Royal Caribbean Cruise line in Haiti

Royal Caribbean Cruise line in Haiti

For years, Royal Caribbean Cruises, the corporation based in Miami, has run a private resort on a sandy peninsula in Labadie, Haiti, a playground of lounge chairs, bars and even an alpine coaster that shoots guests though the forest.

The company has leased the 260 beachfront acres, about 90 miles north of the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince, from the government since 1986. Several times a week, up to 7,000 people descend for the day when mega ships berth in Labadie on a new $34 million pier, offering a clear contrast to the poverty beyond the gates.

In January 2010 an earthquake killed up to 300,000 people, according to Haitian officials, and left more than 1 million homeless and divested the capital.  

The cruise line known for its pleasure ships reopened the resort for vacationers, just six days after the quake evoking some criticism.  

What you may not know is, although RCCL is a business, not a charitable organization, they have tried to help out Haiti in several ways.

Immediately after the devastating quake RCCL, donated and delivered a much needed water-distribution system in the village of Labadie, said John Weis, an associate vice president. Also after the quake, the company donated about $2 million and helped import relief supplies.

The company also opened the cheery, citrus-color school complex just outside the guarded resort's fences in October, a move Royal Caribbean said it was considering before the disaster. The school has gleaming classrooms for the 200 or so students. The kindergartens ceiling is laced with clotheslines of paper butterflies. The children have blue and cream uniforms, each one embroidered with an anchor and the school's unusual name: "École Nouvelle Royal Caribbean," or the New Royal Caribbean School.

The school itself is stunning and serene, a clean-swept haven from the several surrounding towns from which the students hail, where streets are choked with trash. It houses kindergarten through fifth grade and is run by a nonprofit group founded and led by Maryse Penette-Kedar, a former minister of tourism and president of Royal Caribbean's operations in Haiti.

Students are chosen by lottery and about 20 percent are children of the company's local employees.

"The vision is that we'll connect the education and the jobs together," said Weis an associate vice president. "We'll have a steady supply of well-educated people, and they'll be prepared to work on board the ship."

The school cost about $550,000 to build and equip, according to Weis, and Royal Caribbean spends nearly $200,000 each year to run it. For this school, there is a $5 per month tuition, a fee organizers say they imposed to create a sense of stewardship among the families.

It is a far cry from local schools such as L'École Nationale Mixte in neighboring Fort Bourgeois, where splintering desks teeter on dirt floors behind doors of rusted sheets of corrugated metal, and rain pours through the roof, canceling classes.

The World Food Program provides some food. A kitchen is being planned, but for now only a handful of parents can afford to provide lunch for their children, several teachers said.

Weis said "We have a responsibility to the community that we're in," he said.