Dubai: Dubai Cares has completed its Dh6 million project to help rebuild Haiti’s primary education sector that was affected by a powerful earthquake in 2010.
In its two programmes with Unicef in August 2010 as well as Care International in April 2010, Dubai Cares has successfully helped improve Haiti schools to benefit more than 240,000 primary school-age children.
Half of Haiti’s 15,000 primary schools were damaged and destroyed when a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean country in 2010, affecting one million primary school-age children.
“Under the direction of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to provide educational assistance to 200,000 children in Haiti, Dubai Cares worked very closely with its on-ground partners, Unicef and Care International, to identify the education sector’s needs, and develop and effectively deliver primary education programmes,” said Tareq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Cares, after a recently concluded field visit to Haiti.
“We are confident that the impact made by our rehabilitation, restoration, provision of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) in school facilities and hygiene promotion efforts will be for the long-term, inspire similar large-scale efforts and outlast generations to come,” Al Gurg added.
Dubai Cares implemented a programme for the creation of child-friendly WASH-in-Schools facilities with the help of Unicef. The project impacted the lives of 158,600 children.
Hygiene promotion
The programme was planned and designed in coordination with national and departmental authorities and involved the provision of supplies and equipment to 220 schools, training of 660 teachers and orientation of 6,600 teachers on hygiene promotion, and installation of 20 child- friendly WASH facilities in schools.
“WASH in Schools, which is an integral component of Dubai Cares programmatic interventions, contributes to the realisation of Haitian children’s rights to survival, development and dignity, and good sanitation conditions and hygiene practices lead to less diseases, better health and better nutrition,” Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef Haiti Representative, said.
“Better WASH facilitates has boosted enrolment, increased retention and contributed to better learning outcomes overall for children. In addition, age-appropriate gender segregated facilities can attract girls to stay in school, contributing to their empowerment,” he added.
Dubai Cares also worked closely with Care International for its multi-donor emergency response programme that rehabilitated water and sanitation facilities at schools, and mobilised community involvement to refurnish a minimum of 100 education facilities. It also provided 100 schools with supplies to facilitate their reopening. The project is currently benefiting 82,134 schoolchildren.
“Dubai Cares has been instrumental in allowing Care Haiti to expand our reach to children who previously did not have access to quality education in Haiti. The programme initiated the unprecedented activity of creating and obtaining legal government recognition of School Management Committees joining teachers, parents, students, school directors, and community leaders together in taking an active, comprehensive role in the level and quality of schooling for their children,” Jean-Michel Vigreux, Director of Care International in Haiti, said.
