Boat hit a reef

Rescuers searched by sea and air Tuesday for nearly 70 Haitians after an overloaded sailboat ran aground and capsized in reef-studded waters off the Turks and Caicos Islands, killing at least 15 migrants fleeing the poverty of their homeland.

The boat was carrying an estimated 200 people _ men, women and teenagers _ when it struck a coral reef and broke apart in rough seas near West Caicos, part of an archipelago that has proven to be deadly for Haitians in rickety vessels.

Such perilous journeys have long been common throughout the world, but the number of migrants risking their lives to cross borders has declined amid increased enforcement in the United States and Europe and due to a global recession that has eliminated many unskilled jobs.

But people continue to set out in search of better lives, including the Haitians who crowded into a sailboat last week in northern Haiti.

Officials from the United States and the Turks and Caicos said 15 died and more than 100 were rescued, including some who were clinging for their lives to the jagged reefs or who swam two miles to shore.

Dozens more were missing, as Coast Guard boats, airplanes and a helicopter joined local authorities and volunteers in searching a 1,600-square-mile area, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Johnson said. Any survivors in the water would be struggling with 23 mph winds and 6-foot seas.

"We hope that there are survivors and we can get them medical attention," Johnson said. "However, as time goes by, it becomes less and less likely because of exposure and fatigue."

The Haitians had been at sea for three days when they spotted a police vessel and tried to hide, accidentally steering the boat onto a reef, survivor Alces Julien told The Associated Press.

"We saw police boats and we tried to hide until they passed," he said at a hospital where survivors were treated for dehydration. "We hit a reef and the boat broke up."

But Deputy Police Commissioner Hubert Hughes said officers were not pursuing the migrant vessel _ which did not have a motor _ and were involved only as rescuers.

"They were traveling in waters that are quite dangerous if you don't know the area quite well," he said.

Turks and Caicos is a magnet for divers who come to explore its clear, shallow waters and reefs _ conditions that also make it treacherous for boaters unfamiliar with the jagged outcroppings of coral that lie menacingly just below the surface in some places.

The wooden sailboat apparently fell into just such a trap, failing to navigate a narrow passage, Minister of Public Safety Samuel Been said after speaking with 10 of the migrants in a gymnasium serving as a makeshift detention center.

"The waves broke the boat apart," Been said. "It was frightening."

Rescuers found survivors stranded on two reefs roughly two miles from West Caicos Island, said Lt. Cmdr. Matt Moorlag, a Coast Guard spokesman. Most were ferried to land by Turks and Caicos authorities in small boats.

Five survivors were found on West Caicos after apparently swimming ashore, Hughes said.

Been said one Haitian man dove off a rescue boat and tried to escape, but was caught.

"It wasn't hard to get him; he was already tired," he said.

Johnson said the boat sank Monday afternoon, but Hughes said it might have been Sunday night. Turks and Caicos authorities reported the capsizing Monday to the Coast Guard, which patrols the region for drug traffickers and illegal migrants and often helps in search and rescue efforts.

Survivors told authorities the boat set out from northern Haiti with about 160 passengers, then stopped at an unknown location and picked up 40 others before sinking near the Turks and Caicos, an island chain between Haiti and the Bahamas, Johnson said. She said overloading appeared to be a factor.

"These vessels, they are grossly overloaded," she said. "Two hundred people on a sailboat is astronomical."

Nearly 60 survivors were surrounded by private security guards at the two-story gymnasium, a beige, concrete structure near the island's small airport.

"The people are being taken care of," said Donald Mettlus, an official from the Haitian Embassy who visited them. "They can walk. They are in good health."

How sad another Boat

The U.S. Coast Guard says a vessel carrying as many 200 Haitian migrants has capsized near the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Sabrina Elgammal, a petty officer third class, says the guard has been working with police to rescue 70 people who were stranded on a reef. She said four bodies have been recovered and authorities' main goal is "to get everybody out of the water."

She said the vessel capsized around 2 p.m. Monday afternoon.

