Haiti striving to send children back to schools

Haiti: Haiti is currently striving to send children back to class following the destruction caused by the earthquake last month that killed over 2,200 people and damaged tens of thousands of buildings, which also includes many schools.

It is one of the impoverished countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region, which is currently fighting with numerous issues including political instability, gang violence, murder, COVID-19 and now destruction aftermath earthquake. Haiti never has been able to fully recovered from the enormous quake in 2010 that killed more than 200,000 people and produced billions in damage.

Classes for most of the students initially were scheduled to start from September 6, now have been forced back by two weeks. And now they have been again postponed until October 4 in the 3 southern departments hardest hit by the 7.2 magnitude quake.

In these hard hit areas, many families have lost their everything. Word of the delay ahead start to the school year has launched a countdown to assist workers, who have raced to support the neediest citizens in the southern departments.

Bruno Maes, the head of UNICEF in Haiti cited that, “Out of the 2,800 schools in the 3 most affected areas, 955 have been assessed by the government with aid from UNICEF, and the first results depict that 15 per cent of them were destructed and 69 per cent were damaged.”

Maxime Eugene, a teacher in the Mazenod high school added that “We are having students who have not yet paid their tuition fee for the 2017-2018 school year. We cannot send them home & make them miss a year of school because of the money issue.”

Showing positive optimism, Eugene asserted that if they get tents in time they can be ready for the beginning of school on October 4, 2021, as currently, they are able to salvage the furniture.