Tomorrow US officials will visit Ti Ayiti, a neighborhood in the
vicinity of the slums of Cité Soleil, where IOM is
implementing community stabilization projects with funding from the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The projects, which are part of the Haiti Stabilization
Initiative (HSI), aim to reduce the power and influence of gangs by
revitalizing local governance and the return of the rule of
law.

By encouraging communities and state institutions to work
together to identify key basic needs, HSI promotes community
cohesion and enhances citizen confidence and participation, which
leads to a reduction in community tensions. 

Projects include the construction or rehabilitation of public
infrastructure, such as roads and schools, as well as training in
conflict-resolution skills for community leaders.  These
activities also generate employment opportunities through
labour-intensive work.

Cité Soleil is a priority area for the Haitian
government, because of its potential for destabilization in the
country. A densely populated slum on the coastal side of
Port-au-Prince, it is generally regarded as one of the poorest and
roughest areas of the capital. Most of its 200,000 residents live
in extreme poverty, with high levels of violence, few public
services and few economic opportunities. Only 25 per cent of
families have access to clean drinking water.

The HSI projects are an expansion of IOM's PREPEP (Programme de
Revitalisation et de Promotion de l'Entente et de la Paix), which
addresses similar community stabilization issues in other volatile
areas of Port-au-Prince and five other departments outside the
capital.

Both programmes aim to promote peace and stabilization in
post-conflict Haiti and foster the necessary environment for
economic and social recovery.  Since 2004 IOM has implemented
more than 1,200 projects through PREPEP and HSI, with funding of
more than USD 25 million.

For more information please contact:

Frislain Isidor

IOM Port-au-Prince

Tel: +509.244.1247 Ext. 118

E-mail: "mailto:fisidor@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">fisidor@iom.int