Close ties to Haiti

Did you know... Washington has close ties to Haiti. Since the 1930s, many American leaders have visited Haiti. In this context, president Franklin Delano Roosevelt ( 1933-1945 ) traveled to Haiti in 1934. Sixty-one years later, Bill Clinton became the second American president to come to Haiti. President Clinton arrived in Port-au-Prince to confer with Jean-Bertrand Aristide ( country's president ). On the other hand, Colin Powell, Secretary of State, went to the country in 2004. In 2008, Laura Bush, America's First Lady, was the guest of honour of the Haitian government. Subsequently, Hillary Clinton, current Secretary of State, accepted an invitation to visit Haiti. In Port-au-Prince, she , who visited the country in 1998, met with high-ranking Haitian officials.

In the mid-1990s, Jimmy Carter, 2002 Nobel Peace Prize and former U.S. president, played a key role in bringing an end to military rule in Haiti.

Did you Know...

Did you know... Haiti's shooters -- Ludovic Valborge, L. H. Clertmont, Astrel Rolland, Destin Destine, C. Dupre, Eloi Metullus & Ludovic Augustin -- won a bronze medal at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games -- making it the first black nation in the globe to win a Summer Olympic medal. This medal made Haiti the poorest country ever to win an Olympic medal. Surprisingly they do it in an island where there are few sports facilities. Certainly the Caribbean team was a "dark horse" in France.

Haitian team even the basics are luxuries

During his first few days as coach of the national team, Haiti's Jairo Rios asked his players to stay hydrated, eat well and rest.

It was routine advice that he had doled out several times as a coach. But the Colombian national soon found that in Haiti, these orders weren't carried out so simply.

"It's been difficult working with players who struggle to make one meal a day, let alone three," Rios said. "Sometimes they don't even have water to drink."

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Americas. About 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, according to The CIA World Factbook.

Rios indicated that many of its inhabitants lack essential resources such as water, electricity and food.

"The Haitian is in need of everything but is practically forgotten by the world," he said. "Even so, I admire the Haitian because he is happy, joyful and without resentment. He doesn't complain or cry like we do."

The lack of funds, however, has made it difficult to establish an infrastructure needed to maintain a national soccer team.

Haiti needs basic equipment such as balls and cones. Items considered necessities in other places, such as gyms, are a luxury, Rios said.

Most players on the Haitian team that is facing Mexico today in the Gold Cup quarterfinals participate in their home country's professional league, where Rios said the highest-paid player makes $200 a month.

That is why the Gold Cup has turned into a perfect platform for Haiti's players to showcase their talent in front of other countries. Professional teams have started to notice, Rios said.

In turn, the coach seeks to continue helping Haitian soccer evolve.

Rios coached several pro clubs in Honduras before reaching an agreement to lead Haiti for the year's last qualifier.

Since his arrival, Rios has felt that he has much to offer Haitian soccer through his coaching experiences and knowledge. He also feels that Haiti has had a lot to offer him personally.

"My life has changed a lot," he said. "I'm a different person. I place more value on my family, my country and everything that God has given me."

Boat capsized off Haiti

Here is a Picture of what a typical boat overloaded looks like.(How sad all they want is to have a normal life and food.)

Five people are dead and dozens are missing after a 9-metre (30-ft) boat capsized off Haiti, officials said, revising an earlier toll of six deaths.

Rescuers saved 26 people and a search is continuing for the others aboard the vessel, which emergency services believe may have been overloaded.

The boat was reportedly en route from Anse a Pitre to the southern city of Jacmel when it overturned.

Survivors were taken to a hospital in Jacmel, AFP news agency reports.

Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti's civil protection agency, said some 60 people had been aboard the boat when the accident happened between the towns of Belle-Anse and Marigot.

The local rescue coordinator, Jean-Michel Sabbat, told AFP the boat was old and may have been overloaded with passengers and goods.

Local authorities and the UN mission in Haiti were helping with the search and were requesting help from local fishermen, Ms Jean-Baptiste added.

What one person can do WOW

Parsons, KS -- A young humanitarian in Kansas is making a huge impact on orphans around the world.

Isabelle Redford is just seven years old but you could learn a lot from her. What she started as a fundraiser with homemade cards is now a global project called Art for Orphans.

It all started when her mom told her a story about two little orphans whose mom died when they were being born. It was a story that inspired her to do something to help.

