Project at a Glance

The Anis Zunuzi Baha'i School was established in 1982 in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince to provide access to education for the poorest of Haiti's children.

IMPACT
 In 2011
• 412 students served
• 85 students attended 4 wk summer camp
• 48 full scholarships
• Provided educational support and fees for all other students
• Provided one nutritious meal a day to everyone
• Provided access to clean water to all students and the surrounding community
• Began the construction of the multi-purpose room to accommodate a dire need for a place to eat and for additional classroom capacity
 

About the Project

The Anis Zunuzi Baha'i School is a primary and secondary school in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti now serving over 400 students.  Inaugurated in 1982 through the generous contributions of a Belgian family who provided the land and the school buildings, the school aims to provide quality education for the lower-income children of Port-au-Prince. The curriculum follows the national program, enriching it with various courses designed to develop the potential of the students to be independent, active agents in their own destiny.

Communication skills will form the basis of professional interactions; for this reason the school places an emphasis on developing strong spoken and written language skills in French, Creole and English. Moral education classes seek to empower the children and youth by enabling cooperation and fostering a spirit of service. The Anis Zunuzi is also responsible for two satellite schools. George Marcellus in Guerot that serves more than 200 students, and Zunuzi Annex for Street Children that serves more than 85 children who have nowhere else to go.

Since the earthquake struck Haiti, the importance of empowering youth and children with education is greater than ever. Much infrastructure must be rebuilt from the ground up. The Anis Zunuzi, one of the few schools unharmed during the earthquake, has been contributing to this effort by housing medical offices during the times of crisis, and now by expanding its educational efforts to reach displaced students. With the support of the Mona Foundation, the school can help in this milestone and monumental effort.

Background and History

The Anis Zunuzi Baha'i School was founded in 1982 throught the generous contributions of a Belgian family who provided the land and  school buildings for the betterment of Haiti. The mission that has driven the schools development is to provide the best education possible to low income children of the area. Opening its doors as a school teaching kindergarten and elementary classes, it has grown to a K-12 school in addition to extra-curricular English classes for adults and a summer school program.

At the time of opening the students paid the equivalent of $2 US. The area was definitely rural with no public transportation, electricity, nor telephones. With the completion of the school, electricity came to the area. Almost one decade after the opening, the telephone was installed.

The area has changed considerably as the slums of Port-au-Prince expanded to the area around the school. As poverty enveloped the school, violent crime in the area increased as well. This cycle requires more than education; empowerment and fulfillment of the potential young people have to change their environment forms a core of the goals of the school.

Today the Zunuzi School has become an oasis of hope for a way out of poverty. The most pronounced character of the school is its beauty. The school grounds are filled with trees, flowers, and clean white buildings with courtyards. Students are recognized for their good character and are trained how to analyze, reflect and solve problems. They're also taught to express themselves clearly in their native Creole and in French, to listen to others' ideas with respect, to work cooperatively and to be aware of world events. Art and music is incorporated at every level. The beautiful grounds are used for sports and other events, and offered for use to other schools that have no place for students to run and play.

On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, with an epicenter 16 miles from Port-au-Prince. The systemic instability facing Haitians in their daily life—including poor power infrastructure, lack of security and food scarcity—became magnified in the wake of the destruction wreaked by this natural disaster. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported that half the nation’s 15,000 primary and 1,500 secondary schools were either destroyed or badly damaged and three universities in Port-au-Prince and the Ministry of Education building were left in ruins.

The school has been utilizing its support from the Mona Foundation to increase its capacity to educate as many displaced students as possible following the devastating earthquake. Mona Foundation also committed to pay the entire tuition of the approximately 300 students enrolled at Zunuzi for the 2010 school year due to the dire economic situation with almost all of the parents. Since there was no school in Haiti for the first couple of months after the earthquake, Zunuzi functioned primarily as a shelter and a makeshift clinic for the injured and homeless.

