Haiti — How Can We Help?

In the past week, many of you have sent in suggestions on how we, as early childhood professionals, can help children, families, and early childhood professionals in Haiti both now and in the long run.  As I had indicated previously, the World Forum Foundation is a member of the Early Childhood in Emergencies Working Group (EEWG), working under the umbrella of the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development, which is working on long-range strategies for children in Haiti.  We will share these plans as they evolve.

In the meantime, we are collecting your views on steps that individual early childhood programs can take to help.  We invite you to share your ideas and opinions in today's Exchange Insta Poll where we are surveying readers on the best ways to provide support in Haiti.  After we have arrived at some consensus on the most favored ideas, we will consult with relief experts and early childhood leaders in Haiti to see if and how these ideas can be acted upon.  It may well turn out that some of the ideas are impractical or inappropriate.  But we will follow your lead and provide implementation ideas on those ideas that may work.

Here are just a few of the ideas that have been suggested so far:

• Twinning — partnering with an early childhood program in Haiti to exchange communication and to provide support.
• Sending an early childhood professional to do relief work in Haiti.
• Collecting early childhood learning materials to send to centers in Haiti.
• Making an appeal to your families and your community to support Haiti.

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