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February 26, 2010

Israel maintains Haiti presence

IsraAID partners with local agencies for a children’s education centre in refugee camp.
EDGAR ASHER ISRANET

IsraAID, in partnership with aid agency ProDev and JP-HRO, has opened the first Child Education Centre in the Petionville refugee camp – the largest such camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Petionville has 60,000 residents living under the patronage of the American ambassador. The Israeli team has provided medical post-trauma treatment to thousands of refugees there, working closely with other agencies, such as Operation Blessing, JP-HRO and ProDev.

The Child Education Centre is functioning in tents donated by the Israel Defence Forces that had served the IDF field hospital in Haiti. The tents have become a child-friendly space where activities for groups of 250 children at a time take place. The educational programs, which were prepared in partnership with all three agencies, as well as local teachers, include pedagogical content, music, sports and earthquake-readiness training. This model is being duplicated at additional refugee sites as well.

IsraAID’s post-trauma project in the camp will be led by IsraAID member organization Tevel Be-Tzedek, which primarily deals with development programming in countries around the world.

Since the earthquake hit Haiti, three IsraAID teams have been operating in various locations in Port-au-Prince, providing emergency medical aid, post-trauma and relief distribution assistance.

The IsraAID missions to Haiti are funded by American Jewish Committee and UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, B’nai B’rith International, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, as well as a number of other Jewish federations, including Los Angeles, Cleveland, St. Louis, San Francisco, New York and Miami.

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