American Institutes for Research and International Action Announce Partnership to Deliver Safe Water to Schools in Haiti
Washington, D.C. – The American Institutes for Research (AIR) and International Action are partnering in an effort to ensure chlorine-treated safe water for drinking and hand-washing at emergency transitional schools in Haiti that AIR has assembled under funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) following the earthquake of January 2010.
The partnership is focusing on schools that are part of the emergency education response implemented by AIR’s Programme Haïtien d’Appui a la Réforme de L’Éducation (PHARE Project) based in Port-au-Prince.
PHARE is working with the Ministry of Education (MENFP) to deliver critically needed transitional schools and educational opportunities in areas most heavily damaged in the earthquake. Safe water and adequate sanitation are important priorities of school relief efforts, particularly following the outbreak of cholera in the Artibonite Department north of Port-au-Prince in late October.
The partnership, which is a result of AIR’s and International Action’s mutual participation in the Clinton Global Initiative Haiti Action Network, will directly benefit at least 120 PHARE schools. International Action, a non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Washington D.C., is working with Haitian water authorities to provide water tanks, water chlorinators and when necessary, water to key public sites in Haiti.
AIR staff are facilitating access and installation of the water and sanitation resources at PHARE schools, as well as ensuring that school health programs provide education about the importance of sanitation and hygiene, as well as the consequences of drinking water that is not safe. A special emphasis is being placed on cholera prevention.
IR’s PHARE project has developed and assembled hundreds of transitional classroom structures that are hurricane and earthquake resistant. The classrooms, which can be assembled in approximately five days by local workers, have allowed thousands of children to return to school. USAID administers the U.S. foreign assistance program and provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 80 countries.
About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.