Story

Faces and Classrooms in Haiti

November 02, 2010 | Pulitzer Center
By
Paul Franz

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.

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.