- The earthquake that struck Haiti last month killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed thousands of buildings, including many schools.
- The country is now working hard to get the children back to school. It was originally planned to start on September 6, but it was postponed for two weeks.
- According to UNICEF, out of 2,800 schools in the three disaster areas, 955 schools have been evaluated and the results show that 15% of them were destroyed and 69% destroyed.
The earthquake last month killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings, including many schools. Haiti is working hard to get children back to class.
This is a logistical and humanitarian challenge for this disaster-prone country. The poorest country in the Americas has never fully recovered from the 2010 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people and caused Losses of billions of dollars.
The course for most students was originally scheduled to start on September 6, but it has been postponed by two weeks. In the three southern provinces most severely affected by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on August 14, they have been postponed to October 4.
In these areas, many families have lost everything.
The news of the delayed start of the school year kicked off the countdown for aid workers, who are scrambling to help the very needy in the southern provinces.
“Of the 2,800 schools in the three disaster-stricken areas, the government evaluated 955 schools with the support of UNICEF. Preliminary results showed that 15% of them were destroyed and 69% were destroyed,” UNICEF is responsible Said Bruno Maes. Haiti.
“This will be a race against time, because it will only take a few weeks to build protective and safe learning shelters for children in these three departments, so they won’t miss another school year,” Metz said.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2019-2020 school year ended in March last year. Subsequently, many Haitians interrupted the next school year due to widespread violence by powerful street gangs.
At the end of 2020 and the beginning of this year, gang members carried out a number of kidnappings and kidnappings of children or teachers near schools in the capital Port-au-Prince.
About 150 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, the crime wave did not spare Camp-Perrin to a large extent, but the area was hit hard by the earthquake.
Welcoming children to return to school is a particular headache for private schools, which account for 80% of all schools in Haiti.
“Some of our students have not paid the tuition for the 2017-2018 school year,” said Maxime Eugene, a teacher at Mazzenoord High School. “We can’t send them home and let them miss a year of school because of the money,” he said.
The earthquake destroyed every classroom in that famous Catholic school.
The soldiers have cleared the debris, but school officials are still waiting for help to let the school year go on.
“Promises have been made to us, but they have not been fulfilled,” Eugene said.
“If we get the tent in time, we can prepare for the start of school on October 4th because we can rescue the furniture,” Eugene added. He insists that he is optimistic, although he may have to teach on the school football field.
Hidden in the mountains across the southern peninsula of Haiti, the L’Asile district is one of the worst areas since the August 14 earthquake, leaving residents desperate.
“The building may be ready, but I personally don’t know how I will get back to work,” said Brenus Saint Jules, the principal of the elementary school, whose home was destroyed in the earthquake.
The next day after the earthquake, the neighbor lent him a pair of pants. For the next 10 nights, he and his wife, two adult children, and four other homeless people slept in the back seat of a truck.
Saint Jules, 60, now lives in a simple shack made of sheet metal. He could hardly think about the coming school year.
He said that the pressure and drama of the last few weeks made him feel “mentally sick.” “I spend time thinking about how I will recover.”
As a teacher for more than 30 years, Saint Jules is comforted by the fact that the school he has supervised for 12 years is only damaged rather than completely destroyed. Nevertheless, he is still a mess.
“I became as poor as someone who didn’t work,” he said. “From a human point of view, it’s really difficult.”
He continued: “But from a material point of view, if the building is restored, if the government comes forward to help parents and teachers, we can start school on October 4.”
Despite the fact that Saint Jules, like most of his 400 students, now lives outdoors.
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