Some good news from Rep. Max­ine Waters’ Office: as of today, 64 mem­bers of Con­gress, includ­ing four Repub­li­cans, have signed Rep. Waters’ let­ter to World Bank Pres­i­dent Robert Zoel­lick, urg­ing imme­di­ate can­cel­la­tion of Haiti’s debt. That’s a lot of progress in less than two weeks– thanks to every­one who called. But we need more. Rep. Waters has extended the dead­line for sig­na­tures to noon Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 25. So if your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive hasn’t signed yet (list below), call today! For more infor­ma­tion on Haiti’s unjust and uncon­scionable debt, click here.

Com­ing Attrac­tions: There are two good events on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 28: in Ottawa, The Ottawa Ini­tia­tive on Haiti 2009, will explore Canada’s role in Haiti since 2004. In South Florida, the Florida Immi­grant Coali­tion will host the TPS for Haitians Now! rally at the Broward Tran­si­tional Cen­ter in Pom­pano Beach. Next month, in San Fran­cisco on March 17, IJDH co-founder and Board mem­ber Dr. Paul Farmer will speak at the Cen­ter for Jus­tice & Accountability�s 10^th Annual Event, while the Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux will receive CJA’s Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award.

This week’s action: We’ll repost Jubilee USA’s alert to ask your rep­re­sen­ta­tive to sign the Con­gres­sional let­ter to World Bank Pres­i­dent Zoel­lick. Please call today (Tues­day), to make sure that your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive signs on by Wednesday’s dead­line. Please please call if you are rep­re­sented by one of the fol­low­ing Rep.‘s: Berman, Clarke, Cony­ers, Crow­ley, Danny Davis, Engel, Jesse Jack­son, Brad Miller, David Price, Slaugh­ter. They all signed a sim­i­lar let­ter last year, so they should be easy pickups.

Take the week off if you are rep­re­sented by the fol­low­ing, who have already signed: Max­ine Waters, Bar­ney Frank, Spencer Bachus, Alcee L. Hast­ings, Bar­bara Lee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Bald­win, San­ford Bishop, Blu­me­nauer, Cor­rine Brown, Capuano, Car­son, Chris­tensen, Clarke, Clay, Cohen, Cony­ers, Cum­mings, DeLauro, Delahunt, Mario Diaz-Balart, Doyle, Donna Edwards, Elli­son, Farr, Fat­tah, Fudge, Grayson, Al Green, Gri­jalva, Gutier­rez, Hinchey, Honda, Jack­son, Jackson-Lee, Kil­patrick, Kucinich, John Lewis, Lynch, Mal­oney, McDer­mott, McGov­ern, Kendrick Meek, Gre­gory Meeks, Den­nis Moore, Gwen Moore, James Moran, Nor­ton, Ober­star, Olver, Payne, Rangel, Rush, Schakowsky, Aaron Schock, Ser­rano, Sires, Sny­der, Towns, Wasserman-Shultz, Wat­son, Watt, Weiner, and Wexler.

Haiti Needs You: Make A Call for Haiti Today!

Please call your US Rep­re­sen­ta­tive TODAY and urge him/her to sign on to the Con­gres­sional let­ter to World Bank Pres­i­dent Zoel­lick call­ing for imme­di­ate debt can­cel­la­tion for Haiti.

1. Dial the Capi­tol Switch­board 202–224– 3121. Ask to be con­nected with your Representative’s office. (Click here to find your Representative).

2. You will be con­nected with the recep­tion­ist. As to speak to the staff per­son who han­dles inter­na­tional issues.

3. Whether you speak to the staffer in per­son, or just leave a mes­sage on his/her voice­mail, here’s what to say:

“My name is ___________ and I am a con­stituent from __(your city)___. I am call­ing to ask that Rep­re­sen­ta­tive ___________ sign Rep Waters’ let­ter call­ing on World Bank Pres­i­dent Zoel­lick (sell — lick) to can­cel Haiti’s debt. Haiti should be freed to use its resources for edu­ca­tion and health care rather than debt repay­ment. To sign the let­ter, con­tact Kath­leen Sen­g­stock in Rep. Waters office”

4. If you are speak­ing to the staff per­son be sure to thank them for their time and ask whether they think that the Rep­re­sen­ta­tive will sign the letter.

5. Let Jubilee know the results of your call, by email­ing mimi(at)jubileeusa.org.

The dead­line for sig­na­tures is 12pm on Wednes­day, Feb­ru­ary 25th, so please act now!

BACKGROUND
Haiti is sched­uled to pay $1.6 million/month in debt pay­ments over the com­ing six months — $10 mil­lion — to the World Bank. The Inter­Amer­i­can Devel­op­ment Bank has reached an agree­ment to sus­pend most of Haiti’s debt pay­ments in this time of cri­sis. The World Bank needs to do the same.
Rep. Max­ine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), and Rep. Bar­ney Frank (D-MA) have writ­ten a let­ter to World Bank Pres­i­dent Robert Zoel­lick, urg­ing him to sus­pend all fur­ther debt ser­vice pay­ments from Haiti and grant the nation com­plete debt can­cel­la­tion. Rep. Waters is ask­ing her col­leagues in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to join her by sign­ing the let­ter. The more Rep­re­sen­ta­tives who sign on to the let­ter, the stronger the mes­sage to World Bank Pres­i­dent Zoel­lick  — can­cel Haiti’s debt and allow the Hait­ian gov­ern­ment to focus on the needs of its people.

Does your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive already sup­port Haiti? Click here to see if your Rep­re­sen­ta­tive signed on to a let­ter last year to for­mer Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Paul­son call­ing for Haiti’s imme­di­ate debt can­cel­la­tion. If so, you can men­tion this when you call.

• CLICK to read Rep. Water’s letter
• CLICK to read more on Haiti
• READ A recent report on Haiti’s debt from the Cen­ter for Eco­nomic and Pol­icy Research.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Half-Hour For Haiti pro­gram, the Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti (IJDH) or human rights in Haiti, see our web­site, www.HaitiJustice.org. To receive Half-Hour for Haiti Action Alerts (about 2 per month), send an email to HalfHour4Haiti@ijdh.org.