THE United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon in a letter to President Bharrat Jagdeo has lauded the Government’s contribution of US$1M to aid relief efforts for earthquake-devastated Haiti. The Secretary General said that “the funds were not only timely, but an example of neighbourly solidarity to a country in dire need. Guyana is a generous donor to Haiti in terms of per capita GDP and I commend you and the Guyanese people, who I understand have separately managed to raise over $266M to date.”

Additionally, over 15 containers of food items, water and clothing have been shipped to Haiti.

Haiti’s capital was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, killing tens of thousands of people.

The financial contributions of several countries to the Haitian crisis were assessed by the Relief Web, Guardian Datablog: Information is Beautiful, which placed Guyana on top of the list of the most generous countries.

Guyana’s donation was rated as 0.088 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) crediting it the most generous country to have donated to Haiti. Second in line was Ghana with 0.018 percent.