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“CHILDREN EDUCATE CHILDREN”
Icelandic elementary school children adopt elementary schools in Haiti.

Introduction:

Less than two years ago a large development project was started in one of the poorest country in the western world, Haiti, where 50% of children 6-16 years old do not attend school due to their poverty. This project was initiated by Pétur Gu›jónsson an Icelandic Orienteer in the Humanist movement. It began with starting one school with 300 children in it but today there are 160 schools with almost 50 thousand students in them and all financial support comes from Icelandic companies and individuals and allorganization is in the hands of the local Haitian Humanist movement.

Our support to foster one school with 300 children is unbelievable little, appr. Euro 300 pr. year. But still it is enough, so that the children that used to be on the street now get a good education, and 80% of the teachers in the Humanist elementary schools are fully licensed teachers. This amount, Euro 300 is used to pay for the three teachers in each school, that is Euro 100 a year for each teacher.

Worlds biggest educational project

LARGE AND EFFICIENT EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

Late in the Spring of 2001, some elementary school principals brought up the idea that it

would be interesting for Icelandic children to foster elementary schools in Haiti, knowing the poor status of the country. By gathering funds and establish educational facilities they would provide their unfortunate colleagues the opportunity to attend school, thereby enhancing their possibilities of a decent future.

This particular project has already started in many schools, and for example in 6th grade C in Rimaskóli, it has worked out just extremely well.

The idea is to get these projects into all schools in the country, and by doing that,

Icelandic children would take on responsibility for the education of the children of the same age and also be participants in one of the largest individual educational development efforts in the world.

There are many things that recommend this project. Not only collecting money but to establish permanent connection, sharing information and exchange points of view between the countries. Also the project has educational and ethical values.

How does this project work within a given school:

1. First, a class is chosen, depending on how interested the teacher is in participating in this project. Preferable age seems to be ten to twelve years.

2. The teacher gets information about the collection and tells the children about the country and the people,development issues in the world, about the project and future relationship with the children and shows them pictures of the Haiti project. The teacher shares with the children certain facts about Haiti, like that Haiti is an island just like Iceland, in the Caribbean Ocean, next to Cuba, close to Florida, on the same island as the Dominican Republic. The country is four times bigger than Iceland, has lots of mountains. It is former colony of France and therefore they speak a language similar to French, called Creole. Haiti was the first colony, after the U.S., to get independence in the Americas and the first black colony in the world to become independent. Eight million people live in Haiti but about four millions live in another countries, two million in the U.S., and one million in the Dominican Republic.

3. The children have a competition, they each design a logo and then choose one to use in the collection, also they make a brochure with information about the collection.

4. The children decide whether they want to support a school in some districts in the capital city, Port-au-Prince or in the countryside.

5. The children get “piggy-banks” from the local bank and put the logo on it

6. If it’s possible it would be very good if local papers could print a small article about the collection or an advertisement with some facts about this project and the pending collection.

7. The most simple way for the children is if they go two or three together and ask for contributions, either walk door to door or go to the local shopping center. Also it is possible to collect bottles and cans and sell them for recycling

8. When the children have collected all the money they need they take it to the bank and deposit the funds in the account of The Community for Human Development, Haiti Project:

Bank nr is .SWIFT LSICISRE 1195 05 403072
Address of the Bank is : ICEBANK Raudararstig 27, 105 Reykjavik, Iceland

Then the amount is sent form Iceland to Haiti, through Western Union and it gets there immediately. The organizer of the collection within the school has to let the coordinators of the fund raising know that the collection is finished. Then the Icelandic students are assigned a school in Haiti where there funds will be used, either in the capital city or out in the countryside.

9. It is appreciated if the Icelandic children draw pictures of Iceland and the life they live there and send to the children in Haiti who will respond with letters or pictures of their country. In the future it will be possible to communicate through the Internet and English would be the communication language.

You want to help?

The account of The Community for Human Development, Haiti Project:

Bank nr is .SWIFT LSICISRE 1195 05 403072
Address of the Bank is : ICEBANK Raudararstig 27, 105 Reykjavik, Iceland
Then the amount is sent form Iceland to Haiti, through Western Union and it gets there immediately.

It is easy to access the information to which school a given amount goes, location etc. and to keep track on the development of this particular school.

W-worlds poorest country - Haiti

• An estimated 75 percent of the Haitian population lives below poverty limits. Malnutrition haunts the poor people and infant mortality is around 100 per 1,000 births. Life expectancy at birth is approx. 49 years. The most common diseases range from intestinal parasites to severe incurable diseases, AIDS being the most common. Around 46 percent of the population has access to safe drinking water, and only 28 percent has access to sanitary sewer systems. A limited elite of about 10 percent have access to any luxury they desire and this elite class has traditionally resisted any changes of the Haitian social system.
• Clearing forests for farms and wood for charcoal has stripped Haiti of most of its valuable native trees. Few pine forests at high elevations and mangroves in inaccessible swamps remain. Semidesert scrub covers the ground in drier zones. Environmental deterioration has had a severe impact on Haiti’s plants, animals, soil, and water resources.
• Haiti’s native animals were more or less hunted to extinction many decades ago.
• Education is supposed to be free and compulsory in Haiti for children between the ages of 6 and 12. However, the access to education is sharply limited. Only about 50 percent of the primary-school aged children actually attend school. Factors such as school location, language comprehension, classes being in French while most people speak Creole, the cost of school clothes and supplies, and the availability of teachers.
• No more than 65 percent of the adult population is literate.
• There is no more than one doctor or a physician for every 15,064 inhabitants and medical facilities are seriously limited. Instances of AIDS, Malaria, dengue, intestinal parasites, yaws and other serious diseases are common. Foreign governments and several international organizations, including the UN and the OAS, provide food and medicine to Haiti, but the scope of the country’s problems overwhelms these efforts. Haiti’s social services are similarly limited.
• About 25 to 50 percent of the workforce is underemployed or unemployed. The international sanctions employed against Haiti’s military leaders from 1991 to 1994 further weakened the already crippled economy. Government revenue in 1996 was $228 million and spending was about $273 million. Haiti’s international debt is approaching $1 billion.
• Officially the road system is 4,160 km (2,585 mi), ca. 24 percent are paved. Main roads are commonly in a very poor condition, and most bridges have become unusable.

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