Washington, D.C. - On Monday, April 26, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Haiti Task Team Coordinator Paul Weisenfeld and Deputy Director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Ari Alexander met with the Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church, the Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, and discussed the U.S. government's foreign assistance in Haiti.

The meeting touched on internally displaced persons and the short-and long-term strategies for developing permanent housing settlements, boosting economic investments and partnerships, and leveraging involvement of the Haitian Diaspora.

Mr. Weisenfeld noted that at the recent International Donor's Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti participating countries committed to spending $5 billion over the next eighteen months, with almost $10 billion pledged for long-term efforts to improve health, agriculture, and infrastructure, including increased energy capacity, and expanded economic systems.

Mr. Weisenfeld and Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori agreed that USAID and the Episcopal Church will work together to increase information sharing and outreach.

USAID is the lead federal agency delivering humanitarian assistance to the earthquake- ravaged region. It is supporting the government of Haiti's efforts to reconstruct the country and put its people on the path to long-term recovery.

Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD), an adjunct organization to the Church, partners with the Bishop Tharp Institute (BTI) in Les Cayes, and the Haitian Development Initiative, which assists local communities in identifying needs and implementing small development projects.