Rea Dol in Montreal Gazette

She has created a hot lunch program that feeds 700 children daily, a tutoring and housing centre for street kids, and a micro-credit program that gives small loans to dozens of mothers so they can start their own businesses.

"Education, for us, is the basis of all development," said Dol over the phone from Port-au-Prince, the happy clatter of children reverberating in the background in the learning centre she built nine years ago. The school survived the earthquake when all but three of 300 neighbouring houses collapsed. But they teach outside under tents now, because the children are still scared to go indoors.

"In developed countries, education is a right," she said. "Here in Haiti, it is a privilege. But not many have the opportunity to have that privilege."

— "Schools key to recovery", Montreal Gazette