NEWS on International School and Staff in Haiti

Excerpts from an email from Nadia Durban, Learning Center Coordinator, Union School Haiti

"Thank you for your concern. Yes, Union School, the American-accredited school in Haiti, has been damaged, but it is still standing. We are awaiting engineers to estimate the severity of the damage. We were fortunate that the quake took place after school hours, however there were some staff members and a few children still on the premises. Everyone came out alive. There have been casualties of the staff however outside of school. It has been confirmed that our gym teacher, a young Haitian man of about 25, perished although I do not have complete details yet Our staff consists entirely of Haitian, American, and Canadian nationals.

Thank you again for your concern, and we ask all for prayers."

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From Thursday 14 January, via US Department of State

We know that the school director, Marie Jean-Baptiste and her husband are OK. We had an e-mail exchange with her US based daughter Marsha Harris overnight. We have tried to call the two cell phone numbers for Marie but have gotten no answer.

Twitter has been the only source of information on teachers. As of yesterday afternoon about 5 were accounted for including the elementary principal.

Additional information today (Thursday 14 Jan): School staff member Steven Kirby is working triage at the US Embassy. Marlene Nicolas is OK and Michele Deardorff may also be accounted for but surname is uncertain.

US government family members are being evacuated immediately. Consular section is dealing with other Amcits and assisting with evacuation if desired.

Many international schools around the world are developing plans for assisting victim of the earthquake some focusing especially on the Union School community.

Pamela A. Ward, Ph.D., Regional Education Officer

Office of Overseas Schools,

US Department of State

For on-going updates on the Union School in Haiti you can log onto www.twitter.com and put "Haiti Union School" in the search section. Not all of the information will be relevant but it will continue to be updated. Most of the information coming out of Haiti is being communicated via twitter and facebook.

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