Sean Penn's Haiti Relief Organization Gets $8.75 Million Grant

Sean Penn's Haiti relief organization has received a grant of $8.75 million to support survivors of the devastating 2010 earthquake in the country.

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The actor-activist signed the grant with the Haitian government and the World Bank for a 16-month project to help some 14,000 people who are living in temporary camps managed by his J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO) transition back into their neighborhoods. Penn also aims to support neighborhood rebuilding efforts with the construction of 45 housing units and new community infrastructure in the Delmas 32 area. 

In addition, the grant will help support Penn's "Protection" team in providing assistance to vulnerable families as well as spearheading a program targeted toward the prevention of domestic and gender-based violence.

The World Bank is financing the endeavor with backing from the Haiti Reconstruction Fund.

Penn launched J/P HRO in March 2010, two months after the earthquake ravaged the country; at one point, its two camps had as many as 60,000 displaced survivors. 

Last week, the outspoken star attended Hugo Chavez's funeral in Venezuela. A strong advocate of Chavez’s administration, Penn said March 5 -- the day the Venezuelan president died of a heart attack -- that "the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion."