UN Secretary General visits our site

On his second visit to Haiti since the January earthquake, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visited the displaced-person camp at Petionville Country Club where we have set up child-friendly spaces. The Petionville site, now the temporary home to 45,000 earthquake survivors, is one of dozens of emergency camps built of tarps, tents and crude lumber.

A couple dozen aid workers from a handful of NGOs escorted the top U.N. official through the camp and explained the urgent need for more assistance before the onset of the rainy season. The U.N. has already committed $1.4 billion to Haiti for humanitarian aid and reconstruction. Mr. Ban visited the camp on March 15 after meeting with Haitian President Rene Preval.

Mr. Ban told journalists that the U.N. sees shelter as the most urgent priority. He assured the camp’s coordinators that the world has not forgotten the Haitian people’s plight.

Located on high ground in the suburbs of Port au Prince, the Petionville camp was hastily constructed on the lush grounds of an exclusive country club. With assistance from the U.N., the camp is managed by J/P and Catholic Relief Services and several organizations such as Oxfam and Save the Children (and of course AMURT) work there too.

Ban Ki Moon walked through the top of the camp, just enough to see our site. He asked me if the children go to school to which I replied that unfortunately most schools are not yet reopened.

Check out BBC video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8567391.stm

Growing fast!

We successfully completed our second week of the IHEC (Integrated Healing and Education Centers) program for children at our base. Monitors are stepping into their own comfortable rhythm with the children and are providing a wide range of educational play activities. The monitors were assisted this week by eight student volunteers from Wesleyan College who offered a range of talents from playing guitar to demonstrating gymnastics. The children are starting to feel the flow of the daily activities while getting to know each other gradually in this safe space. At the end of each session, children implore to stay longer!

The IHEC central staff provides for various levels of coordination and support to the growing program. The central coordination consists of administrative, logistical, educational and community organizers. The administrative coordinators facilitate the organizational flow of the program. The logistical coordinator provides support for materials and supplies, transportation and accounting. At the heart of the program, the education coordinator oversees the staff of trainers, coaches and onsite monitors. The trainers are responsible for providing and modeling exemplary activity plans for the on-site monitors. They will be traveling to each site to make observations and support the monitors’ growth. The trainers are also developing training modules which will be offered at the Center for Neo-Humanist Education (CENEOH) and at the various sites. Modules will include activity planning, positive discipline, self-care, safe touch, active listening, group norms, and play therapy.

While the coaches continued to model student-centered activities at Delmas, the IHEC trainers continued preparations for the opening of three more sites. The engineer is overseeing the construction of several wooden pavilions at Cineas Camp and the installation of large tents at Petionville Club and Bureau de Min. Over 650 children were registered for the opening of programs at Petionville Club and Bureau de Min. The upcoming week will see a flurry of activity as we continue to expand our program and serve the deserving Haitian youth.

Petionville Club Camp

The Petionville Country Club is now going to be the next site for one of our Integrated Healing and Educational Centers (or Child-Friendly Spaces). The country club is now home to more than 50,000 displaced people since the earthquake.

The last photo is at another camp site called Seneas. The construction is underway for the program. The wooden structure will be covered with strong tarps. After completion, we will be able to serve more than 1500 children at this site.

smiles all around

It actually felt like a Friday yesterday. Usually one day of work just blends right into the next day of work, so the concept of weekend disappears. Yesterday, however, I felt our whole base breathe that same collective sigh of relief that teachers exhale on Friday afternoon after having completed a long, but satisfying week of school. This feeling came to me since we had just finished our first week of integrated educational and healing program here in the neighborhood of Delmas. The first site opened this past Monday with all of the anticipation and excitement of any first day of school. Monitors (our term for childcare providers) dressed crisply, children arrived early clasping their parents' hands, and the training team scurried around providing materials to each tent and checking in with monitors. Over the course of just a couple days, the Delmas schoolyard was transformed from a logistics yard full of motorcycles, trucks, boxes and construction materials into a colorful children’s camp full of energy, smiles, love and hope.

Over 430 children arrive in three different shifts based on age. The youngest children, aged 4-6, attend the program 5 mornings per week. Each child receives a light morning breakfast consisting of milk and biscuits and a hot lunch of rice, beans and vegetables. The afternoon program runs Mondays and Wednesdays for 7-9 year olds and Tuesdays and Thursdays for 10-12 year olds. Friday afternoon is reserved for staff training and planning. As many of the monitors are new to teaching but have experience working with children, the purpose of the training is to provide support and enrichment. This week the children practiced karate, breathing exercises, and yoga. They sang folksongs, created playfoam sculptures and finger-painted on leaves. The older children built block structures and the little kids learned how to wash their hands. We were also very fortunate to have a team of specialists join us from the Trauma Center and Project Joy, organizations based in Boston, who provided workshops on psychosocial play activities.

At the end of each session, children didn’t want to leave. Their smiles are contagious, and whenever I start to feel stressed or tired I recall their shining faces, hopeful thumbs-up, ebullient laughter and tight hugs.