What can Croydon do for Haiti? (From Croydon Guardian)

What can Croydon do for Haiti?

9:01pm Tuesday 2nd February 2010

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By Samia Ahmed

Whilst many Brits have been battling one of the bitterest winters the country has ever seen, this has been a blip compared to the devastating and destructive earthquake that hit the Caribbean country of Haiti in Port-au-Prince. On January 12th 2010 an earthquake struck Haiti and devastated the capital city. A reported number of 150,000 people were killed, however, this is an estimate and the exact number is unknown.

The saddest part of this disaster is that, although people have been saved and some are recovering, the large majority remain homeless due to the catastrophic destruction of buildings and homes.

Along with school across Britain, schools across Croydon are doing their bit by raising as much money as possible through donations and fundraisers.

One particular way that students have chosen to become involved is by entering the ‘Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark Enterprise Learning Partnership’ challenge for year 9 students. The challenge runs for 5 weeks and requires a group of 5 students per team to start a business on a seed fund of £50 and make as much profit from the sales as they can. One KS3 group from Croydon are selling miniature clocks at their school. They have already stated that their profits will be donated to the Haiti appeal instead of keeping it themselves. They decided this collectively after watching the news and a documentary in a PSHE lesson, where they saw how much their contribution could benefit the Haitians.

For every £40 raised in schools across Croydon the charity UNICEF can provide 4 families with basic water kits, protecting children from infections and giving them the right to be healthy.

Joyce Bissingou is a year 10 pupil at a Croydon school who has family in Haiti. Her parents have sent money and keep in contact with her great uncles and aunts regularly. When she first heard of news about the earthquake she was devastated: ‘I always knew that my family weren’t safe due to previous disasters, I was scared!’ Thankfully they are well, however aid is now needed more than ever.

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