UN Secretary General visits AMURT CFS in Petionville Camp

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, made a one day trip to visit earthquake affected Haiti. Since the January 12 earthquake, the Petionville Country Club has been transformed into one of the largest camps for displaced people in Port-au-Prince, with estimates of up to 70,000 people living there. AMURT has opened 3 Child-Friendly Spaces in the camp, serving approximately 460 children so far, and projected to serve up to 1000 within two weeks.  As Ban toured through the camp, he visited one of our Child-Friendly Spaces scheduled to open the following day. Sara Wolf (Sarita),  the AMURT Child Protection Coordinator,  explained the educational importance of providing safe opportunities for play and self-expression for young children. She  described our program which offers story-telling, art, music, karate and yoga as well as meals and nutritional support to children 4-12 years old. He enquired if the children are going to school, and she explained that  as schools are still closed, AMURT is providing  this transitional program of 3 hours a day. He was very impressed to see how happy the children look.