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4431 Mt. Herbert Ave.San Diego CA 92117December 2, 2010 Dear Senior Committee, One value I learned at Muir is international collaboration. For my grauation project, I will be working on a website called Global Virtual Classroom in a project with Iraq and India. We will study "recovery after disaster", and I will be in charge of editing and posting. Iraq will send information about the war's effect on the environment, India will study about flooding in New Delhi, and USA will report on Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill and the San Diego Fires. My final project will be the completed website, which is due March 20, 2010. In December, I will do research and collect photos for the website. My mentors are Hazim Thannon in Iraq and Archana in India. In Febuary, I will learn Dreamweaver software and post the website. The audience is judges and schools around the world. See Muir's site from last year here. This is a learning stretch for me. I will learn how to do websites, and I will meet students in Iraq and India.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Castaneda

Francisco A: very nice man, great choice.

Anne: I hope this project will be approved. Gabriel will learn, and grades 8-10 will benefit from his help.

Mr Loessel: This project will be a major undertaking. Make sure when you edit that you maintain continuity. You've already indentifed the various elements of the main theme, 'recovery after disaster'. Make sure you pace yourself considering the hours you'll spend editing and posting. I wish you well.

Anne: Your paper could be about any disaster and how people recovered from it. Iraq might appreciate it if you could study the environmental impact of war--maybe Vietnam or the Gulf War.

**Essential Questions** How can countries recover from disaster? What are some helpful organizations? Why do some countries recover and others don't?

** Thesis ** Countries such as Haiti have the best hope of recovery when food, shelter, medicine, jobs, and education are provided. These problems can be solved or reduced by aid organizations. Some examples of aid organizations that are helpful are American Red Cross, American Refugee Committee, and Catholic Relief Services. 1.Aid organizations. 2. Haiti 3. Different types of disasters

**January 4 Map** (a map which illustrates your topic)

**January 5 Works Cited** (at least two books, two database sources, two internet sources, one interview)

"CIA - The World Factbook." //Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency//. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. [].

Mara, Wil. //Haiti//. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2007. Print.

Kristof, Nicholas D. "Aid." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. [].

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http://www.arcrelief.org/site/PageServer

http://www.care.org/


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**January 7 Introduction** (50 -100 words) Countries such as Haiti have the best hope of recovery when food, shelter, medicine, jobs, and education are provided. These problems can be solved or reduced by aid organizations. Some examples of aid organizations that are helpful are American Red Cross, American Refugee Committee, and Catholic Relief Services. Several countries have suffered from natural disasters, these disasters caused countries to lose homes, food, jobs etc. Aid organizations are very helpful when it comes to recovering from natural disasters. Aid organizations help countries by supplying food, shelter, health care, and skills training. All aid organizations' goals are to help rebuild people lives.

**January 13 First supporting idea** (150-500 words) American Red Cross is an aid organization designed to assist countries who have suffered from natural disasters. This organization offers services such as; community services that help the needy, support for military members and their families, processing and distributing blood and blood products, educational programs to help support health and safety, and international relief programs. The organization was founded by a woman named Clara Barton, she heard about the international Red Cross network when she was in Europe during the civil war. When she returned home, she had campaigned for an American Red Cross society, and It was approved in 1882. During World War 1, American Red Cross introduced its first support, water safety, and nursing programs. The public gave four hundred million to the organziation to help support the Red Cross programs. After the war, the American Red Cross concentrated on veterans and also upgraded its programs in safety training, home care for the sick, and nutrition education. It also provided relief for the victims of natural disasters, such as the Mississippi River flood in 1927, severe drought, and the Depression in the 1930s. The American Red Cross is dependent on donations of money and time in order to do its work.

