Haiti continues to chart path toward recovery

Even after you restore safety and security, how do you begin to rebuild? Haitian President Rene Preval will meet with President Barack Obama in Washington today to discuss what Haiti needs two months after the earthquake that devastated large swathes of the country. Along with severe damages to infrastructure in the wake of the disaster, Haitians are trying to deal with economic issues ? some of them pre-existent ? brought into sharp relief by the quake. We’re checking in with two people who have a birds-eye view of Haitian need, and how it interacts with that country’s economy, past and future.

Niala Boodhoo is a multimedia business reporter for the Miami Herald who just returned from a ten-day trip to Haiti where she dug into how the country is focusing on its agricultural sector in the earthquake’s wake. She also reported on Haiti’s most successful business, Barbancourt Rum, which has been thriving for more than a century. Gepsie Mettelus is the executive director of Sant La, a Haitian neighborhood center in Miami. On Tuesday night her group met to talk about exactly what Haitians need to pave the road to recovery. She tells us about what they concluded.