RT by MariseGomes67
Where you live affects your health #health20
RT by MariseGomes67
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 25 March 2011 – In one of the classrooms at Vision Nouvelle School sits a large wooden box filled with broken instruments – violins, violas, flutes and even piano parts. It’s all that remains of the school’s once substantial collection of music instruments, a stark reminder of the destructive power of last year’s earthquake which reduced the school and its contents to rubble.
“The earthquake destroyed most of our school and left us with almost nothing, no instruments at all,” says headmistress Micheline Adolphe. “I wasn’t even sure if it was worth reopening the school. ”Most classes have now resumed in a new UNICEF-constructed school building, but conditions are still far from what they used to be.
Vision Nouvelle School in Delmas is one of only 10 schools in Haiti that offers music classes to its students and has a reputation for producing successful musicians. For decades, it has sent students to international competitions in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
UNICEF continues to provide basic supplies for students and teachers across Haiti, and is supporting the reconstruction of buildings such as Vision Nouvelle School.
Last year more than 720,000 children and 15,000 teachers were given school materials and training. Since the earthquake, UNICEF has reconstructed 110 semi-permanent schools in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
UNICEF is now preparing to rebuild another 37 schools in the Haitian capital and aims to complete 200 schools across the country by the end of June.
The power of music
Fabienne Ejerard Philippe Auguste, 17, a student at Vision Nouvelle School, is thankful for UNICEF’s efforts in reconstructing schools. It allows her to continue to learn to play the violin.
“Music makes all the difference to me. I love it. It helps me focus on the beautiful side of life,” says Ms. Auguste, holding her instrument. “Since the earthquake, I am very stressed. Music helps me to express my feelings and to deal with this stress.”
Recognizing the liberating benefits of music, UNICEF recently helped build a music recording studio at a boys’ school in Port-au-Prince.
“Music can help you dream,” says Ms. Auguste. “Everybody needs a dream, especially young people. They need to know that there is more to life than their current reality.”
Football for an HIV Free Generation (F4) Namibia (2007 - 2010)
For this Johnson & Johnson-funded project, AED and Grassroot Soccer are implementing an innovative HIV prevention intervention for young people in Namibia. F4 uses the excitement of soccer and an innovative curriculum to transfer critical life skills to assist young people in protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections. Street soccer clubs recruit participants ages 14-25 and create teams based on age, gender, and level of play. Teams meet three days a week for nine months out of the year to work on soccer and life skills, and to compete. Each week, one day is dedicated to HIV and life skills activities from the Skillz curriculum. Key curricular topics include making healthy decisions, avoiding risks, building support networks, reducing stigma and discrimination, increasing knowledge about testing and treatment, addressing gender issues, and assessing values.
AED’s approach has been to create programs that both communicate authentic and persuasive messages to people, encouraging them to adopt positive behaviors, and to change the conditions around people to facilitate those behaviors.
