Yelé Haiti

The world's first black-led republic and the first Caribbean state to achieve independence, Haiti's pride has been dented by decades of poverty, environmental degradation, violence, instability and dictatorship which have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas. And now Haiti is on the verge of collapse

Yelé is a nonprofit organization founded in 2005. The purpose of the organization has been, from its inception, to restore pride and hope to the Haitian people through projects that will allow citizens to ultimately help themselves, such as the creation of scholarships, support for the arts, food distribution and emergency relief.

Yelé reacted immediately to the earthquake in Haiti which struck on January 2010, the teams were responding to the crisis within hours of the earthquake, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and devastated swathes of the capital of Port-au-Prince. Assessments on the ground to identify urgent needs and co-ordinate responses are taking place with preparations for more aid to be delivered to the poorest country in the western hemisphere ongoing.

Yelé used their experience gained in years of working in Haiti after the earthquake in Port au Prince, the team have specific responsibility for caring for the many traumatised earthquake survivors.

Yelé has launched an emergency appeal for victims of the Haiti earthquake. Thousands of people are already feared dead and many more are believed to be critically injured. Countless are thought to be homeless.The quake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck 15km southwest of the capital Port-au-Prince just before 5pm local time, and was shortly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5.
Launching the appeal, Wyclef Jean, the founder, said:

“Haiti today faced a natural disaster of unprecedented proportion, an earthquake unlike anything the country has ever experienced.

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake – and several very strong aftershocks – struck only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince.

I cannot stress enough what a human disaster this is, and idle hands will only make this tragedy worse. The over 2 million people in Port-au-Prince tonight face catastrophe alone. We must act now.

Many people have already reached out to see what they can do right now. We are asking those interested to please visit Yele.org and click on DONATE.


The internet has become a more and more important resource for the charity - both with regard to communication with projects around the world, but also with internet fundraising. Yelè launched its Haiti appeal on internet immediately after the earthquake struck the country and have already raised one million dollars but Haiti is on the verge of collapse. Yelé need an enormous help now.

To make a donation to Yelé visit www.yele.org