ANDREW Bettany, manager of the University of York’s IT Academy, is heading for Haiti to teach 15 Haitians IT training skills.

Mr Bettany, 41, born and bred in York, was invited to the earthquake-stricken island by NetHope, a US charity which was one of the first to arrive on the island to help to rebuild it.

He leaves on July 3 and will be based at Port-Au-Prince, the capital, the epicentre of the earthquake in January last year which displaced 1.5 million Haitians and claimed more than 200,000 lives.

He said: “It is going to be hard work. I shall be alone and adapting to these devastating conditions, while at the same time preparing a programme and meanwhile conferring with officials of NetHope permanently based there.”

The local college, Portail de l’Ecole Supérieure d’Infotronique d’Haïti (ESIH), ran a training course last year and this visit is a follow-up, concentrating on teaching the graduates to train. It means that York-based knowledge will help them raise themselves up from a critical social environment.

“Many of the students are still living in tents and substandard accommodation. Some of them will be walking for an hour to get to class. They will see this as a way of lifting themselves out of the desperate situation they are in,” he said.

Mr Bettany, who has had to be inoculated against cholera, said: “When I had my first conference call NetHope warned me about outbreaks Dengue fever and cholera which were daunting.

“But what was compelling was the eagerness with which the students wanted to spread the knowledge of IT skills.”