UPDATE:

We visited Haiti from June 29 through July 9, 2010. Thank you for all those who have donated to Hope for Haiti, an initiative of the Hope is Life Foundation for the victims of the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Visiting Haiti and meeting the local people was a heartfelt experience for us. From Thailand, we went directly to Haiti.  Our trip was very successful and the sun was shining all week except a few heavy rains in the evenings. Children played on the street. Mothers washed clothes and took bath in open-air tubs along the roads. Tents and tarps put up by foreign donors are seen everywhere, along roadsides and empty lots. Haitians have set up small businesses along the narrow streets selling food, bananas, shoes, charcoal and necessities.

We spent several days visting schools and talking to children, teachers, NGOs and government officials. We also visited one of the largest tent camps where nearly 20,000 people are temporarily housed in tents and more then 40,000 squatters waiting their turn. When the rains come, the ground turns to mud and life is miserable for them.

Exactly six months after the earthquake hit Haiti, the capital city, Port-au-Prince, is still in disarray. Getting from one point to another takes a good part of your day – many of the roads looked like they have been bombed. There is concrete rubble and broken down vehicles stripped of their tires dotted along the roads. We were told that only 4 percent of the rubble has been removed so far, which we could believe as we saw only a few people removing it by hand.

The people of Haiti are friendly and incredibly resourceful. They are aware that the attention of the world is on Haiti like it has never been. During our meeting with the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Education, he was genuinely touched by the presence of so many foreigners and NGOs and with our visit.

Nearly 45 percent of the population are children and are the most disoriented and vulnerable of the survivors of the earthquake. Many tens of thousands have lost their parents and their homes. Ninety percent of the schools in Port-au-Prince are damaged or destroyed. Reconstruction has not begun yet. All classes are conducted outside the damaged buildings under temporary shelters or trees.

I visited several classrooms – on one day I gave talks to about ten classrooms – comforting them and inspiring them. I was also interviewed by a local radio station.

During our trip, we explored several possibilities for helping the children of Haiti. Our mission was to assist in their education. We looked into several options to rebuild educational institutions. We had meetings with school authorities and non-governmental agencies, including Architecture for Humanity, to build a structure to support education for children. We have identified a few options including repairing a school, providing it with a teacher training center and support in their development of a visual arts curriculum for the school.

During the next few weeks, we will continue to work with our friends in Haiti to finalize our construction plans. A need has been identified to start a teacher training institute as we feel that the training of teachers in effective moral education in addition to academic excellence is critical in the transformation of society and the sucess of the community.

As they move from relief aid stage to long-term reconstruction, the government, in partnership with foreign governments and NGOs, are making plans to rebuild the city. This will take years. Foreign governments have pledged nearly 11.4 billion dollars, but the people have not seen the money yet – at least we did not see any progress in cleaning up the city or visible signs of reconstruction.

We hope that the United Nations and the government of Haiti work hard to develop some sound economic policies that address extreme poverty and deep-rooted disparities of wealth, making sure every child receives an education, and to treat everyone as members of one family. We talked to several Haitians from all walks of life – and found that the average Haitian will trust a foreign NGO much more easily than they’ll trust their own government.

Once we begin the construction, we will keep you posted of our progress. For more information on Hope is Life Foundation, please visit our site www.hopeislife.org.

- Natascha Yogachandra

Donate for Hope for Haiti Fund