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two months after the earthquake in Haiti, so children’s views were informed not only by
their lives before the event, but also by the event, its immediate aftermath and initial aid
responses.
Example of age and gender differences in most urgent priorities: Haiti 2010
5-10 age group
Boys prioritized education (schools), health, the country’s reconstruction and protection
against disasters;
Girls prioritized children’s rights, security, leisure, school, agriculture, environment and
housing.
Across all age groups, among the many priorities, education was widely selected.
11-16 age group
Boys prioritized decentralization, training on disasters, schools and leisure;
Girls chose participation, security, health and education.
Here again, education was unanimously selected and as in the younger group, girls
gave more emphasis to the issue of security compared to their male counterparts –
demonstrating their concerns for greater vulnerability to gender based violence and
other child protection risks.
17-24 age group
Boys and young men prioritized university, electricity, internet and professional
training;
Girls and young women prioritized employment, university and decentralization.
Drawn from 54 focus groups held separately with 925 boys, girls and young people in
three age groups covering nine departments of Haiti, areas both directly and indirectly
affected by the disaster.
Summarized quotation taken from Plan Haiti 2010 p19, and methodology p28-29. 98
Education
School, education and training opportunities have been raised as priority issues for
children in consultations across all types of emergency, including conflicts, over the
past decade. Conflict-affected children raised a number of problems that affected their
education when they did go to school. These included lack of safety and the military use
of schools, violence at school, hunger and food shortage, and discrimination related to
ethnicity and particularly affecting disabled children. These are explored in greater detail
under EDUCATION.
Children understand the importance of education for various reasons, most often
connected to their future aspirations. According to children, a key purpose of education
is to secure employment outside of the household. During the Sierra Leone civil war,
“Education and training was key to psychosocial well-being, according to young people,
who named it their top concern;” 99 and elsewhere, a boy in the Philippines shared:
“If you were not able to go to school, you could not find work. If you don’t know how to add,
how can you engage yourself in selling? You would not know if the amount is big or small.”. 100
A girl similarly stated, “We should study hard to finish school in order to get a better job with
better salary to have a good future and be able to provide for our family. I can’t be like my parents
without a stable source of livelihood.” 101