Probably this is the first time since The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 this many
people totally dislocated and there's no way they can all be taken care of.
We need to have a fund where we can help people that are otherwise going to be totally overlooked.
In the days ahead the former presidents will ask Americans to open their hearts and their
wallets to help those in need.
This is a long term reconstruction effort, we got a lot of people that need help so we're
trying to help in a way that preserves maximum flexibility and impact and one of the things
I learned dealing with these things is that it's an amazing variety of circumstances.
You almost need somebody whose job it is just to figure out what happens to you.
I can just remember seeing President Clinton when he touched the ground for the first time
and both of these guys, even though they had been through a lot, they really had never
seen anything like this and they were awed by the breadth and the depth of the damage
but also buoyed by the tremendous spirit of the New Orleans people who were just like
look we've gotta come back and there's nothing that's gonna keep us away from our home.
I think that the fund was very key in helping New Orleans recover.
First, because we were able to respond almost immediately, we were up and running within
two months time and the two presidents ability to raise nearly a hundred and thirty million
dollars over the course of the funds, we were able to make real commitments so that people
could make plans for their lives and for their future.
The challenge with structuring so that you could actually get money to the ground in
ways that the federal government couldn't get there yet and so they did a great job
first of all of getting feet and eyes on the ground and touring the area and then actually
being able to accumulate the kind of information they needed and then getting the resources
to places they needed for example, directly to the universities that needed to stand back
up.
schools were really important to get moving in the right direction.
Today we are giving thirty million dollars to 34 colleges, universities, community and
junior colleges.
We were the jumpstart for institutions like Xavier University.
Those funds were totally necessary had we not had that we would not have made it.
If we had not come back in four and a half months I'm not so sure that we would have
gotten enrollment back where we would have liked.
We are here to announce a sustainable rebuilding effort for the lower ninth ward of new
orleans.
We are calling it Make it Right.
In addition to President Clinton raising money and distributing grants through the Bush-Clinton
Katrina fund, members of the Clinton Global Initiative have made ten commitments to strengthen
communities in New Orleans and the gulf coast region.
These commitments are working to improve post disaster recovery, housing, education, and
economic opportunity.
When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will have an estimated total value of more
than ten million dollars.
So we started building houses in New Orleans in July of 2006, and what we're showing is
that new home design doesn't need to create a false battle between energy efficiency and
sustainability and affordability.
Although New Orleans has rebounded tremendously, we know there is still progress to be made.
CGI members continue to work in the region on rebuilding, and disaster preparedness as
well as community development.
I think its also important to remember and to recognize that there are parts of New Orleans
that will never come back to its original state and there are people who left New Orleans
who will never be able to come back to those homes that were destroyed and so what we have
to do is to keep still building on the foundation that was left so that future generations will
be able to say that they were a part of this great rebuilding process.