© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0207/Noorani
Haiti, 2010.

22 June 2010 – Prioritising gender equality in educational systems is vital to addressing the needs and concerns of women, girls, boys and men alike. Programmes that integrate gender equality are also effectively undertaking issues of access to power and resources. Ignoring gender equality, particularly in times of crisis, can hinder a students’ ability to learn and engage, and thus negatively impact broader recovery efforts, not only within education systems, but also for entire communities.

© UNICEF Haiti/2010/Van den Brule
Haiti. 2010. A group of students at L'Ecole des Infirmieres in Belval, Léogâne.

By Arnaud Conchon

La Vallé Bourdon, PORT-AU-PRINCE. 14 April 2010 – I watch in awe as a boy of 5 tinkers with a kite he made out of an old plastic bag, sticks and muddy string. Almost half of the population of Haiti is under 18 years of age and more than a million children have been touched by this disaster. Many of them are living in make-shift settlements, without parents to help promote their full development potential. Still, these children find amazing ways to create toys and invent games in an attempt to socialize with those living in the tents next to them, to get to know their new neighbours.

©2010 Carlos VasquezVictor and Father Louis, Montagne Jaquot-Merlin, Haiti.

23 Feb 2010 – Victor Vincent Kinyanjui, from Kenya and WASH specialist for UNICEF Sierra Leone, and I set out early in morning to visit a rural school on top of mountain Jaquot-Merlin. The school is run by Father Louis Marrie from France. In order to get there we had to cross a dry river that shows clear signs of bank erosion due to heavy water flow during the rainy season.

© 2010 Carlos Vasquez
Port-au-Prince. Water bladder.

By Carlos Vasquez

March 2010 – Water and sanitation seem to be the one of the top priorities in cases of emergencies. Health and nutrition are also part of the core services that people require most urgently.

School design and construction

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0156/Shehzad NooraniRose-Laure Gedeon, 13, and Windelyne Milford, 15,(left-right) walk past rubble with items they received during a distribution of newly arrived care packages for children, at the UNICEF-assisted Foye Zanmi Jezi orphanage, in the Lilavois neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital. The quake destroyed both the orphanage building and the adjacent primary school but the children were playing outside at the time and all survived.

When Columbus first arrived in the new world, he established his first settlement on what is today Haiti. The first university, hospital and the first cathedral in the Americas were built on this island; Española.

I was scheduled to fly to Port-Au-Prince on Sunday the 14th from the airport in Dominican Republic, after having checked my backpack I was told to gather my belongings and go back to the UNICEF office in Santo Domingo. The orders from UNICEF were for me to attend meetings and review materials for potential prefab structures.