Judy is a retired teacher, and an American. Her husband David ran a factory in Haiti for 15 years before retiring himself and moving with Judy to the seaside village of Montrouis. They've lived there now for 25 years. One day a couple years ago Judy's passion for teaching reemerged and she decided to sponsor a local school. A contractor was hired and a building went up that was pretty standard as Haitian schools go. Two years later there an earthquake shook the region and the couple sought the help of Archiecture for Humanity to make repairs to the school–if any were needed. Architecture for Humanity sent an architect and a structural engineer who together determined the whole building was unfit to occupy. Judy's school, Collège Mixte le Bon Berger ("collège" in French being another world for "secondary," or "junior high" school) was too insufficiently reinforced and would have to eventually be torn down. Perhaps the foundation could be salvaged.
The 300 students from Bon Berger will have to start this next schoolyear away from the school building. They'll have to move their benches and chalkboards under large canvas canopies for the time being until they can get a new school in the yard. This new school would have to be designed and built with the utmost attention to detail, that it might serve succeeding generations of Haitian students who, in turn, can grow to expect their school, as a foundation of Montrouis, to serve their families following them and foster the healthy and happy growth of the community. Just as each standard Haitian school should.
Original article on Students Rebuild
Check out Mountrouis' project page on the Open Architecture Network
