They also comfort each other with songs about surviving "le terrible tremblement de terre" - the terrible shaking of the earth - and talk excitedly about their career dreams.

Haiti appeal

Nobody who witnessed the chaos and devastation following Haiti's hellish earthquake in January could have anticipated such a hopeful scene so soon.

Thousands of children were among the near-250,000 dead, with many more orphaned in the tragedy that saw more than 4,000 schools reduced to ruins. But recovery in the classroom is a positive sign that the country has a future.

Haitian children
Putting pen to paper ... kids enjoy the Sun-sponsored kit

And the school The Sun visited this week - freshly opened in the capital Port-au-Prince amid the rubble still choking the streets - is all the more special.

The proceeds of The Sun's Helping Haiti single will help pay for it and many others like it.

Haitian children
Back to school ... student smiles in class

Half-a-million children will now have access to formal education - many for the first time - thanks to the money Sun readers raised through buying the song.

More than a million copies of the star-studded cover of REM's Everybody Hurts were sold as our readers pushed the single straight to No1 in the charts.

And now The Sun's share of the proceeds have been collected and our first payment, of more than Ј370,000, has been handed to our chosen charity, UNICEF, for their education programme.

The reach of the money donated by The Sun from the single is breath-taking.

It is enough to provide 12,500 Ј22 "school in a carton" sets to teach children how to read and write.

The sets each have supplies to set up a school for 40 children, meaning our donation was enough to give 500,000 children everything they need to learn.

As well as a blackboard, cartons include paint, exercise books, pens and rulers for whole classes, as well as sports equipment including a football and skipping ropes.

There is also enough money left to pay for around 90 huge schoolroom tents.

When later proceeds from the song roll in, they will help to pay for thousands of backpacks for pupils containing uniform T-shirts, notebooks, rulers, pens and pencils. The Sun visited the Nationale Republique du Bresil school this week and saw the massive difference your money has already made. It re-opened a month ago and is using the cartons and tents.

The original school was flattened, with many of the 780 pupils' lives saved only because headmistress Erna Lambert sensed something was wrong and sent the children out to play an hour early.

As we were shown the tented classrooms by UNICEF aid workers, pupils chanted: "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" singing songs and clapping their hands with joy.

Haitian children
Hop to it ... sports equipment has also been donated to schools

Judith Joseph, 15, walks for an hour each day to attend the school. It was her mum's "dream" that her daughter would learn to read and go on to become a singer.

Judith yesterday said: "My grandmother died next to me when our house collapsed in the quake. And my mother died too. Sometimes I feel as if my head is about to explode with hurt. But school is the one place I feel happy.

"If I couldn't come here each day, it would hurt so much more. Thank you for helping Haitian children like me back to school."

Darlah Boisrond, 12, told how she ignores the pain in her broken leg to hobble to school on crutches.

She whispered: "My leg was trapped in the earthquake but all I wanted was to come back to school.

"I like science - I want to be a doctor. But now I dream that my leg will heal and that I can jump rope again like my friends."

Madam Lambert, 45, yesterday told how "incredibly proud" she is to be teaching pupils again.

Haitian school supplies
Making a difference ... a 'school in a carton' set

She said: "I hear your newspaper and the people of Britain helped many of Haiti's schoolchildren. Thank you. This school is not just a school. It is a safe haven from the prostitution, violence and gangs that all try to corrupt children in the tented camps and city.

"These children come here to be safe, to learn, to recover from their nightmares and dream of a future.

"Right now, this school and the others like it are the happiest place to be in all of Haiti."

Even before the tragedy, schooling in Haiti was failing.

Only 55 per cent of children attended and the literacy rate - just half the population can read - is one of the worst in the world.

Education is being stressed as the vital factor in helping Haiti recover.

Haiti map
Disaster zone ... earthquake killed almost 250,000

Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean last week said: "If we are going to get to the 21st Century, I don't know how we do that with a population who cannot read or write. The government needs to concentrate on education - give every child a chance." The children who will be helped back to school by the money given to UNICEF make up virtually one in ten of Haiti's population.

Even before the quake, Haiti was believed to have been home to 300,000 child slaves.

Aid workers say these children are still being sold by poor families in the countryside to work as domestic servants in cities.

But by helping to open thousands of small schools in Haiti's rural areas, where education was once scarce and expensive, The Sun's donation is working against this desperate trade.

A UNICEF spokesman yesterday said: "It's incredible how much has been raised so quickly by Sun readers. You're already making children's lives better in Haiti."

And chief executive David Bull added: "Thanks to The Sun and everyone who bought the single for helping put things right for Haiti.

"UNICEF has been in Haiti for over 60 years. We will stay here, helping children, after the initial shock of the quake has passed."

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The Helping Haiti song became this century's fastest-selling charity song. With Simon Cowell's assistance we secured 21 of pop's biggest stars to record it, including Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow, Cheryl Cole, Kylie Minogue, Westlife and Susan Boyle.

All proceeds were split between the Disasters Emergency Committee and our Helping Haiti campaign.

Find out more at unicef.org.uk/sun.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol....k95ow4L