Clinton, Bush Haiti-bound: $31 m so far

by Mark Silva

Remember Haiti?

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are working to ensure that the world doesn't forget the suffering that remains from a catastrophic earthquake.

The two plan to travel to Haiti on Monday, according to the Clinton Foundation. They will meet with citizens, government leaders and agencies providing assistance to the survivors of the January earthquake that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

President Barack Obama recruited his two predecessors to spearhead private fundraising for the long-term recovery of the island nation.

They created the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which has reported raising more than $31 million so far from over 200,000 contriubtors -- Obama recently announced he is donating $200,000 of his own proceeds from the Nobel Prize for Peace which he won last year, all $1.4 million of that prize money destined for a variety of charities.

The fund is attempting to help "improve the quality of life over the long term for those affected, and assist the people of Haiti as they rebuild their lives and "build back better,'' the Clinton Foundation says.

The traveling presidents will be accompanied by members of the Clinton-Bush fund's board of directors, which includes:

Laura Graham, a former Clinton administration official and Chief Operating Officer for the William J. Clinton Foundation, Joshua Bolten, former White House Chief of Staff to President Bush now a visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, Bruce Lindsey, a former Clinton administration official currently CEO of the Clinton Foundation, Dr. Bill Frist, former Senate Majority Leader now a professor at Vanderbilt University, Henrietta Fore, former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development under Bush, Alexis Herman, former Secretary of Labor under Clinton, and Gary Edson, a Deputy National Security Adviser in the Bush administration who co-led the development of the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).