Roundup: Haitian organizations call for more transparency in American Red Cross aid

Many Haitian organizations called on Tuesday for more transparency in handling aid of the American Red Cross (ARC) to the earthquake-torn and poverty-stricken country.

The demand came amid an investigation into the ARC on the use of nearly 500 million U.S. dollars raised by the agency to help rebuild Haiti in the wake of a major earthquake in 2010, but with only six houses being built in the country over the past five years.

The islands' National Human Rights Network (RNDDH) and organizations Solidarity for Haitian Women and the Small Farmers Movement expressed regret that millions of dollars being spent in Haiti turned out to be without any structural projects until now.

The independent investigation, carried out by two well-known U.S.-based media organizations -- ProPublica and NPR News, unveiled that the ARC promised to construct accommodation for 130,000 people. However it appeared that only six houses have been built since 2010.

Apart from abandoning various projects, the investigation found that in some areas the number of ARC beneficiaries was higher than the number of people living in that community. In other cases, people were upset about longtime delays, so they rejected the charity's intervention.

"It is necessary to conduct an evaluation of the rebuilding effort. It is necessary to revise all the help that we were given. We need a fund audit to rebuild Haiti," said activist Olga Benoit on Tuesday to Haiti's news agency Alter Presse.

Pierre Esperance, executive director of the RNDDH said that the results of having many foreign aid organizations in Haiti "is zero." He said that local aid agencies at least "work with local agents."

The Red Cross should have invested the money in agriculture as "it would have allowed people to live better now," said Osnel Jean-Baptiste, coordinator of the Small Farmers Movement.

On Jan. 12, 2010, a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake destroyed a large part of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, and some towns in the country's southeast region.

According to official figures, 222,570 people died and the material loss totalled 7.9 billion dollars.

A total of 1.5 million people were affected by the quake and, out of this number, 79,397 are still living in 105 camps around the country, especially in the capital, according to data released by the International Organization for Migration.

After the disaster, the international community sprang into action to help Haiti. Among the organizations extending aid was the U.S. Red Cross which is now part of the scandal regarding the managing of donations in Haiti.

The charity, however, defended its handling of the situation, saying it did not break down the money spent on programs in Haiti.

The original plan had been to develop three communities of new homes but the ARC ran into problems over land ownership disputes, which made obtaining land titles difficult, ARC's Chief International Officer David Meltzer said last week in an online statement.

Moreover, the U.S. news channel CNN added another accusation to the agency, as it highlighted that the ARC's tax declarations between July 2010 and June 2014 did not give details about the expenses for the organization's many aid programs, including in Haiti. Endi