Foto de Eduardo Muñoz, Reuters
Death and Devastation Haunt Haiti’s Shattered Universities
By Michael Deibert
The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 25, 2010.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Education is an important and often-elusive leg up in this desperately poor Caribbean nation of nine million, so the devastating earthquake that struck here two weeks ago stole more than the lives of tens of thousands of Haitians. The quake came close to stealing the country’s educational future.
Throughout this capital city, institutions of higher learning collapsed on themselves, burying students and faculty members alike. In addition to the University of Port-au-Prince, various locations of the faculties of the State University of Haiti—the nation’s main public university—and a host of other institutions were terribly damaged.
One focal point among many in this vast tragedy was the University of Port-au-Prince, a private institution consisting of a four-story complex in a middle-class neighborhood. The university largely served the striving lower-middle class, whose members exist one step up the economic ladder from the nation’s impoverished majority.
At 10 minutes to five p.m. on January 12, the university complex was full of staff members and students, with classes about to change and students angling for the best seats in always-crowded classrooms. Then an apocalypse struck. A magnitude-7.0 earthquake rumbled through Haiti’s tightly packed capital, and for 65 terrifying seconds, homes, businesses, and even the compound of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti swayed and bounced on the shifting earth before collapsing into a chaos of screaming, dust, and blood.
Haiti’s Palais National, Palais de Justice, government ministries, and hundreds of other buildings lay in ruins. All four floors of the University of Port-au-Prince collapsed into a tangled mass of cindery concrete and jagged metal, burying an as-yet-uncounted number of students.
“The world came crashing down, and people had left what they had in their pockets,” said Daniel J. O’Neil, the Dominican Republic country director for the Pan American Development Foundation, who is spearheading disaster relief here.
An Endless Search
Late last week, the university structure remained a wreck, with students’ papers and notebooks scattered under chunks of concrete and splays of metal bars. A body still lay pinned beneath a flattened Suzuki 4×4 SUV, and the cloyingly sweet smell of human decay sent passers-by hurrying past. But a crowd of students and relatives of the missing had nevertheless gathered, both to mourn and to express the hope that miracles might transpire.
“I was there on the third floor, but I escaped,” said one student, Michelet Saint-Preux, his arm bandaged and a deep gash in his chin. “I lost many friends there.”
Wesley Jimmy Pierre stood in the street, his eyes fixed on the ruins. His fiancée, Sandy Fab, 24, had been a third-year science student before the quake.
“I left work and spoke to her on the phone—we were supposed to meet after her class, at 6:30 p.m.,” said Mr. Pierre. “I searched for her in the hospitals but couldn’t find her.”
Ms. Fab’s father stood with a photograph of his daughter, tears rolling down his cheeks.
“I only have one daughter,” cried Maurice Fab.
Loss of Intellectual Leaders
The quake claimed many students among its victims, but the ranks of academics were also hit hard. Micha Gaillard, a university professor and political activist, was killed when the Palais de Justice, located near Haiti’s Palais National, collapsed while he was there attending a meeting about reforming Haiti’s justice system.
Three of Haiti’s major feminist thinkers also perished. Myriam Merlet, the founder of the group Enfofamn, sought to raise awareness of women and their issues through the news media. The lawyer Magalie Marcelin helped to establish Kay Fanm (Woman’s House), which worked on domestic-violence issues and provided services and shelter to women who had been abused. Anne Marie Coriolan founded the group Solidarité Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity With Haitian Women). which advocated for women’s issues in the political and social realms.
This week a Haitian-government official said that the government had buried at least 150,000 quake victims, not counting those who were buried by relatives, were killed in the provinces, or are still buried under the rubble. The United Nations has thus far confirmed at least 112,250 deaths.
In the view of such desolation, some see a redoubling of higher-education efforts as one way to emerge from the crisis.
“Tertiary education is now more important than ever to create a new professional class that will rebuild Haiti,” said Conor Bohan, founder of the Haitian Education & Leadership Program, a nonprofit corporation that provides merit-based university scholarships in Haiti. “Universities, long the neglected stepchild of international aid for education, need massive investment to prepare tens of thousands of Haitian students to become productive and prosperous members in the global economy.”
Michael Deibert is the author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti” (Seven Stories Press).