Save the Children Working Rapidly to Re-Establish Schools as an Urgent Part of the Humanitarian Response

Port-au-Prince, HAITI (January 19, 2010) — Children in Haiti have witnessed horrific scenes since the earthquake and are grieving the loss of family and friends. They have experienced more suffering in the past week than most people experience in a lifetime. And the one place that might serve as a refuge, schools, where they could be with their friends and begin to recover, were completely demolished in last week’s earthquake. Save the Children has been working quickly to set up temporary schooling in child-friendly spaces for children, allowing them to establish a sense of routine in a supportive environment, and begin to recover.

One of the key things that children have been asking Save the Children for following the earthquake is when can they start school again. Angelo, 8, lost his home in the earthquake. Today, he and his seven brothers and sisters are living with their mother in a crowded temporary encampment on the grounds of a church. Angelo, who would like to be a football player when he grows up, says he misses his home, his classmates and his school.

“I would like to go back home but I know that it’s impossible now. I’m not going to school anymore. It’s a shame because I like school,” he says. Save the Children is working hard to ensure that Angelo and his classmates will soon have a safe space to play and to learn.

“From our experience of responding to emergencies all over the world, education is crucial in the aftermath of an emergency,” said Annie Foster, Emergency Team Leader in Haiti. “Children want to be in school – school is a safe place where they can play with their friends, speak to their teachers and be in an environment that is totally focused on their needs. But most importantly, education can save lives.”

During and after a disaster, education is a crucial part of the emergency response. School can protect children from physical harm, exploitation and violence, and offer psychological support and healing during and after the disaster. Providing temporary schooling for children also helps parents to begin to recover from the earthquake, bury their dead, and start to rebuild their lives.

On Monday, Save the Children started setting up the first of many child-friendly spaces planned for shelters and camps housing earthquake survivors. Hundreds of children have are expected to start activities today and thousands more will be registered this week.

“Children are suffering from emotional distress from the earthquake as well as from living the daily hardships of life amid the destruction,” Annie Foster, Emergency Team Leader in Haiti. “With school, they can get the support they need to recover from what has been a terrifying ordeal.”

Haiti’s schools have been officially closed since the earthquake and it will be crucial to children’s recovery to ensure that they have opportunities to learn once the official closure has ended. The longer term rehabilitation of Haiti’s education system, which has ‘totally collapsed’, according to Joel Jean-Pierre, Haiti’s education minister, is a crucial part of Save the Children’s five-year “build back better” initiative.

Save the Children was running education programs in Haiti before the earthquake hit, as part of the Rewrite the Future campaign to get children in conflict-affected fragile states back in school.

Before the earthquake there were already 706,000 children out of school. This number is set to increase as many schools have been damaged, and teachers killed, injured or bereaved. The earthquake also offers an opportunity to get all of these children back to school, including the most vulnerable children, and address the long-term developments needs of the country.