JDC Partners to Open Schools in Haiti

As part of its ongoing relief efforts in Haiti, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), is partnering with the Prodev Foundation, a local Haitian NGO that focuses on education and development, to fund the operation of 10 temporary schools for displaced children in Port-au-Prince. The schools will provide free education and a daily meal to 2,000 children, ages 6-14.

The schools’ curriculum will be based on a 60/40 divide between academic subjects and other recreational activities including sports. Additionally, the schools will train and monitor teachers, university students, and volunteers to help create a stable educational program for these displaced children.

This is the second project that JDC and Prodev have collaborated on in Haiti. Through the partnership, JDC has already sponsored the building of 115 water tanks near tent villages offering clean water supplies to displaced Haitians.

In addition to these projects, JDC’s relief effort with its partners on the ground in Haiti continues to deliver clean water, shelter and medical aid. New projects include:

• Funding additional water supply projects through the International Rescue Committee providing sources of clean, potable water in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding community.
• Funding of shelter kits containing a family tent, tarp, a hammer and nails, and other essential items, for 1,250 displaced families through Catholic Relief Services.
• Partnership with International Medical Corps bringing medical assistance through a clinic in Miragoane, a town approximately 50 miles from Port-au-Prince on Haiti’s Western coast; and one boat clinic serving three remote coastal communities in Haiti.
• Purchase of five desperately needed ambulances for Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health to transport internally displaced persons between medical clinics in Port-au-Prince, the Central Plateau, and the lower Artibonite Valley. Additionally, JDC is supporting through Zama Asante/Partners in Health the treatment of some 2,200 children within the internally displaced population suffering from malnutrition.
• Grant supporting Magen David Adom (MDA), whose first Health Emergency Response Unit-a team of five medical staff-is spending four weeks helping victims.
• Funded the purchase of two trucks and two SUVs to transport Heart to Heart’s teams of doctors, nurses, and other assistance to communities in need outside of Port-au-Prince such as Leogane and Jacmel where adequate relief has been slow to reach.
• JDC has continued its support of Heart to Heart International in providing medical care, equipment, and services to earthquake victims.