Pilar López-Dafonte, our resident worker in Haiti has been there for almost a year, she has passed by the Entreculturas office bringing us a bitter-sweet picture of a country that fights every day to revive from its ashes.

"Politically it is a stagnant country. Although the new president, Martelli, election was made effective this last May, he governs weakly from a minority (he has 2% representation in parliament and the opposition vetoes all his proposals). Right now the population feels worn by the constant state of tension and inactivity. And this doesn't help much when trying to reinforce the spirit of the people and motivate efforts to advance and change", analyzes Pilar.

Also, there are still about 1.000 displaced persons camps in Haiti housing more than half a million Haitians of both sexes. People that have lost everything with the earthquake or that, even, had nothing before the seism and now, at least can shelter under a plastic roof and get some food ration daily.
And, with all this, the cholera outbreak remains active and it has taken more than 6.000 lives since it began extending itself in November. Now, when the new rainy season starts, it is expected a new high in the number of deaths due to it.

However, good things happen as well in Haiti. There are also motives for hope. And, one of them, as Pilar tells us, are the batches of pupils that have already graduated at the Fe y Alegría schools.

After the disaster, Fe y Alegría Haiti developed an action plan aiming at the improvisation of schools within the refugee camps themselves with the objective of contributing to regaining calm and channelling the emotional blockage that the quake could have caused the population, especially amongst the younger ones. Meanwhile, work was started to recover the educational infrastructures, devastated by the tremors, and promote the formation of teachers to take charge, in the middle term, oh the educational tasks.

Over the months, the efforts put in these lines of action started to give fruit, and thousands of children, boys and girls, began to go to school and resume a routine that gave them stability and kept them away from wandering in the streets at the mercy of dangers. Several promotions of alumni have graduated before the summer, thus consolidating an incipient educational system in the country.

This past July, for the first time since the earthquake, the Fe y Alegría pedagogical team convoked a journey of reflexion with Haitian education experts and the people in charge of 52 educational centres in the country to evaluate the starting point situation and take positions concerning what we could consider as the first steps to take regarding rebuilding the country and its educational system.

 The right to education in Haiti: the urgency of government implication

This past July, for the first time since the earthquake, the Fe y Alegría pedagogical team convoked a journey of reflexion with Haitian education experts and the people in charge of 52 educational centres in the country to evaluate the starting point situation and take positions concerning what we could consider as the first steps to take regarding rebuilding the country and its educational system.

 Fe y Alegría, as Entreculturas, considers education a priority in the revival of the Haitians.

Among the main problems detected, and that Haiti must face, the following should be highlighted: lack of schooling infrastructure (as the quake demolished or badly damaged the schools), lack of human resources and qualified professionals, absence of regulations and control over the private education sector and a disjointed public education system.

Fe y Alegría Haiti demands that the Haitian government guarantees the fundamental right to education (contained in articles 32, 33 and 34 of its constitution), and that it fulfils its electoral pledge to ensure free and compulsory education for all Haitians of both sexes. To this effect, it proposes that more money is allocated to defray public education (that is, financed with public funds - subsidies) but managed by civil society entities. In this sense, it also raises the need for decentralizing educational management and favouring a greater territorial collective's participation and responsibilities.

Fe y Alegría also suggests investing in collateral services coverage like school transport, uniforms, child canteens, didactic material and, very especially, in teachers training and remuneration.

"Fe y Alegría, aware that quality education cannot be reached without close collaboration with the state, reaches out to all the public players and also private to work together in country's regeneration", states the release issued by the Jesuit institution at the close of the meeting.

In this sense, Fe y Alegría - Haiti has signed a cooperation protocol with the Ministry of National Education and of Professional Training to put at its disposal all its human and technical capacities and to start to conceive, execute and monitor the educational public policies that prove necessary.

Further, Fe y Alegría thanks in its release the help and solidarity shown by the international community after the seism of 2010 and insists that all the money collected, and still paralyzed, start being destined to fundamental issues such as the right to education for all.

The release concludes, "We are proud of the capacity for work that characterizes our people in extreme situations, because of this we look with hope to the future we are walking to. We remain convinced that, with everyone's commitment, effort and participation, we will achieve free quality basic education for all Haitians; What, for now, is a simple dream, but what, one day, could become a reality".