Above: US Ambassador to Haiti Pamela White

By the Caribbean Journal staff

United States Ambassador to Haiti Pamela White, who arrived in the country earlier this month, made her first excursion beyond Port-au-Prince with a trip to northern Haiti.

The tour included a number of projects currently being funded by the US government and met with local residents and officials, according to the US Embassy.

The trip also consisted of a visit to the Justinien Hospital in Cap-Haitien, where the US-based Center for Disease Control and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are working on an HIV prevention project.

During a stop to a group of cacao farms, White told local farmers that the US government wanted to work with them so they can become “successful and independent.”

White additionally met with Carl Henry Boucher, the northern department director of the Haitian National Police.

White held talks with the Mayor of Caracol, the site of an ongoing industrial park project that is being developed in partnership with Haiti’s government, the US government and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The Caracol project is projected to bring 20,000 jobs to the region in the coming years.

In a release, White said she planned to “travel extensively” throughout Haiti and “get to know Haitians from every corner of the country and experience first-hand the natural beauty that Haiti is known for.”

White was officially sworn in as the US Ambassador July 18. She previously worked in Haiti with USAID in the 1980s.