Programs

Moral Education: After years of experimenting with moral education materials the school has established a systematic program starting in Kindergarten using materials prepared in Columbia that concentrate on building spiritual qualities. These are used throughout grades 1-4 as well. In grades 3 & 4 they follow lessons from the “Virtues Guide” in French. In grades 5 to 9 they follow the pre-youth courses: “Breezes of Confirmation”, “Glimmerings of Hope”, and “Walking the straight Path”. All of these are in French. The program has been supplemented at all levels with the courses prepared at the school during the 2nd Project with the Mona Foundation. These courses and the method of utilization were chosen for their capacity to build on the natural human potential to work cooperatively, and to serve mankind while also perfecting language skills.

Summer Camp: The school has been operating a summer camp since summer of 2005. The camp is open to all students in the area, kindergarten to secondary, and accommodates about 100 students. The program includes Math, Science, English, Spanish, French, Moral education and art activities. The students, for a small cost, have a complete program including refreshments as well as having one outing and celebration to end the camp. The cost for this camp for each child is about $8.50 - $10 in U.S. dollars.

Teacher Training: Since the summer of 2008 all the teachers at the two satellite schools and at Anis Zunuzi have attended three week summer curriculum training with a generous grant from Vista Hermosa through CAFT. Anis Zunuzi school is becoming an example for others to follow in a country in desperate need of educational leadership and positive moral direction. Many other teacher-training opportunities were made available to Anis Zunuzi teachers such as English, French and computer lessons, cooperative learning training and additional instructional technique classes. All of these training opportunities enhance the general quality of the school and help to make Anis Zunuzi an exceptional institution with a very well-trained dedicated staff.

Stories

The story of Sabrina, Paul and Lovely:

Anis Zunuzi School is situated amidst the poorest slums outside the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Sabrina is probably 7, although her exact age is unknown. She loves reading and playing hide and seek with her friends. She is in grade 1. Her mother is a good cook and sells rice and beans with spices, sitting on the roadside in front of their house. Her father is a bricklayer, but work is scarce and he makes little income.

Paul's mother is a widow, with no income to support herself and her two sons. Paul loves sports, learning the computer and studying English. He is in grade 4. His former school didn't have any of these activities.

Lovely is 15 and in grade 8. She loves to sew, draw, dance and read. She wants to go on to study agronomy. Her father works for the telephone company, but wages are low, and it's difficult to find the means to keep her in school. She has five brothers. Girls often drop out of secondary school because priority is given to younger children, and many girls of that age become pregnant.

Each day, more than 400 children like Sabrina, Paul and Lovely attend Zunuzi School during two sessions. The afternoon session is for students who cannot show up to morning classes. Often these are “restavec” children, brought into the city from the provinces to serve as domestic help.

In spite of a dire lack of resources, the local staff have proven their commitment to change and have persevered over a long rough road to lift up Zunuzi School's capacity. Each year, another little Sabrina or Paul or Lovely, wandering the forlorn city slums, will peek through the school's gate and see the future of what they and Haiti can become. We want to invite them all in.

The Story of Dr. Tina Edraki:

The day, January 12, 2010, will be etched in my memory forever as I remember sitting in shock - hearing the news of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti. This disaster was especially heartbreaking for me, as I had visited this vibrant city only 2 months earlier with the Mona Foundation and fell in love with the beautiful people there. The distress of the people soon after the earthquake affected me so deeply that I had an instant yearning to go and help.

Being a physician who specializes in Obstetrics and Gynecology, I knew I could help the tens of thousands of pregnant women in Port au Prince who needed medical care.
Less than 2 weeks after the earthquake, an individual effort by two New Jersey women, which started out as a request on FaceBook, turned into a medical relief response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Twenty medical personnel, including myself, responded to this FaceBook request, because of concerns about medical relief efforts in Haiti and because of a strong desire to help. Though we had less than 3 days to prepare to leave, we were all blessed with generous donations of medical supplies and drugs from our hospitals, as well as personal donations of tents and sleeping bags, in order to serve the people of Haiti better.

