WhatGives!? Do Something Good…

It’s spring break time for schools in the good ole US of A – a much-deserved recess from the grueling work of making yourself smarter.  But (clunky transition alert!) not all children are lucky enough to have a school from which to break.  That day in January when the earth shook in Haiti was just that – a day.  A school day.  If it’s possible for one aspect such a horrible event to be more heartbreaking than another, it’s that thousands of children sitting in classrooms were lost in a flash.  At the time, the Washington Post reported that in addition to the immeasurable loss of the students, the entire school system was destroyed –  “A grim census is underway to determine the loss of teachers and staff, hundreds of whom remain unaccounted for in heaps of blackboards, concrete, desks and notebooks that appear on almost every block.”

Michel Renau, director of national exams at the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports, noted that education is perceived as the only way out of poverty for the children and their country.  “Without education, we have nothing.  We’ve been set back very far. But if we pull ourselves together quickly, we’ll go on.”

Getting kids back in school was a priority for numerous relief organizations such as UNICEF and Save the Children.  Not only does it help restore a sense of “normalcy” it also is an opportunity to lure into a classroom the tremendous number of children who never had a chance to attend school.  Hundreds of tent classrooms have popped up, including this one in in the Carrefour district, south-west of Port-au-Prince.

Chantal Duphrézin, a teacher from the Haitian Red Cross, leads her class inside a UNICEF tent.

Great!  Fantastic!  But temporary.  Which brings us back to the beginning of our tale and the reference to US schools.  Haiti needs real schools.  Solid, well-built, earthquake resistant schools.  So, Architecture for Humanity has joined with the Bezos Family Foundation and Global Nomads Group to create StudentsRebuild.org.  They’re challenging middle and high school students around the globe  to form teams to raise money for the rebuilding of Haiti’s schools, promising to match every dollar raised up to $500,000 by December 30, 2010.

To date, over 60 schools have already signed up.  Take a look and find one near you.  Or, if you notice a lack of neighborhood support, form your own team.  And let us know what your team is doing to raise money.  Let’s get Haiti’s children back inside structurally safe and sound schools as quickly as possible.  Go, teams, go!!

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Tags: Architecture for Humanity, Bezos Foundation, Global Nomads Group, Haiti, Save the Children, schools, Sudents Rebuild, UNICEF