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STORY: HAITI / EDUCATION
TRT: 2:59
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: CREOLE / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 JUNE 2010, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
1. Various shots, children at John Paul II school
2. Wide shot, kitchen
3. Med shot, cooking with rice
4. Close up, beans being blended
5. Med shot, cook dishing rice in bowl
6. Wide shot, kids arriving in mess hall
7. Med shot, mom and child in camp
8. Med shot, small boy sleeping on the floor
9. Tilt up, mother breastfeeding child
10. Med shot, Samanda Amilcar
11. Med shot, Samanda Amilcar at blackboard
12. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Samanda Amilcar, Student:
“I love doctors because I want to treat a lot of people to give vaccines to kids and if someone gets sick, I’d like to give them medicine, if they have a cold or malaria. I’d also like to help women give birth to children.”
13. Various shots, Samanda Amilcar walking home
14. Med shot, mother greeting Samanda at tent
15. Med shot, Samanda and Josette Duperon walking
16. Med shot, Josette Duperon getting water out of well
17. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Josette Duperon, Earthquake Victim:
“The hardest thing is having to pay for school, feed her and provide shelter for her and if she gets sick, to pay for the hospital. So I work to make whatever money I can to provide for her.”
18. Various shots, classroom
19. Various shot, school children walking down the street
20. Close up, teacher
21. Close up, children eating
22. SOUNDBITE (French) Reginald Paul, Government Official:
“If kids can’t get an education, it’s the country that will lose out in all ways. Education is an essential pathway, a fundamental instrument for the development of a country.”
23. Various shots, students walking down the street
24. Various shots, destroyed home
25. Various shots, Samanda Amilcar walking home
26. Various shots, Josette Duperon with Samanda
It’s lunch time at the John Paul II School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. For many of the students, a free plate of rice and beans is the only hot meal of the day.
In Haiti, more than half the population lives in extreme poverty; families are struggling to survive and for many that means skipping meals.
Ten year old Samanda Amilcar often goes without dinner. She has dreams though; she wants to be a doctor.
SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Samanda Amilcar, Student:
“I love doctors because I want to treat a lot of people to give vaccines to kids and if someone gets sick, I’d like to give them medicine, if they have a cold or malaria. I’d also like to help women give birth to children.”
Samanda lives two blocks from school. Every day after class she walks home alone to a small camp where she lives in a tent with her mother. Like many families, they lost their house in the earthquake.
Josette Duperon, who is bringing up Samanda as a single mother, washes other people’s clothes for a living. But since the earthquake, it’s been harder for her to find work.
SOUNDBITE (Haitian Creole) Josette Duperon, Earthquake Victim:
“The hardest thing is having to pay for school, feed her and provide shelter for her and if she gets sick, to pay for the hospital. So I work to make whatever money I can to provide for her.”
Only about half of all six year olds in Haiti enrol in the first grade. Over 80% of Haiti’s schools are private and tuition is simply too much for many to afford.
As part of the global initiative, Education for All, the Haitian government - with funding from the World Bank - is trying to get more kids in school. The plan includes subsidies for tuition, the hiring and retraining of more teachers and the distribution of food in schools.
The subsidy is set to expire at the end of the school year.
SOUNDBITE (French) Reginald Paul, Government Official:
“If kids can’t get an education, it’s the country that will lose out in all ways. Education is an essential pathway, a fundamental instrument for the development of a country.”
For young Haitians with dreams like Samanda’s it’s all about getting them into school and making sure that they don’t drop out - particularly in the aftermath of an earthquake. Samanda may want to be a doctor but Josette’s aspirations for her only child are simple. She wants her to finish school, find a job and get married.
