CANARIAN CAPITAL PLEDGES SOLIDARITY WITH HAITI

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Tuesday January 21 2010

SANTA CRUZ council declared its continued solidarity with the earthquake-stricken Caribbean island of Haiti on Tuesday.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

Santa Cruz councillor for emigration, immigration and citizenship Ángela Mena expressed her satisfaction after the council unanimously adopted a motion in solidarity with the earthquake victims in Haiti.

Ms Mena, who is also responsible for cooperation in international development, highlighted the numerous grants the regional capital has made to the Caribbean nation in recent years.

She said that the grants were not limited to disaster management, but that the council was working with women and children, the most disadvantaged sections of Haitian society – already one of the poorest in the world.

Ms Mena will meet the NGO Movimiento por la Autogestión y la Educación (MAYE) next week.

MAYE – described as a group of professionals, educationalists and experts in development cooperation – supports the work of the Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT) which runs two schools in Haiti.

Santa Cruz council has channelled over €134,000 through MAYE and AMURT to fund a three-phase program to help some of the poorest women and children in the Haitian capital Port-au Prince and the town of Anse a Pitres.

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