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Beyonce has used her celebrity to highlight Haiti, the Caribbean nation that continues to suffer since it was devastated by an earthquake five years ago.
Last month, the singer visited Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and while there, she went to Saint Damien Pediatric Hospital, the only children’s hospital in Haiti, which is funded exclusively by private donations and provides high-quality care to the poor, charging patients a small fee.
In an video posted to YouTube, Beyonce is seen meeting with doctors, high fiving cancer patients and holding newborns inside a specialized intensive care unit, one of only a few such units in the impoverished country. The superstar wears a T-shirt to bring awareness to her charity, Bey Good. The shirts are available for sale with all proceeds going directly to Saint Damien Pediatric Hospital.
“We need to raise money and gain all attention we can gather…,” says Dr. Jacqueline Gautier, the hospital’s executive director.
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake occurred on January, 12, 2010 and left approximately 300,000 people dead and leveled Port-au-Prince. Today, 40 percent of Haiti’s population is unemployed. Thousands of people are still living in temporary, post-earthquake camps and cholera — a gastrointestinal infection that can be spread through the consumption of contaminated water and food — is an epidemic.
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