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Haiti Update
January 15, 2010
I really love being human. But some days I really wish I could be a fairy.
-Greta, age 4
-Greta, age 4
The world is watching with great sadness as the stories continue to come in about the devastation from Haiti. Coincidentally, the ExchangeEveryDay previously set to go out today focused on the importance of early childhood services in the response to emergencies. This message has been moved to the bottom of this long update.
People from all over the world have been asking how they can support children, families, and the early childhood community in Haiti. Clearly the response will come in two stages. The first stage is the provision of food, water, shelter, and medical care for those impacted directly. To support this effort, go to the web sites for UNICEF, Save the Children, and other NGOs you typically support. In addition, the White House has issued an appeal which can be viewed at: my.barackobama.com/Haiti
Stage two will be a more long-term effort of rebuilding and recovery. Emily Vargas-Baron and other members of the Consultative Group on ECD are working to develop a specific ECD response. Patrick McCormick, from UNICEF, reports that the children are indeed the most vulnerable: "Expert estimates suggest that 46 percent of Haiti's nearly 10 million people are under 18 years of age. The special needs of children for food, shelter, and protection must be factored in at the very outset of relief efforts, and UNICEF will do everything in its power to make sure these needs are met."
A director of an orphanage in Port-au-Prince has sent a first-hand report to a friend of the World Forum on the impact on the facility, children, and staff that can be on the Exchange website.
The immediate response is being hampered to a degree by the fact that many of the NGOs had offices in Haiti, which were hit hard by the quake. What follows are some reports we have received from the various NGOs, starting with a message the World Forum's Selena Fox received from Caroline Hudicourt, the World Forum National Representative for Haiti:
| "Thanks Selena for your concern. My family and I are alive and well. The houses where my whole family lives are all in perfect shape so far. I spent the night of the earthquake, which caught me at a meeting in town, on a lawn at my sister Chantal's house, who lives in a residential area close to the center of Port-au-Prince. My sister Dominique, Tipa Tipa's director, and I had to leave our cars in different places to walk to Chantal's apartment house. Although the large lawn and the tennis court where my sister lives had been receiving a large number of people including some severely hurt and dying and pretty much everybody worried about where their loved ones were, it is only when we left the complex at around ten o'clock on Wednesday that we realized that the apartments in front of where we slept were the only standing buildings in the area. When I got home, it was sometimes difficult to explain to people how serious the situation was in town. Even after I had described the situation, some people would ask me: 'Did you sleep in the house?' I would answer: 'You don't get it. The walls of the house are in worse shape than the walls of my house had been after it had burned and you could say that the neighborhood doesn't exist anymore. That's the same for most of downtown Port-au-Prince.' My husband's printing house collapsed, as well as his sister's house. Her son, who was home, ran out. He is hurt, we don't know to what extent, but he is alive. The time of the earthquake, 5 pm, helped save many lives; many people were on their way home, and out of the houses. Several members of my family are spending long hours helping at the community hospital close to my house that my mom helped to build. This is by far the worst tragedy that has ever happened here. Tipa Tipa's office is still standing." |
Emily Vargas-Baron, from World Forum Alliance member Rise Institute, notes the importance of the news about Tipa Tipa: "
| I am thrilled their building is OK as well. They also support many other groups technically: a religious preschool up on a mountainside, private preschools and many others. Tipa Tipa could be a channel for support of others as well, plus they need to keep up their own services." |
A report from the UNESCO ecd team:
| ""UNESCO, which has an office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is closely monitoring the situation in Haiti and working with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to ensure the most effective and rapid response. According to the latest report, the four international staff members working for UNESCO’s Office in Port-au-Prince are safe and sound. The head of the Office is trying to find and gather information about local staff who are harder to account for as they are scattered around the country and because travel inside and outside the capital is difficult." |
Sarah Klaus, Director of the Early Childhood Program at the Open Society Foundation reports: "Heard good news from the Soros Foundation that they were safe."
