Haiti's students: "There isn't much of a future for us"

Haiti’s institute of Hautes Etudes Commerciales et Economiques defined itself with a simple mission statement: “forming men and women to serve the nation.”

Many of the school’s 1000 students were in the building when the earthquake struck on January 12th; today, only eight of them are known to be alive.

Today, two of those survivors have come back to the school for the first time since the earthquake. Emmanuel Midi and his cousin, Johnny Pierrot, seem stunned as they survey the rubble of their school. “This was our building, Pavilion B. My classroom was on the right,” says Johnny.

Johnny was in class when the earth started trembling. The shaking was so strong that he couldn’t walk out the door. He had the instinct to climb on a chair and jump out of a window while the room shook. A few other students followed him; most didn’t get a chance to escape.

Emmanuel had been getting some food outside, and was just next to the building. The cousins found each other in shock, unable to understand what what had just happened. Leaving the chaos, the cries, and the dust of the school, they ran to find their families.

They haven’t found their parents - yet.

As they sort through the rubble of their school, they find a card amongst the broken bricks, “It was someone’s birthday,” says Emmanuel.

Inside the card is a handwritten poem, in French:

Yesterday has passed
Tomorrow is mystery
Today is a gift
This is why we call it present
The biggest day of your life is today
You future is based on today
enjoy your gift of today
for success and flawless joy
may the master and architect of the universe
show you the path to follow
Happy birthday

It was from a student, to the principal of the school.

Emmanuel and Johnny sit down on the side of the building, and begin to talk.

“Haiti was already very difficult before the earthquake, but we could study and hope for a future.” says Johnny. “If we can’t finish our studies, there isn’t much of a future for us. We can’t leave the country; we have no money, no family.”

The cousins hope a foreign state will help Haiti by providing them with student visas. They want to “finish [their] education, to move forward, to make something of this life”.

But the collapsed building also buried all proof of their academic achievements; Johnny has no certificate to show for his the three years he’s spent on his four-year economics program.

With the amount of destruction, the cousins don’t see how the school can be fixed. And they want to finish their education now, as young men.

Emmanuel wants to go abroad, finish his studies, and work hard. He was among the thousands waiting outside the Canadian embassy last week, hoping to gain a visa to a new life. He wants to come back here and find his parents alive, so he can repay them and help rebuild the country.

Johnny hopes to be part of the people who will make a difference for Haiti. He wants make his place abroad and come back rich, so he can invest in his country and people.

“Everything has to be rebuilt from scratch. Maybe we can rebuild a better country than before, but how long will it take?” says Johnny. “I want to be here when it happens.”

Originally published on the website "Inside Disaster".