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MEDIA ADVISORY: Chelsea Clinton, Donna Shalala to visit Clinton Foundation projects in Haiti July 28-29


Trip will highlight Clinton Foundation partnerships and programs working in Haiti to encourage economic growth and development, empower girls and women, and support small businesses

On Tuesday, July 28, and Wednesday, July 29, Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton and Clinton Foundation President Donna Shalala will lead a group of philanthropists, business leaders, and Clinton Foundation supporters to visit Foundation efforts that are supporting the development and growth of the Haitian agriculture, health, entrepreneurship, and business sectors. Chelsea Clinton will also host a No Ceilings Conversation on empowering Haitian girls and women as entrepreneurs.

Illustrating the Clinton Foundation’s innovative philanthropic model, efforts in Haiti take a multi-faceted approach in fostering sustainable economic development with a shared goal of increasing opportunities for girls and women. This includes helping to raise emergency relief funds; providing grants to local organizations; and creating partnerships between public, private, and nonprofit organizations.

Since 2010, the Clinton Foundation has helped raise more than $30 million for Haiti, including relief funds and projects that are focused on supporting Haiti’s small and medium businesses; improving livelihoods; enhancing education; and exploring the nexus of agriculture, energy, and the environment. Today, the Clinton Foundation focuses on creating sustainable economic growth in the priority sectors of energy, tourism, agriculture, and artisans/manufacturing. The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (CGEP), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, has also created a social enterprise in Haiti that works to address market opportunities in local supply and distribution chains.

Additionally, through the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, CGI members have made more than 100 Commitments to Action focused on Haiti, which will be valued over $500 million when fully funded and implemented. Now in its seventh year, CGI’s Haiti Action Network has a significant focus on creating sustainable jobs and encouraging investment in the country.

RSVP AND TRANSPORTATION NOTE: The Clinton Foundation will provide transportation to reporters in Haiti for these site visits. If you have an interest in covering the events and taking our transportation between sites, please reply topress@clintonfoundation.org with your name and outlet as soon as possible. Availability is very limited. Requests will be accommodated on a first-come, first-serve basis.

***Site Visits for Planning Purposes Only***Subject to Change***

Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Visit to Caribbean Craft Facility & No Ceilings Conversation
Caribbean Craft
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
OPEN PRESS

This will be a tour of Caribbean Craft’s facility to see their operations focused on producing high-quality artisan products. They will hear stories from artists-in-training and staff about how they came to work with Caribbean Crafts and the impact it has had on their income and lives. Caribbean Crafts is a long-time partner of the Clinton Foundation in Haiti as the Foundation works to connect Haitian businesses to both local and international buyers, and to facilitate stable and equitable purchase agreements that benefit producers, suppliers, and those eager to procure Haitian products.

Immediately following, Chelsea Clinton and Donna Shalala will host a No Ceilings Conversation with local entrepreneurs and current Clinton Foundation partners in Haiti about women’s roles and participation in the workforce and their ability to access markets. By examining current experiences, challenges, and future goals of female entrepreneurs, the group will discuss emerging trends, technologies, and approaches as seen through a gender perspective and lens. This will be the 18th No Ceilings Conversation overall, and the fourth held abroad.

Visit to Gheskio Cholera Treatment Center and Women’s Vocational Training Center
Gheskio Campus
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
OPEN PRESS
This will be a visit to the GHESKIO Cholera Treatment Center to see the impact the Center has had and see the innovative design used by CGI commitment maker MASS Design. With one of Haiti’s leading physicians Dr. Bill Pape, they will also visit the specially designed water purification system and the wastewater treatment facility. After seeing the facilities, they will visit the Women’s Vocational Training Center at GHESKIO, where former sex workers are able participate in job training and professional skills such as how to make sustainable furniture.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Visit Clinton-Giustra Enterprise Partnership (CGEP) Peanut Enterprise’s Acceso Peanut Enterprise Corporation (APEC)
Mirebalais, Haiti
OPEN PRESS
This will be a visit to one of the CGEP Acceso depots, which are warehouses that both serve as the central location for farmers to come sell their peanuts as well as a storage place for those crops. Created by CGEP and the Haiti team in January of 2014, APEC is a peanut supply chain enterprise that provides capacity building and inputs to farmers in order to significantly improve their peanut yield and quality. It also purchases peanuts from smallholder farmers at favorable, fixed prices, and sorts, tests, and re-sells directly to large buyers and the general market. Depots are a critical element of the Supply Chain program, which helps to empower and increase the incomes of smallholder farmers.

Visit Partners in Health Mirebalais Hospital, home to several CGI Commitments to Action
Mirebalais Hospital
Mirebalais, Haiti
OPEN PRESS
This will be a visit to the Mirebalais hospital, Haiti’s premier teaching hospital to meet with doctors, nurses, and patients. During the visit, they will see the digital patient system, cancer treatment equipment, and maternity ward. The hospital is the 2ndlargest hospital in the country and was built after the 2010 earthquake to provide improved healthcare at the primary, secondary, and tertiary care levels for one of Haiti’s most underserved populations. It is now a 205,000-square foot, 300-bed hospital that provides primary care services to nearly 185,000 people in Mirebalais and two nearby communities.

A key part of Mirebalais hospital, Avon Cancer Care, was the result of a CGI Commitment made in 2010 by the Avon Foundation for Women. Together with Partners in Health (PIH), Avon committed to providing expert clinicians to train community health workers to perform clinical breast screening exams, as well as modern equipment for diagnostics, access to state-of-the art pathology evaluation, and treatments where available.

Visit the Centre de Stockage et de Transformations des Produits Agricoles (CETPA) & Kreyol Essence Farming Co-op
Mirebalais, Haiti
OPEN PRESS
This will be a visit to a local for-profit farming cooperative, Centre de Stockage et de Transformations des Produits Agricoles (CETPA) — a key supplier to Kreyòl Essence, the first Haitian eco-luxury personal care products based on unrefined castor oil. With support and investment from the Clinton Foundation, Kreyòl Essence and CETPA will work to vertically integrate their operations throughout the entire castor oil value chain by engaging farming, processing, packaging, exporting, and marketing with  the common goal of improving local socioeconomic conditions through the development and promotion of local products. Additionally, a Clinton Foundation grant to this facility is funding new machinery, solar energy, and other infrastructure upgrades for the facility to increase production and improve working conditions.