Times article on poverty and Haiti:
There once were many millions for Haiti from the World Bank, but the bank says the money bought almost nothing, and it says it will exercise "extreme caution" before it resumes trying to help Haiti.
"Of course the World Bank and the international community gives, but who to?" said the Rev. Willy Romélus, the pro-Aristide bishop of Jérémie. "To the government and to groups that invest a lot of money in bureaucracy, cars and logistics, leaving nothing for the people."...
The United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations plan to spend millions more for Haiti — but there is a sense that it comes with the weariness attached to large-scale, long-running failure.
A smaller scale may work. The Agency for International Development provides roughly 30 percent of the Haitian Health Foundation's $1.2 million operating budget, covering the salaries of three managers and 80 workers like Mrs. Delille, who makes $100 a month.
Two agency officials met Tuesday with Sister Maryann Bérard, a Franciscan nun who runs the foundation, which also builds houses and latrines and runs the only home for expectant mothers in Haiti.
They may have absorbed a lesson Sister Maryann says she learned from her 15 years in Haiti: aid works when it flows from the ground up, not the top down.
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