OMGSH HAITI! ARE YOU OKAY?!

A man uses a shovel to clear mud and water from his house, dumping it into the street in the older part of the flood-damaged city of Gonaïves, Haiti.

A summary of an article I found on the conditions of Haiti's school district prior to disasters that have recently struck the area. Haiti’s flood-damaged schools struggle to reopen. Four successive storms covered homes, streets and population in mud. The results were so devastating,the start of school was delayed by a month throughout the country. Education can act as a stabilizing force for communities both during and after a crisis. It helps to rebuild countries after emergencies. A new national deadline fast approaching, makes it unclear how many students will be returning to school. About 200 schools need to be cleaned and 100 to rehabilitate and over 20 to rebuild entirely,” said the Departmental Director at the Ministry of Education. “We are starting all over again.”

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Education brings hope to Haiti’s children. ‘Let us not lose any more’ - Edward Carwardine

In the picture above, kids gather a L'Institution Sacre Coeur for the starts of lessons, as schools in Port-au-Prince begin to reopen 3 months after the earthquake that shattered much of Haiti. Physical and human loss is still apparent even three months after the devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Hundreds of thousands remain homeless, scared of returned to their homes.Tents and shelters fill the few open spaces available. Children lost their schools, teachers, friends, possessions and pets. UNICEF faces enormous  tasks: retrieving safe water and adequate sanitation, safeguarding the health and nutrition of affected children, and protecting those who have lost parents or are at increased risk of harm. An important step is being taken – a step that may give some hope to more than a million children touched by this disaster. This week, many schools around Port-au-Prince are beginning to reopen their doors. About 50% of school-age children in Haiti didn't attend school prior to the earthquake. But many children here, even those who hadn't attended school before say they want nothing more than to receive an education so that they can help to fix their country. For the generation of children who will mark time by this natural disaster, it is important that they remember the post-quake era as one not just of recovery, but of development. -------------------------------------------------------------------

      

Children walk from a UNICEF-supplied school tent at L'Institution Sacre Cœur in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The process of returning children to schools has required weeks of effort, involving the Haitian Ministry of Education, UNICEF, other NGOs such as Save the Children, and local school directors, teachers and parents. 3,000 school tents have been made available to provide interim classrooms. School supplies have been delivered to learning spaces in camps and former schools ready to begin classes again. Teachers have received rapid orientation on a new curriculum to help kids back into the learning process. Unemployed Haitians have begin recruited to clear rubble for tents to be erected. At the Institution Sacre Cœur, one of the schools destroyed on the hillside, about 1,500 students are coming back to classes including, 300 children from other schools in the area that cannot be brought back into use. Sacre Cœur is a fee-paying school. But, for these new students, fees will be waived. Parents contributed to costs of wooden classrooms, which will supplement the tents provided by UNICEF. Water and sanitation facilities are being established, in a partnership between UNICEF and Technical Cooperation and Development. The school building razed during the earthquake, stands today a symbol of Haitians helping Haitians, the international community collaborating with the Haitian people, for the betterment of the nation’s children. The opening of the school is a symbol of hope to those children who've lost so much that efforts are being made to restart the path to some normality, some degree of confidence and security, despite all that has happened.