Clark gets behind Hearts and Hands for Haiti

Former prime minister Helen Clark has asked the United Nations Development Programme to see what can be done to assist Oamaru-based emergency relief initiative Project HHH.

Project HHH (Hearts and Hands for Haiti) was launched in January last year, following the devastating earthquake in the Caribbean republic.

Miss Clark, the UNDP administrator, posted a comment last month on her Facebook page about Haiti.

Both Bruce Albiston, from Project HHH, and orthopaedic surgeon Jean-Claude Theis contacted her and provided information about the project.

Mr Theis, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Dunedin School of Medicine, was part of the first Project HHH medical team which went to Haiti last year and he was able to outline his personal experiences.

Miss Clark has since been in touch with Robyn Couper, who worked as a missionary in Haiti for 33 years, and she has arranged for UNDP in Haiti to consider how the project could be supported and how it could liaise with the UNDP programmes, Mr Albiston said.

She had indicated she was willing to come to Oamaru later this year, if her schedule permitted, to speak at a Project HHH fundraiser.

In recent posts on Facebook, Miss Clark said she was impressed by Miss Couper's dedication and that of those supporting her.

"It is always inspiring to hear of Kiwis working to make a difference for others at home and abroad," she said.

Miss Couper is now in the United States, meeting medical advisers to discuss services at St Justinian's Hospital in Cap-Haitien and preparing to arrive in Haiti before a second medical team this month.

Between $140,000 and $150,000 had been raised for the project and fundraising would start again in February-March, Mr Albiston said.