UNESCO Connects Haitian and French Children through Books

As part of a larger response to help recovery from the January 12 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched an initiative called "Un livre pour un enfant d’Haiti" ("A Book for a Child in Haiti") which collected French language books from staff, friends, and pupils in UNESCO-associated schools for distribution to children in Haiti's camps for internally displaced persons. The French publishers Editions Michel Lafon and Editions Bérénice also contributed to the collection.

According to this article, the first shipment of 800 books arrived in Port-au-Prince in June. "These novels, fairy tales, comic strips, and storybooks offer Haitian children from three to 17 a welcome distraction from the harsh reality of their immediate surroundings and an opportunity to read despite the destruction of many libraries....Forthcoming shipments include contributions from a wider base including other French publishing houses. The operation will then extend to providing educational content to child-friendly spaces in the IDP [Internally Displaced Persons] camps and to school libraries." UNESCO prompted parents to urge children to read and write so as not to lose educational gains while schools are rebuilt and classes resume.

"With this endeavour UNESCO hopes to stimulate informal learning in the IDP camps, and also to add more personal touch to an exchange between Haitian and French children - who are encouraged to write a personal message of solidarity on the title page of the book for the Haitian children who read it - a message that shall go far given the inter-library loan system run by volunteers who travel between the camps. In the long run, the initiative "Un livre pour un enfant d’Haiti" is hoped to facilitate the establishment of further exchanges between schools in Haiti and France."