Maimed, despairing, disturbed and deserted

Emergency Pedagogy for traumatized children in Haiti

On the 12.1.2010, an earthquake which reached 7,0 on the Richter Scale, shook the poorest country in the western hemisphere – Haiti. According to official estimates, this natural disaster cost over 300 000 people their lives. How many victims are still buried beneath the rubble, we’ll probably never know. Millions of people were injured and lost their homes. Everything is lacking: drinking water, food, tents and medical help. According to the British aid organization “Save the Children”, two million children are in acute danger. Many of the smallest victims of the earthquake have been left alone. “They wander without orientation through the streets and sleep next to corpses at night. The earthquake traumatized many of Haiti’s children and made them into orphans”[1]

From the 10.02 until the 25.02.2010 the “Friends of Waldorf Education” performed a Emergency Pedagogy crisis intervention operation in orphanages, hospitals, schools and tented camps for the homeless in Port.-au-Prince and Leogane.[2] In addition to the direct help for about 600 children, we were able to train 150 pedagogues in Emergency Pedagogy first aid measures.

Herzlichen Dank