Finally some good news! The student teachers and staff of the training center were saved.
We were very worried about the students at the training center in Bois Vernat because the earthquake coincided with the time that they would have been attending classes there. A few days before the earthquake, a little girl, who was the first child to register to attend the Montessori school in Liancourt ten years ago, died.
Naomie, the directrice of the training center cancelled classes on the 12th so that she could attend the funeral. Because classes were cancelled, no one was in the building when it collapsed. Although we morn the death of our first little pupil, we are glad that the lives of all our student teachers and staff of the training center were saved.
News is still coming in slowly, so far we have have heard from the teachers of 5 schools in different areas. The schools in Carrefour, and Jacmel are damaged but are still standing. Mais Gate is partly collapsed. The houses of 4 teachers completely collapsed and they are now temporarily residing at the school in Liancourt, as opposed to staying in the open streets or parks, that have now become tent cities.
We are still anxiously awaiting news about the other schools, especially the ones in the badly affected areas. Hoping that by some miracle that there are no fatalities. Hope is our comfort at the moment. We hope that people would not forget Haiti after the initial relief efforts. In a population where 60 percent of children do not go to school we hope that we have help and support to rebuild schools and provide a quality of education that will allow the next generation to sustain itself.