Providing quality education in a devastated location

École Boisrond Tonnerre

Pétionville, Port au Prince, Haiti

Time given by the Buro Happold Share Our Skills initiative allowed a team of engineers to work alongside Article 25 to design and construct a multi-functional building that provides child-friendly learning spaces and good quality primary education for disadvantaged children as well as lifesaving water and sanitation facilities.

The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on the 12th of January 2010 killed more than 200,000 people and ruined the country’s physical infrastructure. This project, located in Pétionville a suburb in Haiti’s capital Port au Prince, provides multi-functional child-friendly learning spaces and good quality primary education in this devastated location.

Challenge

Haiti is extremely vulnerable to disasters and there is a strong need for safer and more disaster resilient schools. After the earthquake hit Haiti, cholera has spread through vulnerable communities and killed thousands of people, due to a lack of access to clean water and basic sanitation.

Solution

Our feasibility study in Haiti has proven indispensable in order to be able to understand the requests of the local community, gain knowledge of local work methods, local sources and materials, and to design the most economical structure accordingly.

Value

The project benefits the community in Pétionville by providing improved safety and disaster resilience in earthquake resistant classrooms, improved primary education for the most disadvantaged boys and girls, improved health facilities to combat the risk of water-borne diseases like cholera, and improved water and sanitation facilities for the most disadvantaged children, with a special focus on girls, who suffer disproportionately from the lack of latrines.

The project has also provided those engineers involved with an expanded knowledge base, especially on seismic behaviour of structures.