On January 12th an earthquake struck, inflicting the worst natural disaster in two centuries on the Western Hemisphere’s poorest inhabitants. What little infrastructure the country claimed would be leveled by this immeasurable and incomprehensible tragedy.  The world gasped at the scenes of collapsed buildings, of neighbors pulling neighbors from underneath piles of rubble, and of medical personnel scrambling to save lives.  In response, the American Library Association established the Haiti Library Relief Fund to help repair and rebuild 3 of Haiti’s libraries – Petit-Goave Library, Pyepoudre Community Library and the National Library of Haiti in Port-au-Prince.

On my August visit to Haiti, I wondered how would rebuilding libraries help a country where, seven months plus later, 1.6 million persons remain homeless, living in tent camps where basic needs such as clean water and access to toilets remain unmet ? Jean Midley, director of Petit-Goave’s Municipal Library, which was completely demolished by the earthquake, provided an answer. “The rebuilding of the library would mean life again for the people,” Midley said on a sweltering afternoon walk amid the rubble, only 4% of which has been cleared since the disaster. Library assistant, Magalive Gondre, agrees, adding, “The youth of Petit-Goave have no place to go . . . They are suffering from lack of creative and intellectual stimulation.”

The resurrected library would be the place, the rare oasis of normalcy amid the devastation where mothers, fathers, aunties, grandparents, babies, children and young adults could begin to imagine and live their lives again. Libraries would not only provide work and traditional library services but would serve as visible symbols of expansion and confidence in the future, even when surrounded by anguish and limitation.

Deborah Lazar, Librarian
New Trier High School
www.rebuildhaitilibraries.org
lazard@newtrier.k12.il.us
847-784-7762

updated October 2011