether
this grant was ever made to the Government of Haiti, and if so, when it was
made and how much money was donated.
We are also requesting the Government of Barbados to make a public
announcement and to inform the Barbadian people whether the Barbados Government
has contributed money to a financial grant to the government of Haiti, and if
so, when that contribution was made, and how much money was donated.
We are also further requesting that the Barbadian people be informed as
to whether the previous Owen Arthur administration followed through on the
highly publicised announcement that they made in the year 2004 that they were
going to make a grant of $1 Million to the government of Haiti to assist with
relief efforts in the wake of the hurricanes that ravaged Haiti in 2004. Was
the $1 Million ever donated, and if so, when was the donation made?
In asking these questions, we are not suggesting or implying that these
donations have not been made. Rather, we are simply insisting that the
Barbadian and Caribbean people have a right to know, and we are insisting that
this right be respected.
We now look forward to hearing the requested public pronouncements.
DAVID A. COMISSIONG
President