Foreign Affairs committee  It should expire on June 30 of this year. We are expecting a prolongation, an extension to December, because we are in a process of organizational review to try to focus on what are the best opportunities for development and what are the best opportunities for us to work in Haiti.

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have the figures up to now. I called the Haitian consulate yesterday to get the exact figures. But before I worked in international development, I used to work in a Haitian community centre, and at that time, the figure was about 800 criminals who were targeted to be sent back to Haiti from Canada.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, a total figure of 800 people. I've been away from the community centre since 1999, and I don't have the up-to-date figures now.

Foreign Affairs committee  Right now, no, because they don't have the capacity to deal with that. Those criminals are considered as the blue collar criminals in Haiti. They know how it works.

Foreign Affairs committee  There are two questions. First, ROCAHD is an umbrella organization. Within this umbrella organization you will find associations of doctors, of nurses, and of engineers, teachers associations, and a lot of local associations, people from different parts of Haiti who regroup themselves and want to involve themselves in projects in their own areas, where they come from, on a community basis.

Foreign Affairs committee  It was; in 1987 the ratio was one for nine. Now it's a ratio of one for three, in such a way that a Haitian Canadian organization that wants to support a project in Haiti has to work harder to find more money and to give a lower level of help to Haiti.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm going to answer in French because I'm more comfortable in that language. The private sector's effort must indubitably be considered. However, every effort must be made to find all available resources in order to improve employment conditions in Haiti. The Haitian private sector is one of those resources, but the informal sector, for the moment, still offers the largest number of jobs.

Foreign Affairs committee  Our organization has been receiving funding from CIDA since 1987, when it was called the Fonds délégués AQOCI-Haïti. At the time, CIDA funding represented $700,000 a year. The cost-sharing ratio was 9 to 1. That was the period following the fall of Duvalier. The situation was considered catastrophic enough to justify support for Canada-Haiti agencies wishing to help Haiti.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. Haiti is a fundamentally agricultural country, and the country's dependence on agriculture is impoverishing the country-dwelling population. For us, it's essential that we support reforestation, agricultural production and stock farming projects. That's the best way to reach the largest number of people possible and to enable them to improve their living conditions.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's for their own consumption, but they sell part of it.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely. One of the components of ROCAHD's work is the promotion of gender equity. Some of our projects are specifically aimed at women. The merchant micro-credit project is strictly aimed at women. As you are no doubt aware, approximately 72 in every 1,000 women dies in childbirth for lack of medical care.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. ROCAHD's projects are being rolled out across Haiti, including Port-au-Prince. The well projects are being carried out in the mountains, in the suburbs of Jacmel and at Fossé-Naboth, in the department of Artibonite. Those wells will supply more than 15,000 people with drinking water.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. It's a great pleasure for me to address the committee on behalf of ROCAHD. I'm here today with Mr. Barthélus, who is the Vice-Chair of ROCAHD's board of directors. What is ROCAHD? It's a coalition of Canada-Haiti organizations that has been in existence under that name since 1994, but was founded in 1987 under the name of the Fonds délégués AQOCI-Haïti.