Upon entering Port au Prince, the devastation was mind-boggling and no images in the news could have prepared us for the extent of destruction we encountered. We were fortunate to have the grounds at Anis Zunuzi School to use as our base camp where we set up tents. There was already a small tent city established there on the school soccer field, which included teachers, administrators and other Anis Zunuzi School workers who had become homeless as a result of the earthquake. Also, new restrooms with toilets and flush systems, as well as showers with running water had been constructed only 3 months before the earthquake and were functioning at the time we arrived in Port au Prince. This was truly a luxury for our team members, as other people in the city did not have these conveniences.

Our first trip 2 weeks after the earthquake was aimed at treating acute medical problems which resulted directly from the earthquake. The orthopedic surgeons, intensivists and obstetricians were busy at a community hospital, because the Haitian doctors and medical staff had either left the country or died as a result of the earthquake. We also set up a clinic at Anis Zunuzi School as classes had been called off for 2 months after the earthquake. Classrooms were turned into exam rooms, a pharmacy, store rooms and a labor and delivery room. Men, women and children would line up at 7am outside the school waiting patiently to be examined and treated. We saw at least 300-400 patients daily. Young Haitians, who were not in school or couldn’t work as a result of the earthquake, quickly came to our aid to be our translators and help carry our supplies for us. These young Haitian people, who had all been affected with a loss of family or friend, were our inspiration to keep going each day despite heat, hunger, thirst, mosquito bites and lack of sleep. Our goals for this trip included not only treating people who needed medical attention, but also empowering the local people with tools to take care of others after we left. We taught several people techniques for cleaning and dressing wounds, which was a major problem at this time.

Our second trip was 4 weeks later and included not only a medical team, but also a dental team and a psychology team, to deal with the post-traumatic stress and emotional impact of the earthquake. Again all of the teams were extremely busy with hundreds of patients being treated daily. The medical and psychology teams now understood the need to work with and train local Haitian professionals. Fortunately for the medical team, Zanmi Lasante (Partner’s in Health organization in Haiti) had competent and compassionate doctors who worked with us from this trip onward. What started out as a joint effort between American and Haitian doctors eventually evolved into medical clinics being completely staffed by Haitian doctors, nurses and pharmacists on our last 3 trips. The psychology team started mental health training sessions for Haitian volunteers on the 4th, 5th and 6th trips to the point that certain individuals were trained to now teach other Haitian volunteers on the relaxation techniques used to help people affected by the trauma of the earthquake. As rehabilitation efforts in the country were trying to turn over rebuilding efforts back to Haitians, we had already accomplished this with the medical and psychology teams.

Our long term goal was to establish a clinic near the Anis Zunuzi School since we had found this to be an underserved area for medical and dental needs. After extensive investigation into land and building sites for a clinic, our hopes and prayers were answered on our last trip at the end of October, when we found a free community clinic close to Anis Zunuzi School, which was in need of medications and personnel. They were also interested in establishing dental care and psychology services both of which our team could offer. This medical clinic sits on the ground floor of a private home owned by the elderly Haitian doctor who runs the clinic. This kind, generous doctor works in his clinic every day, including weekends and financially sustains it by occasionally working for the government whenever he needs money. He has truly made sacrifices to serve the medical needs of the people in his area. His clinic layout is exactly what we had in mind when we envisioned our own clinic -- complete with a pharmacy and a lab area to draw blood and take samples. This clinic also has four beds (with sheets and pillows) for patients that need IV hydration or need to stay longer because of a minor procedure. We are planning to obtain a new generator for the clinic, as the old ones keep breaking down. We also plan to put in water filtration system to provide treated water and improve the services at this clinic. We are also happy that this clinic can serve the medical needs of the students, teachers and administrators of Anis Zunuzi School.

It is clear that what started out as a disaster relief effort has evolved into a health development project that will hopefully allow us to improve medical care in an underserved area of Haiti. We also hope that this partnership will help build local capacity through training programs and improve medical care through health-related education programs for the local people. We believe that health care is a fundamental right and not a privilege. We do not believe that cost should prevent people from obtaining medical care and we are grateful that the doctor who runs this clinic provides free medical care and free medicines to the patients. We hope our efforts in Haiti will allow for high quality medical, dental and psychological care to be available and accessible to the local people in order to improve healthcare in Haiti.