Clinton, Obama, and Bush meet in the Rose Garden at the White House -- AP photo from www.state.gov

March 24, 2010: U.N. special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, and fellow former president, George W. Bush, visited Haiti on Monday to underscore its acute assistance needs. The trip was scheduled to precede a meeting of U.N. donors in New York on March 31. At that gathering, Haitian officials will request $11.5 billion for reconstruction following the January 12 earthquake.

The visit, Bush's first to Haiti, marks the first joint trip to the devastated nation by Bush and Clinton. President Obama asked the two U.S. leaders to spearhead private-sector recovery aid to Haiti. The quake is estimated to have left 230,000 people dead and 1.3 million homeless.

Clinton and Bush met with Haiti President Rene Preval, visited a squalid tent city in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and met with groups providing assistance to disaster survivors.

According to the Associated Press, the nonprofit Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has raised $37 million. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio contributed $1 million; Obama gave $200,000 of his Nobel Peace Prize. To date, some $4 million has gone to organizations providing housing, medical, and other services to vulnerable Haitians.

SOS Children's Villages Playing Prominent Role in Helping Haiti's Children

Haitian boys eat a meal provided by SOS Children's Villages.

Even before the January earthquake, many Haitian families lived in dire poverty that left them unable to care for their children. SOS Children's Villages has been providing loving homes to orphaned and abandoned Haitian children for three decades.

SOS's work in Haiti has earned the group great trust on the ground. SOS-Haiti made news on January 30, when the Haitian government handed to SOS's Santo Children's Village 33 children for safekeeping. These were the children whom a U.S. church group, claiming the boys and girls were orphans, had attempted to take out of the country without official approval.

In the wake of natural disaster, SOS-Santo is providing shelter, food, and medical care to 500 children. Orphaned or separated from their parents, the children are deeply traumatized by the death and destruction they saw all around them. SOS-Santo has arranged for psychologists to work regularly with the children. Teenagers living in the SOS Children's Villages are helping their younger SOS brothers and sisters deal with emotional loss through activities like singing, dancing, and painting.

Reuniting and Strengthening Families are SOS Priorities

Portrait of a girl on a swing, tent in the background - SOS Children's Villages - Santo, in Haiti, after the earthquake.

SOS believes that children belong with their biological families whenever possible. SOS-Haiti has been taking great efforts to reunite the children under its care with their parents. Reunification has already taken place for most of the 33 children who had been in the news; none of them are orphans. When families are unable to adequately care for their children, SOS gives them financial and other support to do so.

At present, SOS is helping the wider Haitian community by distributing food and other necessities to vulnerable families through 89 distribution points. In total, SOS is supporting 13,000 Haitian children with food, water, and medical attention.

Help SOS give hope to children in Haiti and other parts of the world. Make a donation to SOS Children's Villages today.