Within nine month's Isabelle's efforts really added up. She raised enough to build an orphanage in Haiti.

Last month she and her parents travelled there to see it.

Now less than two years after she started her project builders are breaking ground on a second orphanage in Malawi, Africa.

To get more information check out Isabelle's website:

http://artsfororphans.blogspot.com

surprised by Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday a lack of cooperation between Haitian politicians, aid groups and business leaders was hurting efforts to help the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Clinton, on his first visit since being named U.N. special envoy to Haiti, said he was optimistic about its future but surprised by the continuing divide between the private and public sectors and the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Haiti.

"The most surprising thing to me ... is how little the investor community, all the elements of the government, including the legislative branch and the NGO community seem to have taught and absorbed each others' lessons," Clinton told reporters at the end of a two-day fact-finding mission.

The poorest country in the Americas, Haiti has struggled to establish democratic institutions and a stable investment climate following decades of dictatorship and military rule. Most of its 9 million people live on less than $2 a day.

But the appointment of Clinton by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in May, hundreds of millions of dollars in recent donor pledges and the granting of $1.2 billion in debt relief by the World Bank, IMF and other creditors this month has raised hopes in Haiti.

The Paris Club of sovereign creditors said on Wednesday it had decided to cancel $62.73 million of Haiti's debt and committed to canceling an additional $152 million.

Clinton met on Wednesday with business leaders, heads of the executive and legislative branches of the government and NGOs and civil society groups, after a tour on Tuesday of the mud-stained city of Gonaives, where floods last year killed hundreds of people.

He promised to do all he can to collect the money Haiti needs to address some of its crucial infrastructure, education and healthcare problems but urged Haitians to solve their internal differences.

"If it is a question of money that's my problem, but if it is not about money, that's something Haitians need to resolve among themselves," he said. "That's a little surprising to me. But everybody is eager to do it."

Bill Clinton in Haiti on Monday

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Bill Clinton aims to refocus international attention on this Caribbean country's deep economic problems and environmental decay during his first visit as the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti.

The former U.S. president, who is expected to meet with Haitian President Rene Preval and visit hurricane-battered areas, is lending his prestige to the plight of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere as world attention has shifted to the global financial crisis and other trouble spots.

He was scheduled to arrive late Monday, but no public events were planned until Tuesday, the United Nations said.

The three-day visit will be Clinton's second to Haiti this year. He toured Port-au-Prince with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, recording artist Wyclef Jean and others in March, before Ban named him to the newly created post in May.

Clinton spoke at a Haiti donors conference at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington in April that generated $324 million in aid pledges.

As U.N. envoy, his aims include investment and job creation, particularly by expanding garment factories that export to the United States, and repairing Haiti's severe deforestation.

Those priorities were laid out in a 19-page report to Ban by Oxford University professor Paul Collier in January that was praised by Preval and other leaders.

But the report has been criticized by lawmakers and other Haitians who see the garment factories as havens for exploitative labor. Workers in the factories make a minimum salary of $1.72 a day, though some are paid more.

A bill passed by Haiti's parliament to raise the daily minimum wage to $5.14 was rejected by Preval, contributing to frustrations that have fueled street protests and kept most voters away from the polls during last month's Senate elections.

"If someone can't pay a worker $5, I think we don't need that person here in Haiti," said lawmaker Steven Benoit, who sponsored the wage increase.

Many Haitians have taken to referring to Clinton with varying degrees of respect, concern and sarcasm as a colonial "governor," a term rooted in Haiti's long history of slavery under France and U.S. military occupation in the 20th century.

Still, Clinton remains widely popular — especially among the mostly poor supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide who are old enough to remember Clinton's help in restoring Aristide to power in 1994 after a coup.

Aristide was forced into exile by a rebellion in 2004.

Happy 4TH of July

I have a great appreciation for the great untied states, when we here the national anthem it makes us cry. I will never take such thing as food water, and great medical care as just something that is just going to be there. I truly feel bad for those that live in a third world country. They did not ask for all the trouble there country is in They did not ask to have no way to feed there family they where just born into those circumstances. I want to thank all the service man that go off to war to fight for our freedoms. Thank you so much and God bless you.