Haiti races to rebuild schools destroyed by earthquake

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti is struggling to get children back into the classroom amid the devastation of last month’s earthquake that killed more than 2,200 people and destroyed tens of thousands of buildings, including many schools.

It is a logistical and humanitarian challenge in the disaster-prone nation – the poorest in the Americas – which has not fully recovered from the massive earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 200,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Classes for most students, which were scheduled to begin on September 6, have been postponed by two weeks. It has been postponed until October 4 in the three southern provinces hardest hit by the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on August 14.

In those areas, many families lost everything.

News of the postponement of the school year launched a countdown to aid workers, who raced to help those in need in southern counties.

Schools destroyed

said Bruno Maes, Chief of UNICEF Haiti.

“It’s going to be a race against time because it’s only been a few weeks that protective and safe educational shelters have been set up for kids in these three departments so they don’t miss another school year,” Maes said.

The 2019-20 school year ended in March of last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following school year for many Haitians was then disrupted by widespread violence from powerful street gangs.

In late 2020 and early this year, gang members carried out several kidnappings for ransom, kidnapping children or teachers near schools in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

About 150 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, the crime wave has largely escaped from Camp Berrin, but the area was badly damaged by the earthquake.

Unfulfilled promises

Welcoming children back to school is a particular headache for private schools, which account for 80 percent of schools in Haiti.

“We have students who have not yet paid their tuition fees for the 2017-2018 academic year,” said Maxim Eugene, a teacher at Maznaud High School. “We can’t bring them home and make them miss a school year because of the money.”

Boys playing cards in a temporary shelter after the recent deadly earthquake in Chardonese, Haiti. | Agence France-Presse – JIJI

The earthquake destroyed every classroom in that well-known Catholic school.

Soldiers cleared the rubble, but school officials are still waiting for help to start the school year.

“Promises have been made to us, but they have not yet been kept,” Eugene said.

“If we get the tents in time, we can be ready to start school on October 4, because we have been able to salvage the furniture,” he said. He insisted he was optimistic despite the prospect of having to teach on the school football field.

Lassell, located far in the mountain range that stretches across the southern Haiti peninsula, was among the worst after the August 14 earthquake, leaving residents desperate.

“The building may be ready, but I personally don’t know how I’m going to get back to work,” said Prinus St. Jules, an elementary school principal whose home was destroyed in the earthquake.

The day after the earthquake, a neighbor gave him pants. He spent the next ten nights sleeping in the back of a truck with his wife and two children, along with four other people left homeless.

‘Mentally ill’

Saint Jules, 60, now lives under a rough shelter made of sheet metal. He can hardly think of the next school year.

He said the stress and drama in recent weeks had made him feel “mentally ill”. “I spend my time thinking about how to recover.”

A teacher for over 30 years, Saint Jules takes solace in the fact that the school he has supervised for 12 years has only been damaged rather than completely destroyed. Still, it is a mess.

“I have become as poor as people who do not work,” he said. “It’s really difficult from a human point of view.”

He continued, “But from a physical point of view, if the building is repaired, if the government intervenes to help the parents, to help the teachers, we can open the school on October 4th.”

And that’s despite the fact that Saint Jules, like most of his 400 students, now lives outdoors.

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