UNifeed: HAITI / NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY

HAITI / NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY

While most schools in Port-au-Prince remain closed following January's earthquake, one university in the city reopens its faculty of medicine to continue training new doctors desperately needed in the country. MINUSTAH

Duration:01:50Date:18 March 2010

Categories:

EDUCATION, EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES AND TECHNOLOGY, HAITI, United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti

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Full Script

STORY: HAITI / NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY 
TRT: 1:50
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE:  CREOLE / NATS

DATELINE: MARCH 17 2010, PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI

SHOTLIST:

1. Pan right, Notre Dame University building 
2. Various shots, students talking in the court yard
3. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Danielle Jasmin, Student, Notre Dame University:
"Open a school is like closing a jail, we can not spend our time by doing nothing, we must go forward. We must go back to school. Education is the future."
4. Close-up, Notre Dame University logo
5. Wide shot, Notre Dame University logos with student passing
6. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Dr. Jean Hugues Henrys, Dean, Faculty Medicine, Notre Dame University:
"The university goal is to form leaders for the community, if it can not do it the future is compromise."
8. Wide shot, students in class
9. Close-up, note book
10. Med shot, students in class 
11. Wide shot, students in class with teacher 
12. SOUNDBITE (Creole), Julien Michael, Student, Notre Dame University
"I was afraid to go back to school after the earthquake, now I am here the show must go on."
13. Med shot, student with teacher
14. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Dr. Jean Hugues Henrys, Dean, Faculty Medicine, Notre Dame University: 
"We need to build a new Haiti, we can not do it if we do not believe in the future, if we could not do better or if we do not have charity and love for everyone. We need all of those to rebuild our country."
15. Wide shot, university court yard whit students passing

STORYLINE:

While most schools in Port-au-Prince remain closed, one university in the city reopened its faculty of medicine in March to continue training new doctors desperately needed in the country.

Haiti’s government, inundated with establishing shelter and distributing food for the millions of homeless and hungry, has not decided when the country’s universities will reopen to accommodate the thousands of students waiting to continue their education.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Danielle Jasmin, Student, Notre Dame University:
"Open a school is like closing a jail. We cannot spend our time by doing nothing, we must go forward. We must go back to school. Education is the future."

Universities like Notre Dame are far and few in Haiti – a country which holds the lowest rate of tertiary education in the western hemisphere. According to UNICEF, only one percent of Haitians between the ages of 18-24 are enrolled in higher education.

Moreover, only half of all Haitians ever see the inside of a classroom and only two percent complete high school.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Dr. Jean Hugues Henrys, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Notre Dame University:
"The university goal is to form leaders for the community, if it cannot do it the future is compromise."

The Haitian government reports that about 80 percent of university buildings have been destroyed. It has been holding meetings to plan a reconstruction strategy mostly out of concern that without opportunities for higher education, the country will continue to experience further brain drain as its educated citizens continue to leave the country.

According to the non-profit organization Haitian Education and Leadership Program, which runs scholarship programmes in Haiti, 85 percent of Haitians with a university degree have left the country during and following decades intellectual repression political instability.

Medical students in Notre Dame University, however, have been waiting for the University to open and feel that they must continue their education.

SOUNDBITE (Creole), Julien Michael, Student, Notre Dame University
"I was afraid to go back to school after the earthquake, now I am here the show must go on."

Faculty members at the University’s medical school believe it is most important to invest in education in order to rebuild a future for the country. Training these new doctors will also help the country recover the loss of its doctors and rely on new professionals needed to help the country recover and heal.

SOUNDBITE (Creole) Dr. Jean Hugues Henrys, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Notre Dame University: 
"We need to build a new Haiti, we cannot do it if we do not believe in the future, if we could not do better or if we do not have charity and love for everyone. We need all of those to rebuild our country."

University of Notre Dame is one of the eight members of the association of francophone universities in the country.

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