At a small school in Leogane, Hands On Disaster Response volunteers clear rubble while the school manages to stay in session.
Jackson Casimir and his wife, Nicole, have led Nicole Kindergarten, a small, private school for three to five-year-olds, for nearly ten years. Until January 12, 2010, it was a two-story concrete building with eight rooms, an average of 75 students, a library, a cafeteria, two computers, and four highly trained and salaried teachers. But when the earthquake struck — after school hours, fortunately, so no children were harmed — the building collapsed to a mountain of rubble mixed with toys, books, twisted rebar, and soggy, forgotten homework.
A dedicated crew of Hands On Disaster Response (HODR) volunteers at Project Leogane labored for three weeks with picks, shovels, sledges and wheelbarrows, hauling that rubble to the street to clear a space for the kindergarten to begin again. In the meantime, the Casimirs have been beside themselves to maintain some semblance of normality for their “small compatriots.” They’ve poured their own resources as well as donations from friends and family into squeezing as many children as possible under a makeshift tarp structure in front of the school — and, impressively, into offering free tuition and a hot meal every day until the end of the school year (August 2010).
“After the earthquake, there were so many children in the street, and so many who were not going to have the possibility of going to school,” says Casimir. “This is not only because the situation had become much more complicated for their parents, but also because of the number of schools that were destroyed” in the event. “I feel fortunate that I am able to offer something. Maybe it’s just a drop of water in the ocean, what we are doing here, but it’s better than nothing!”
 |
Nicole Kindergarten students get ready for their midday meal.
|
For many students at Nicole Kindergarten, their daily lunch of rice and beans is the only complete meal they eat each day, and the school’s meager shelter is far more comfortable than the places that are serving as their temporary homes. In an effort to combat the dearth of operating schools of any kind in Leogane, Casimir hopes to reopen the school in October for first through third graders as well as kindergarteners (finances permitting, of course — and he is not at all sure about that. HODR project coordinators are working with UNICEF to help him acquire a sturdy temporary shelter to use in the near future). Still, Casimir says, he would never have been able to consider reopening the school at all in the long term without HODR’s help.
 |
HODR volunteers shovel a mountain of rubble that was once the school.
|
Volunteers may tire of shoveling rocks in the brutal Haitian sun, but clearing rubble sites like this one is an invaluable service — both to the proprietor and the community at large. An estimated 20 million cubic meters of rubble were created by January’s earthquake, debris that will likely take years to remove, even if every aid organization tripled its pace. And rubble removal from a local’s perspective is, in most cases, prohibitively expensive. Before HODR arrived on the scene, the cost of hiring a crew to clear just enough to hang a tarp and continue classes at Nicole Kindergarten was a whopping 20,000 Haitian gourdes, or about 800 U.S. dollars. (This may explain Casimir’s daily regaling of hungry, sweaty volunteers with mangoes, coconuts, and eager explanations to anyone with French proficiency of his heartfelt thanks.)
 |
HODR volunteers worked alongside the tent every morning while the school was in session.
|
In the end, despite the incredible hardship that the earthquake has posed on his family, school, and country, Casimir remains optimistic. “The lesson that I’ve pulled from this,” he says, his eyes full of hope, his lips in a half-smile, “is that people are really good at heart. You have all left your homes and your families and your countries to help people you don’t even know. That sends a clear message to the Haitians: a message of love, brotherhood, and solidarity.”
Because of this, he insists, “You’re not only helping me” by clearing his school’s rubble. “You’re helping us all.”
Sara Bernard is a HODR volunteer writing on-location in Leogane, Haiti. Photos taken by HODR volunteers Rachel Shaver and Sara Bernard.
