Regional
(2010-03-15)
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GREELEY, CO
(KUNC) -
After meeting with his Haitian counterpart last week - President Obama reaffirmed America's commitment to help rebuild Haiti following January's earthquake. As the international community debates the best way to do this, KUNC commentator Laura Bridgwater has her own ideas.
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When I taught elementary school in South Florida in the early 1990s, I had a student from Haiti in my class named Joanne.
The morning in October when she first enrolled, I added a desk for her at the end of a long row. When she thought none of the other 32 students were watching, she crawled down the aisle, taking food from their lunchboxes. After that I made sure she found her way to the cafeteria in the morning when she stepped off the bus.
She wore frilly, soiled dresses that draped off her thin frame. She also wore unlaced, too-big tan boots that clomped when she walked. When we passed out Halloween candy, Joanne hid her treats in her boots. I wondered what else she kept in there.
One day, as I reached around her shoulder to retrieve a snack that she had grabbed from another child, she bit me. Seven year olds don't usually bite. I tell you this so you'll see that she wasn't socially ready for a classroom environment. She couldn't write her name or recite the alphabet, either. Plenty of kids enter school without being prepared, but Joanne was particularly disadvantaged.
All these years later I don't remember the sound of her voice because she didn't talk much, but I do remember the smile on her face when she ate. By Thanksgiving, she was transferred to another school. I never saw her again and I've always wondered what happened to her.
But then, as the aftermath of January's devastating earthquake in Haiti unfolded, I saw Joanne everywhere in the news. Children just like her. Girls in frilly, soiled dresses and boys in tattered, dust-covered t-shirts.
I wondered how to best help these children. We want our aid efforts to amount to something, to be more useful than a tourist's voodoo doll. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, " Haiti can come back stronger and better in the future."
Of the total population in Haiti, 45% are children. How do you help a country full of Johannes come back stronger and better? By focusing on what children like Joanne need--food for the short term and an education for the long term.
Greg Mortenson, an American from Montana, knows the transformative power of an education. Mortenson is the author of the best-selling book Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time. It chronicles his story of how villagers in rural Pakistan helped him recover from a climbing accident. In return, he helped them by building a village school. Since that first school in 1994, Mortenson went on to build 131 more schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His work continues today.
Mortenson particularly believes in educating girls and is often quoted as saying, "You can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads or put in electricity, but unless the girls are educated, a society won't change."
Unfortunately, right now very few of the children in Haiti are being educated. According to UNICEF and government information, about 95% of the schools in Port-au-Prince were destroyed in the earthquake.
Fortunately, though, in addition to Mortenson, a myriad of non-profits advocate for universal education. One is the Haitian Education Foundation, which was started in 1981 by a then 60-year-old Arkansas woman names Frances Landers. Landers went on to establish 50 schools in Haiti. Prior to the earthquake, her schools were serving 12,000 students and Landers was 92 years old.
Then there is a newer group called the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict. The Education Partnership's goal is not to create another organization that needs funding, but to act as a clearinghouse to coordinate the education efforts of already existing aid groups and individual donors. This partnership has the backing of big names like Angelina Jolie, Bill Clinton, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard, among others.
If there is good to come from the disaster in Haiti, it is that the earthquake has been a megaphone for the quiet voices like Joanne's. We can make a difference. Being a celebrity helps, but it's not a requirement. Just ask an injured man from Montana and an elderly woman from Arkansas.
And we should help because no man is an island and no island is an island either. © Copyright 2012, KUNC
