Save a Life in Only a Few Seconds — Sign the Cholera Petition for Haiti TODAY

Please help us reach 10,000 signatures on a petition calling for the UN to implement a comprehensive solution — rather than a bandaid approach — to the cholera epidemic in Haiti.  Tomorrow the United Nations will unveil a plan to contain the disease.  A coalition of over 30 faith-based and human rights organizations — the Haiti Advocacy Working Group — has launched an on-line petition endorsed by filmmaker Oliver Stone to call upon the United Nations to eradicate the disease it brought to Haiti.

Why this? For over two years since cholera was introduced by Nepalese UN peacekeeping troops stationed near Mirebalais, Haiti (tragically where Jim Ansara and his colleagues are building the new National Teaching Hospital) nearly 8,000 Haitians have died of the disease and hundreds of thousands have been infected.  Cholera has heaped unimaginable suffering on a nation already devastated by earthquake, hurricanes and systemic injustice.  Cholera is a waterborne illness that is easily treatable, but for those who lack access to clean water and medical care, it can kill in a matter of hours.  Despite irrefutable evidence and mounting pressure, the UN has failed to take responsibility or pay reparations.

Why now? On December 11 a cholera elimination plan developed jointly by the Haitian government and UN agencies will be unveiled.  Global citizens like you who have made donations and spent tax dollars in Haiti must press the UN to make sure that this plan receives full funding and international support.

Please sign the petition here to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, then send it on via e-mail and social media to everyone you know who cares about Haiti and about humanity.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/End_Haitis_Cholera_Epidemic_with_UN_Action_Now_1/

If you would like to learn more about the link between the UN and cholera go to http://undeny.org to watch “Baseball in the Time of Cholera.” It chronicles the role of cholera in one Haitian boy’s life and the work of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) in amassing evidence to hold the United Nations accountable.

IJDH and BAI are grantees of the Ansara Family Fund and the Haiti Fund at the Boston Foundation.  The Haiti Fund is a member of the Haiti Advocacy Working Group.