[News] Mobile Schools in Haiti - work of the Aristide Foundation
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon Apr 5 10:15:40 EDT 2010
Mobile Schools in the Earthquake Zone - An Update
from the Aristide Foundation for Democracy -
April 2, 2010
by Laura Flynn
When the Aristide Foundation for Democracy
launched our Mobile School project in late
February we wanted to do two things quickly:
support children living in refugee camps across
Port-au-Prince and offer immediate employment to
young Haitians at a time when the whole economy
has collapsed. With generous support from the
<http://HaitiAction.net>Haiti Emergency Relief
Fund we were able to get schools up and running
very quickly. Since late February we've been
running Mobile Schools, three hours a day, five
days a week, serving 1260 kids in 5 refugee camps in the earthquake zone.
This project has surpassed our expectations at every level.
First the amazing compassion, vitality and
professionalism of the 102 monitors we called on
to staff the project has inspired us. The
monitors are mostly young people who were
students at the language and computer school of
the Aristide Foundation at the time of the
quake. Many of them have lost their houses and
are facing terrible difficulties in their own
lives. The coordinator of the mobile schools at
the Tarpage encampment in Tabarre, Mirlande
Janvier, was buried under the rubble with her son
for two days after the quake before being rescued
by her neighbors. Nevertheless she's working
full-time running the mobile schools in her
community. All the monitors and staff come to
work every day with incredible energy and love
for the kids they are working with. In March
they got a boost when Leah James, a social
worker from the University of Michigan did a
training with them on how to support children
suffering from the trauma of the quake. (See her
story on the Huffington Post
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-james/not-too-soon-for-mental-h_b_513863.html>here.
)
Second the overwhelming response of the families
in the camps has humbled us. Parents and
community members quickly came together to build
the shelters in which classes are held. At each
site when we opened there was a massive press of
parents desperate to get their children into the
schools. We knew we were offering a very modest
program under canopies in the open air, without
books or professional teachers. The parents saw
this as something far more profound a chance, a
future, some hope for their children. Here are
a couple of testimonies from parents:
Esau, 31, Nazon: I thank God every day that my
children can continue their education here at the
school. You spend your whole life working to
build a home to make life better for your
children and then in a moment the catastrophe
takes all that work away from you. We moved from
our house because there were a lot of cracks in
the walls. The concrete split open and was
hanging from the ceiling. It was not safe
anymore. First we stayed [in a camp] near the
airport but it was very crowded so a month ago we
moved here (to Nazon). When the director accepted
my children to attend this school I was so very
very happy because I want them to continue
learning and getting an education. It's good for
them to go to school to have a normal life like
children should have. It helps them be more confident.
Marjory 28, Tabarre: At the school my daughter
learns to count, to say the alphabet and also she
learns hygiene. When I come to walk her back
after class she sings to me the songs they sing
in the school. Her favorite song is "Head,
Shoulders, Knees and Toes" Now she knows all the
parts of her body and the days of the week, and
months of the year. She is very clever and is
learning everything very quickly. The teachers at
the school are caring and love each of the
children. They know what are the strengths of
each child and they try to help each child. Going
to school helps children forget about the
earthquake for a short time. Its good that the
school is outside because the children will not
go indoors. When there are aftershocks, the teachers calm the children.
We planned to take no more than 800 kids we
ended up with 1260. We had to draw the line
there because we simply dont have the money to
do more, but school coordinators in each camp
continue to report getting pleas from parents
everyday to take their kids into the schools.
And then of course the kids themselves are
amazing. They arrived from the first day in
clean clothes, every child with shoes on. How is
that possible when we know the kind of misery
these families are living in? Well, Haitians
have always sent their children to school with
pride and dignity even an earthquake, even the
misery of the camps, cannot shake that. Watching
the kids sing, dance, play, laugh, smile has been
healing for everyone involved--kids, monitors,
coordinators, parents. It's a cliche perhaps to
say that children are resilient, and yet, they
are, and they are the future of the nation.
When we opened the schools we thought, we hoped,
we prayed that food distribution to families at
refugee settlements would become more
dependable. This has not happened. In none of
the five camps where we are working is food
distribution regular or sufficient to meet the
needs of those living there. Two of the
settlements--at Nazon and at Fontamara--report
that the Aristide Foundation was and is the first
and only aid agency of any kind to come to where
they are. These two camps are not on main roads
(though they are smack in the middle of
Port-au-Prince), but even at Carradeux on the
campus of
<http://aristidefoundationfordemocracy.org/about/the-university-of-the-aristide-foundation-unifa/>UniFA
(the Medical school of the Aristide Foundation),
at Tapage in Tabarre, and at Building 2004, a
stones throw from the airport, there is nothing
resembling regular food distribution. This is
the situation across Haiti. The aid is simply
not getting there. For a clear picture of the
failure of the relief effort to meet even the
most basic needs of the Haitian people
<http://www.change.org/haitijustice/petitions/view/we_can_do_better_for_haiti_demand_transparency_and_improved_aid_distribution>watch
this short video put together by the New Media
Project
<http://www.change.org/haitijustice/petitions/view/we_can_do_better_for_haiti_demand_transparency_and_improved_aid_distribution>and
sign on to this petition being circulated by the
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
calling on the major aid agencies to do better
with our money in responding to the crisis in
Haiti -- and to include the voices of the Haitian people in recovery plans.
The grim reality in the refugee camps of
Port-au-Prince right now is hunger. The snack we
provide in the mobile schools is for many kids
the only meal they get that day. That is both
totally unacceptable and the situation we are
forced to confront. Naturally children line up
more than once, or stash away snacks for their
parents. And yet, somehow the AFD monitors and
coordinators along with the families in the camps
have established enough discipline to run this
project including a daily snack distribution
for the children right in the midst of camps of
starving people. There have been no major
disruptions a profound measure of how committed
these communities are to making these schools
work for their kids. The Foundation is committed
too -- to staying in the camps and working
alongside the majority of Port-au-Prince's
inhabitants, as we have for the past 14
years. Needless to say, we aren't getting help
from the major aid organizations. Perhaps that
will save us. The mobile school project along
with every other project of the Aristide
Foundation is Haitian-led and
Haitian-staffed. There is dignity in that. In
the end only Haitians can lead the way out of this catastrophe.
Laura Flynn is a member of the board of the
Aristide Foundation for Democracy-US, which
supports the work of the Aristide Foundation in
Haiti. AFD-Haiti was founded by Jean-Bertrand
Aristide in 1996 on the principle that to bring
real change, democracy must include those at the
margins of society: street children, market
women, landless peasants, restaveks (children
living in Haitian households as unpaid domestic
laborers), the urban poor. For 14 years the
Foundation has dedicated itself to providing
educational opportunities and opening up avenues
of democratic participation for those who
traditionally have had no voice in national
affairs and no access to education. It seeks to
echo and amplify the voices of the Haitian people
on a national and international level.
For more on the current work and history of the
Aristide Foundation -- and lots of great photos
from the mobile schools visit our website:
<http://www.AristideFoundationforDemocracy.org%20>http://AristideFoundationforDemocracy.org
Online Donations to Support the Mobile Schools
and other Earthquake Relief Efforts of the
Aristide Foundation for Democracy can be made
here: http://aristidefoundationfordemocracy.org/
Or mail checks to: Aristide Foundation, PO Box
490271, Key Biscayne, Florida 33149
All donations are tax deductible and will be acknowledged.
If you are interested in establishing sister
school relationships between schools in the US or
elsewhere and the Mobile Schools in Haiti please
email us at <mailto:AristideFoundation at gmail.com>AristideFoundation at gmail.com.
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