Recruiting music to fight hunger, UN releases video to aid Haitian flood victims

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today enlisted music into the battle to help thousands of impoverished Haitians recover from the deadly tropical storm that devastated their country in September, releasing a video by Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter Wyclef Jean to help raise funds.

The release comes on the eve of a Haiti Contact Group meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington, where Wyclef will speak and perform. The one-day meeting brings together the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), UN agencies, donors and special interest groups.

The Haitian singer visited flood-stricken areas in October and his new song in his native Creole takes its name, Gonaïves, from the Caribbean country’s third-largest city. Gonaïves bore the brunt of Tropical Storm Jeanne, which killed at least 2,000 people.

“When I see what the World Food Programme is doing in Haiti, I think it’s something that the world just needs to know about,” said Wyclef, who helped agency workers unload heavy bags of food aid during his October trip.

The video shows Wyclef chatting with ordinary Haitians, distributing relief food and giving weakened people clean water to drink. At many points, he breaks into song, hoping his words and music will inspire those facing a life of suffering and hardship.

WFP is currently feeding more than 600,000 people in Haiti, 100,000 of them flood victims. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti ranks 153 out of 177 countries on the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index. More than three quarters of Haiti's population live on less than $2 a day. Chronic malnutrition is rampant, and severe to moderate stunting affects 42 per cent of children under the age of five.

View the video [3' 51"]