Lack of aid money in Haiti threatening health, human rights of displaced people, U.N. official warns

"The United Nations warned on Tuesday that a lack of aid money for Haiti was putting hundreds of thousands of displaced people at risk by forcing humanitarian agencies to cut services in one of the world's poorest countries," Reuters reports. Noting Haiti only received half of the $382 million aid request in 2011 and so far has received only 10 percent of this year's $231 million appeal, Nigel Fisher, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, said, "(Underfunding) threatens to reverse gains achieved in the fight against cholera through the promotion of sanitary and hygiene practices. ... It threatens the very existence of hundreds of thousands of (displaced people) living in camps," according to the news agency. "Fisher said the humanitarian community was urgently requesting $53.9 million for the April-June period to protect those living in camps and to continue to provide services such as clean water, food and crime prevention and respond to cholera outbreaks, among other things," Reuters writes (Nichols, 3/27).