The Canaan tent city, located north of Port-au-Prince, is home to more than 30,000 Haitian refugees. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
A Haitian man breaks ground on a new school in the Canaan tent city. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
There are no schools in Canaan. The last one was run out of a tent and closed several months ago. Now, Canaan residents struggle to rebuild a permanent site for a school. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
A girl listens as Alzire Rocourt, a classical music teacher, talks about Chopin. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
A common sight at many tent cities -- a rifle-toting UN soldier stands guard outside a row of tents in Petionville Club. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
The entrance to Petionville Club, a former 9-hole golf course in Port-au-Prince. Once a resort for Haiti's well-to-do, the golf course is now home to almost 50,000 refugees from the earthquake. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
A relief worker waits as a line of several hundred parents in Petionville Club tent city wait to register their children for school. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
A girl engages in a classroom discussion on classical music at a tent school in Petionville. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
Inadequate sanitation and overcrowding is a common problem in Haiti's tent cities. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
Alzire Rocourt, a nurse turned classical music teacher, talks about the classical music era with her students at Petionville. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.
Three students from the Louverture Cleary School in Croix-des-Bouquets read to each other during recess. Image by Paul Franz, Haiti, 2010.

See also

Published November 2, 2010

Paul Franz

Classrooms in Haiti are often run out of makeshift tents and shelters. The infrastructure is largely absent, but children in Haiti are determined to learn in whatever way they can.

Project

Rebuilding Haiti's Education System from the Ground Up

As Haiti continues its recovery from the January earthquake, reconstruction in the country takes many forms. With a literacy rate of about 50 percent, Haiti's education system has struggled to provide for its youth, especially those living in rural areas. The disaster only exacerbated the pervasive institutional problems faced by the country's few reforming educators.
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April 18, 2011 /

CGI's 'Building Resilient Societies' Panel Discusses Education in Post-Disaster Zones

Maia Booker
Pulitzer Center journalist Paul Franz talks about post--disaster education in Haiti as part of the Clinton Global Initiative's 'Building Resilient Societies' panel.
January 27, 2011 / Time

Education in Haiti: A Teacher's Passion and Vision for Change

Paul Franz
Tackling the challenges of working in a tent city, music teacher Alzire Roucourt offers hope and education to the Haitian students in her class.
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