By George Fominyen and Frank Nyakairu
DAKAR/NAIROBI (AlertNet) - Â?As Africans, we need to come to the rescue of Haitians with any little aid we can afford,Â? says Solomon Karuiki, a trader on the streets of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, reflecting a surge of solidarity across most of Africa with the impoverished Caribbean nation since last week's earthquake.
Governments, organisations and individuals on the African continent, largely poor and disaster-prone itself, have been raising funds for the Haitain people.
Donations in cash and kind have come from the governments of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) ($1 million), Gabon ($1million), Equatorial Guinea ($1.9 million), Morocco ($1 million worth of medical supplies) and Senegal ($1million).
Along with financial assistance, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade also offered land to host any Haitians who wanted to relocate to Africa, although some Senegalese questioned where the Haitians would be housed.
Â?This Haiti thing is really disheartening, only God knows why it is happening to our kind but President WadeÂ?s proposal also sounds like a joke,Â? Aliou Mohamadou told AlertNet from his packed food store in Dakar, watching footage from Haiti on local television news and listening to French radio.
But Â?where does he expect us to lodge those people? It is a pretty thing to say, but it's not realistic," he added.
Even the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, however, has offered $2.5 million in assistance to Haitian quake victims, although some Congolese have criticised the pledge given DR Congo's own financial dire straits. Seventy-five percent of people in DR Congo live below the poverty line.
TIME TO GIVE BACK
Many working in the relief field on the African continent believe it is Africa's time to give back after being the recipient of aid for so many years.
The Kenyan Red Cross Society (KRCS) has launched a fundraising drive in the east African country.
Â?As Kenyans and Africans, we have received a lot of aid from the rest of the world and this is our chance to give to those who are less fortunate in Haiti,Â? KRCS Secretary General, Abbas Gullet Gullet told AlertNet, in a telephone interview.
He said the campaign had already raised 250,000 Kenyan shillings ($3,400). The countryÂ?s national airline, Kenya Airways, is also collecting coins from passengers on board its planes to give to Haiti.
In the west African state of Senegal, the government has said it will stage a television charity event to encourage contributions from local people.
Â?I think this is an opportunity for us, those in the South to better organise ourselves and not just sit and wait for help to come from the north," Ernerst Diatta, a 38 year-old bookshop employee, told AlertNet in Dakar.
A popular Senegalese singer, Coumba Gawlo announced on Monday that she and a group of African musicians are set to release a single in honour of the Haitian people. The proceeds of the song, to be written by Lokua Kanza of DR Congo, will be offered to the Haitian people.
Â?Apart from the single, a huge concert would be organised in Dakar involving all the artists who will take part in this project, and the proceeds will also be sent to the[our] brothers of Haiti,Â? the artist said in a statement.
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