Another update from Emily:
| "It seems the UNICEF people are OK according to the Rep Guido Carnale, but he was 6 hours out of town by road, and he is trying to get back in. The UNICEF buildings were badly damaged, especially the main one.... Save the Children's director was online last night to CNN, and he and his staff were OK. The Ministry of Education was destroyed and I fear the worst. Our people are on the top (third) floor. I hate to even think about it because most of the concrete buildings pancaked. The World Bank director reports that his people in his (destroyed) offices (located close to the Montana Hotel) are OK, but he did not know about the ones who were out of the office. All cell phones are out." |
As plans develop to provide a focused ECD long-term response, we will keep you posted. Now, back to the original message, which explains why an ECD response is so critical:
The World Forum Foundation is a member of the Early Childhood Development in Emergencies Working Group of the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development. Save the Children, the convener of the Working Group, wrote about the work of the group in the November 2009 issue of the Bernard van Leer Foundation publication Early Childhood Matters observing...
"Focusing on children's rights in emergency situations can have wide and lasting benefits. Most immediately and practically, the existence of early childhood development services such as Child-Friendly Spaces, parenting groups, home visiting services, informal playgroups, preschools, landmine education programmes, etc., support children and give them a strong foundation for life learning and success, even in extremely difficult circumstances.
"Early child development programming may also offer unprecedented support to parents of young children in the form of information and guidance on caring for and nurturing their young children even in emergencies. Services, which care for children, free up parents and caregivers to go about the business of rebuilding their homes, collecting food and water, or seeking income, knowing their children are in a safe and stimulating place. More broadly, by putting the spotlight on young children, early childhood development activities can encourage a focus on hope for the future."
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Comments (6)
Displaying All 6 CommentsSeminole State College of Florida
Sanford, FL, United States
I would like to know how can I get some assistance from any organization assisting the children of Haiti. I am organizing a trip to Haiti with a student organization originally to go and work with children ages 4 to 12. Due to the devastattion that just happen we reconsider to also include the youths. I wanted to know how I can get some assistance from you. All of the help seems to be going to Port-Au-Prince but everyone forgot that all of these children who have lost their parents return to the country side of Haiti mostly to the second city Cap Haitian which is where we planned to go this summer. Please help with this project. I can be reach at 407 687 4511 or [email protected]
Thank You
Nattacha Wyllie
Caribbean Club
Founder/President
West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States
Thank you for this timely article.
Please keep the early childhood community updated as to how we can begin to best meet the needs of children, families, schools.
Thank you for all you do Roger and Bonnie.
Carol Patnaude
West Warwick, RI
ISU Child Care Center
Normal, Il, United States
Excellent, clear overview of very chaotic, devastating event for our peers in Haiti! Hope all remember Haiti will need our help for years to come, not just during this immediate overwhelming, media-spotlighted crisis.
Bethesda, MD, United States
Folks who are concerned about children who are victims of natural or man-made disasters in the United States might benefit from learning more about Children's Disaster Services, a non-sectarian function of the Brethren Church, which works with Red Cross and FEMA to take care of children in shelters and service centers in disasters in the United States. We provide child care, often one-on-one, to help children return to play-oriented learning and coping, through developmentally-appropriate simple activities such as painting, play dough, sand, cars, dolls, puppets, etc., which we bring to the disaster in a heavy suitcase we call a Kit of Comfort. This helps the adults in the family cope with the long lines inevitable in such situations, as well as the relief they feel when they see their children being able to return to normal play. You can check it out at http://www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=serve_childrens_disaster_services.
CDS needs volunteers throughout the country to take a weekend's training and be willing to spend up to 2 weeks serving in disaster areas on occasion.
John
Neighborhood Child Care Center, Inc.
Montclair, NJ, United States
Neighborhood Child Care will be collecting items to aid Early Child care programs in Haiti. I am happy to hear from people that are alive, our goal now should be on assisting them as they focus on rebuilding. If all Early childhood programs in USA host a collection drive I think we will be able toi save the Earlychild hood community in Haiti.
Dakar, Senegal
Bonnie & Roger, thanks so much for putting both a personal and practical face on the tragedy in Haiti. It is always hard to imagine such vast devastation, but I greatly appreciate your pointing out the impact on children and services, and direct ways we can be of help. As always CCIE/World Forum makes the world a little smaller and more connected, especially when the needs are greatest.
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