A family huddles on a platform to escape floodwaters after evacuating its home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday, August 25. Tropical Storm Isaac dumped torrential rains on Haiti, where thousands of people remain homeless more than two years after a devastating earthquake.
Editor's note: Wyclef Jean is a Grammy-winning Haitian musician, actor, producer, and former member of the hip-hop trio The Fugees. His memoir, "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story," comes out next month from It Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.
(CNN) -- Today, when I turned on the news, I watched in horror as Tropical Storm Isaac marched toward Haiti. Almost every news channel covered the story and the potential damage Isaac could wreak on an already injured Haiti. We'll soon know whether Mother Nature has decided to spare her from Isaac, but more storms will threaten, and Haiti still needs our help.
Haiti's plight has always been close to my heart. It is the country of my birth and I am passionate about it. As we face this latest potential disaster, however, I find myself asking an uncomfortable question: Where has Haiti been in the national and international news? After the devastating earthquake in 2010, the people of the world opened up their hearts, minds, and wallets and pledged help to Haiti.
Ordinary citizens near and far, celebrities, politicians donated time, energy, and money to disaster relief causes and organizations. For a while the spotlight was on Haiti, but lately there's been next to nothing.
I don't mean to say that there aren't people and organizations still committed to Haiti. There are. Organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Oxfam, the International Medical Corps, Project Medishare, Doctors Without Borders, Food for the Poor, J/P HRO, Donna Karan's Urban Zen organization, and We Advance, just to name a few, have done and continue to do outstanding work. But after the earthquake, most (including the media) stopped paying attention, either believing they had done all they could, or maybe because they were simply tired or overwhelmed.
Today, almost three years later, there are more than 400,000 refugees still living in hundreds of tent cities, where sanitation is primitive and life is dangerous. Health issues abound; wrecked buildings and rubble remain.
While the nation's current president has done an admirable job at letting the world know that Haiti is "open for business," the problems facing the country remain enormous.
The $2.1 billion raised in the earthquake relief effort may seem like a staggering sum, but we have to remember the scale and the magnitude of the devastation -- the total destruction of Haiti's minimal infrastructure. The task of rebuilding remains gargantuan.
For example, people have stayed in tent cities that sprang up in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere because they have nowhere else to go. These places are fraught with dangers for women and children in particular. Many have left and are homeless. Some have moved into transitional shelters, but these must give way at some point to a more permanent solution. The government and charity organizations need more time and locations to build stable and secure homes and move the displaced.
Haiti: Thousands in tents as storm nears
TS Isaac sets eyes on Haiti and others
Cholera, which broke out in the year after the quake and has claimed thousands of lives and sickened hundreds of thousands, remains a constant threat because there is limited access to fresh water and sanitation. This, even though an admirable job has been done to contain the disease's spread. This year's rainy season has touched off new concerns about its re-emergence, and the coming storm can only make matters worse.
This week, Haiti has returned once again to the national and international consciousness. This time, let's not forget. Whatever happens in the storm -- and we hope for the best -- Isaac can remind us that things don't change unless we remain active and continue to bring attention to the causes we believe in.
The hardest part is always rebuilding -- and Haiti cannot effectively rebuild if she doesn't get the attention she deserves.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Wyclef Jean.
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Residents of a low-lying area in Port-au-Prince flee their flooded homes with their possessions.
Residents flee their flooded homes with their possessions.
A man works to recover his belongings from his flattened home in a camp for displaced people in Port-au-Prince.
Residents leave their flooded homes with their possessions.
A family looks at a tree brought down by storm winds that hit a corner of their house in El Habanero, Barahona province.
Residents of Jacmel make their way through floodwaters as Tropical Storm Isaac dumps heavy rains on Saturday.
A mother and her child take shelter from the rain.
A woman wades through flood waters to try to save her possessions from her flooded home in Port-au-Prince.
Workers remove an electrical post blown down by Tropical Storm Isaac in Jaquimeyes, Barahona province.
A young man rides his bike by the rising water from the Riviere Grise, which runs alongside a tent city in Port-au-Prince.
A man tries to stay dry.
Mirlene Similien, 22, and her child live in a camp outside Port-au-Prince, established for people who were affected by the 2010 earthquake.
A band plays during an announcement on August 22 that the National Palace in Port-au-Prince will be demolished. The country is still in crisis after the deadly 2010 earthquake. Now a hurricane is threatening to bring even more destruction to the island.
A hillslide slum in Port-au-Prince is seen on July 12. The goverment plans to tear down the homes, housing more than 3 million people, as part of a flood-control project. The structures are subject to landslides during the country's rainy seasons.
Residents of the hillside slums protest their planned destruction on July 12.
Survivors of the January 12, 2010, earthquake continue to live in a tent city in the St. Therese suburb of Port-au-Prince on July 5. With the support of the International Office for Migration, many survivors have new found homes, leaving the tent city largely empty.
Trash and debris litter a field where once stood tents for surviviors of the earthquake.
A young child looks out of one of the remaining tents in the St. Therese suburb of Port-au-Prince on July 5.
A March 5 photo shows garbage littering a canal in Port-au-Prince.
People walk near a cathederal destroyed by the earthquake in Port-au-Prince.
A Haitian man sells used shoes in Port-au-Prince amid earthquake damage on January 9.
Earthquake debris in front of a campaign billboard for presidential candidate and former first lady Mirlande Manigat on March 19, 2011.
Children clear debris from a residence on March 1, 2011, in the Cité Soleil slum in Port-au-Prince.
An aerial view of a tent city in a Port-au-Prince is seen on January 10, 2011, one year after the earthquake.
People in Port-au-Prince attend a prayer service held on January 12, 2011, in memory of those killed a year earlier during the earthquake.
A man walks by crosses set up as memorials to the tens of thousands killed and buried in the mass grave at Titanyen on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
Haitians drive down a still-damaged road in Leogane a year after the devastating earthquake.
A group of men gather iron while rubble of a earthquake destoryed building t is removed. in Port au Prince, on January 8, 2011.
A young Haitian walks by dwellings being built by World Vision and UNICEF for the victims of the earthquake on January 4, 2011.
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