Haiti is one of the member countries of the Global Partnership for Education. It is also one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere ranking 158th out of 187 countries in the 2011 Human Development Index. The 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 compounded Haiti’s development challenges. It also destroyed more than 4,200 schools and killed 1,200 teachers.
Since then, many schools have been reconstructed, temporary schools have been set up and teachers have been trained. But education is expensive in Haiti and often represents over 50% of a poor family’s income. According to the World Bank’s Interim Strategy for 2012-2014, the Haitian government and donors will cover the school costs of more than 1 million children. Yet, there is so much more that needs to be done.
UNICEF, one of our partners in the Global Partnership for Education, in collaboration with Libraries Without Borders, has started a small project that engages young Haitians with books. Through Project Story Box, 300 mobile libraries have been established in Haiti–full of carefully-selected books in French, Haitian and Creole that fit the Haitian context and now stimulate creativity and imagination of thousands of children.
Read the story of Sadrac, one of the participants in Project Story Box. Sadrac is 13 years old and lives in one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. Story Box makes him happy and stimulates his creativity and imagination.