Yéle Haiti

Founded in 2005 by Grammy-award winning musicians Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis, Yéle Haiti is a grassroots, non-political charitable organization focusing on emergency relief, employment, youth development and education, and tree planting and agriculture. Through Yéle Haiti, Wyclef uses music, sports and the media to reinforce projects that are making a difference in education, health, environment and community development. In practical terms this translates to over 3,000 new jobs, close to 7,000 children being put in school, more than 8,000 people a month receiving food and approximately 2,000 young people a month learning about HIV/AIDS prevention.

Yéle was profoundly and permanently changed by the earthquake of January 12, 2010. The current programs are a combination of emergency relief and long-term rebuilding.
Our mission is to provide aid and assistance to the communities in Haiti in greatest need, where severe poverty, widespread unemployment, rampant malnutrition and crippling illiteracy are most pervasive. 

Yéle Haiti (www.yele.org) is a movement that has built global awareness for Haiti while helping to sustain the country through short-term emergency relief efforts and long-term programs in job creation, community development, health, agroforestry and the arts.

Some of their programs are as follows:

Education:
With little state support for education, Yéle Haiti has created a range of programs to improve the quality of education and ensure more children from poor and disadvantaged families can attend school.

• Primary School Scholarships: sponsoring the education of 4,500 children throughout Haiti. 
• University Scholarships: sponsoring 12 top ranking students in Haitian universities.
• Boy’s Rehabilitation Center: giving imprisoned child gang members a second chance. 
• Yéle Cuisine: employing women to cater meals for children in six schools without kitchens. 
• School Feeding: dry food distribution to around 7,000 families of children in targeted schools.

Sports:
With almost no public or school funding for organized sports, Yéle Haiti supports a soccer program for at-risk youth and a range of sports events for youth.

• L’Athletique d’Haiti: supporting a soccer and tutoring program for 650 youth from the slums. 
• Sports Events: sponsoring tournaments, clinics and sports equipment for young players.

The Arts:
With high levels of illiteracy, Yéle Haiti uses music and entertainment to inform the public about development and social issues, while at the same time providing training to at-risk youth. Celebrities are enlisted to help raise the country’s international profile.

• Music Studio: providing jobs and vocational training in a new state-of-the-art facility being built in Cité Soleil. 
• National Youth Orchestra: classical orchestral training and performance for at-risk youth. 
• Art School: support for an art school in Jakmel, including commissioning students for design work abroad.
• Remember Haiti: scanning and making available rare historic books about Haiti’s founding.
• Spotlight Haiti: engaging celebrities to help raise Haiti’s international profile. 
• Yéle Cinema: free outdoor projection of Creole-dubbed films in slums without electricity.

Environment:
With less than two percent tree cover left nationwide, Yéle Haiti is responding with a  new community-based tree planting, environmental education and social marketing initiative along with ongoing support for an environmental education initiative.

• Yéle Vert: community-based agroforestry, environmental education and social marketing that is in development in Gonaives. 
• Ecole Verte: environmental education camping trips and tree planting for youth.

Community Service:
With little support available for vulnerable families, Yéle Haiti distributes food to those in need throughout the slums of Port-au-Prince and mobilizes emergency relief in response to natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

• Food Distribution: assisting the World Food Programme in distributing rice, beans and oil to families in the slums of Port-au-Prince. 
• Emergency Relief: mobilizing relief following natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

North America:

• Yéle Student Outreach: college and university students rallying in support of Haiti.
• Help Haiti: Canadian students giving 25¢ each to sponsor scholarships for Haitian students.