The massive earthquake in Haiti last month that drew much of the globe’s attention to that Caribbean nation ended up wiping out a huge number of schools, some several hundred in all. To help out in the island nation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization known as UNESCO is pursuing a campaign to ask the public for donations to help get the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation’s public education system back on its feet. UNESCO visited more than 1,500 schools when it surveyed the situation in Haiti’s worst impacted regions and of those, only 85 had managed to escape severe destruction from the quake which is said to have killed over 200,000 people in all. More than 2 million people there now need aid and without the world pouring help their way, many face a very dismal future and low chance of survival. Already, efforts are underway to bring Port au Prince back up to speed after it was all but utterly wiped out. In order to achieve this goal, UNESCO has had to ask for skilled workers from other nations to come in and help with the efforts with many trying to get to work training people in technical and vocational skills that the local young people could use in order to take part in the rebuilding of the capital.
Large amounts of money have already been put forward by Israel, Brazil, Norway and Bulgaria to help UNESCO carry out its plans. Experts are being trained to help offer psychological support to the many students and their families who have been severely traumatized by the disaster.