UNICEF is another aid organization but instead they focus on children and their rights. They help support children that have come acrossed poverty, discrimination, violence, and diseases in their lives. Unicef promotes education, ensuring that children have at least a minimal education because it benefits all children. Therefore, children can become better thinkers and better citizens. UNICEF tries to prevent AIDS/HIV among children so they are free from harm and so they can protect others. They also try to help children bulid up their immunity against common diseases and are well taken care of, because it is wrong when children are dying from a preventable disease. UNICEF also defends the rights of children, they ensure equality for those who are being discriminated specifically girls and women. UNICEF believes that proper care at a young age contructs a strong support for an individual's future. UNICEF is the United Nations Children's Fund.

American Refugee Committee is another aid organization that focuses on rebuilding people's lives. ARC operates with seven refugee communities around the world, assisting people to retain control of their lives. ARC provides shelter, education, clean water, health care, skills training, and whatever support they can provide to help people start their lives again.

Other examples of aid organizations are Catholic Relief Services, World Relief, World Vision, CARE etc. Which all have similar goals.

**January 18 Second supporting idea** (150-500 words) Haiti was attacked by an earthquake on January 12, 2010 around 5 p.m. It was about 15 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 and within 2 hours, there was 8 aftershocks. Within 9 hours, there was a total of 52 aftershocks, all had a magnitude of 4.0 to 5.9. (Magnitude is the size of the earthquake) About 3 million people were affected by the disaster. It was estimated that 315,000 people had died and 300,000 were injured and 1 million people were left homeless. This earthquake has caused major destruction in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other cities in the region. Many important buildings were severely damaged such as the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly, and the Port-au-Prince cathedral. About 250,000 houses and 30,000 commerical buildings were severely demolished. The education system was almost obliterated, half of the nation's schools and their three main universities were affected by the earthqauke. 1,300 schools and 50 health care buildings were ruined. Many people were sleeping on the streets, in their cars, or on pavements due to loss of houses or many feared to sleep under structures because the structures probably couldn't withstand aftershocks. The construction standards were low, because the buildings were constructed incorrectly making them unsafe. The country also suffered due to shortages of fuel and portable water even before the disaster.

As for recovering, American Red Cross and other aid organizations has been helping Haiti since the earthquake occurred. American Red Cross have spent and signed agreements to spend $245 million to meet the basic needs for the survivors. Since people have been donating money, Haitians are receiving relief, support, and training to help them recover. And the American Red Cross will continue to use the money they invested from the people into their programs and projects to help Haiti. Since the earthquake of last year, the global Red Cross network has provided medical care for 217,000 people, clean drinkable water for more than 317,000 people, food for 1.3 million people, vaccinations for 1 million people, shelter materials for 860,000 people etc. Recently, Catholic Relief Services also announced a $200 five-year reconstruction program that covers shelter, health, and child protection. CARE will also continue to support Haitians with shelters and to serve people with water and other needs, supply schools with furniture and training etc. American Refugee Committee has helped more than 83,000 people to acquire basic needs, ensuring that people have clean water, shelter, health care etc. and their goal for this year is to get as much people into shelters, they are building.


 * January 21 Third supporting idea** (150-500 words)

There are several types of disasters, such as tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. Tsunamis are huge tidal waves caused by undersea earthquakes, their height can go up to 100 ft or more. The speed of a tsunami can go as fast a jet airplane. Tsunamis can appear as a foot high, but as they reach the shoreline and approach shallow water, they slow down and start gaining more energy and height. Tsunamis may also be caused by landslides or volcanic eruptions. Earthquakes occur when plates or rocks within the earth break or shift causing shock waves. Thousands of earthquakes happen every day, but most of them are very light to be noticed. On average, severe earthquakes that cause massive damage happen once every five years. Earthquakes can destroy cities, cause volcanic eruptions, break dams, and can create landslides. The most dangerous earthquake that ever happened was in China in 1557, it was estimated that 817,000 people had died. Tornadoes happen when there is a column of rotating air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground. It's often anticipated as a dark, greenish sky and black storms gather. Baseball size hail might fall. And a funnel appears, descending from a cloud. Tornadoes can tear up anything in its path.

**January 25 Conclusion** (50-100 words)