UNICEF has outlined an action plan for the coming months in Haiti, where education will be the first of the three targeted priorities for reconstruction. The earthquake killed 38,000 students and 1,347 teachers and destroyed over 4,000 schools. UNICEF France has chosen to focus its fundraising efforts on education through this campaign, which primarily relies on regular donations.
The focus of this campaign is based on the central role that actions in favor of children must play in the reconstruction of Haiti, concentrating on their return to school. This represents a double challenge for the children: resuming a normal life in a place of socialization and providing hope for a better future for the Haitian population through the schooling of children.
According to Jacques Hintzy, president of UNICEF France, the goal is to “mobilize generosity beyond the emergency, to get donors involved and encourage them to support UNICEF’s actions over time.” Education is essential for the transformation of Haiti. Before the earthquake, only 50% of Haitian children of primary school age were enrolled, the vast majority in the private sector. For UNICEF, reconstruction must lead to a better situation than before. UNICEF is therefore committed to doing everything possible to extend schooling to all children, including those who did not have access to it before the earthquake; and that this education must be free and of quality.
The campaign was created by the agency Ogilvy and features children posing for a class photo amid the earthquake rubble. This striking visual, captured by photographer Vincent Dixon from shots taken in Haiti, symbolically represents the situation of the children and the scale of the task to enable them to go to school. To support this campaign, visit 2 rue Gubernatis in Nice or go to [www.unicef.fr](https://www.unicef.fr) or call 3220 and say “Unicef”.
