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Bill Clinton makes two stops in Florida, including UCF

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The Associated Press

Published: August 9, 2009

Updated: 08/09/2009 02:58 pm

SUNNY ISLES BEACH - Former President Bill Clinton on Sunday delivered to Haitian-Americans and emigres a mixed message of heartbreak and hope. Clinton is making two stops in the Sunshine State, at a Haitian Conference near Miami and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

As they gathered at a luxury beachside resort 700 miles from Port-au-Prince, people are still suffering in the poor island nation they were fortunate to escape by birth or other means.

"Every single day a child is hungry," Clinton told the Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress. "A parent comes home without a job; a mother dies in childbirth, a community is uprooted by a storm, the window of opportunity we have today closes a little more."

And the present represents a "unique opportunity" to pull the country out of poverty and instability, said Clinton, appointed United Nations Envoy to Haiti in May.

"I urge you all to keep up the pressure," Clinton told his audience of a few hundred. "Do not do it in a hostile way."

Clinton spoke at the end of a 4-day conference, where Haitian and Haitian-American leaders and professionals gathered to fashion a unified plan of action for Haiti.

The Diaspora, or scattered community of emigrants, sends well over a billion dollars to Haiti every year, accounting for a third of the country's gross domestic product.

In his new capacity, Clinton has focused his well-honed fundraising talents on Haitian relief. The former President announced he would head a trade mission there in October with international investors.

Clinton also said billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros' Soros Economic Development Fund was launching an equity investment program with an initial commitment of up to $25 million. The Haiti Invest Project's potential partners could immediately expand that amount to $150 million in manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, energy and tourism ventures.

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