A group of celebrities have partnered up with non-profit organization Artists for Peace and Justice to announce a plan for long-term support for school children in Haiti. Stars like Jackson Browne, Gerard Butler, Daniel Craig, Russell Crowe, Penelope Cruz, Clint Eastwood, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Sean Penn and more have committed to making annual donations of $50,000 for the next five years (that's $250,000 total from each). The funds will be used to build and sustain street schools in the earthquake-stricken area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, providing not only food, water and medical supplies for local school children, but educational materials as well.
For kids in the region, getting back into school is one of the best tracks to recovering from the disaster. School is one of the few places where children will have access to clean drinking water, food for the day, medical attention, clothing, hope and community.
- “Emergency relief is still very important — with the help of Operation USA, last week we trucked in another $150,000 in food and supplies to sustain the St. Luke’s program and the children and families of the slums that rely upon its outreach programs,” says Paul Haggis, Founder of APJ. Schools right now might not seem like the most important thing to reestablish but it just isn’t true. The children may not be in urgent need of an education, but they desperately need physical and psychological support. They need a daily meal and water and medical care that comes with our schools. These thousands of children need a safe place to gather, where they can find hope, and even joy and beauty. The issues on the rise right now are gangs, violent crime, prostitution and child slavery. Schools are more important now than ever."
APJ is dedicated to bringing long-term support to earthquake victims in the area, especially children. Even before the devastating earthquake last month, APJ has been sponsoring schools in Haiti and supporting the work of Father Rick Frechette, a community organizer and doctor at Port-au-Prince's St Damiens Pediatric Hospital, the only free pediatric hospital in the country.
You may not have the same kind of ability to give as much as these stars, but even your small donations to APJ will go a long way in providing a speedy and peaceful recovery for young people in Haiti.
