Cap Anamur Builds Schools in Haiti
The earthquakes in Haiti occurred more than eight months ago. Nevertheless, the consequences are still omnipresent: rubble piles up where buildings once stood.
Too many earthquake victims still live in refugee camps. Among them quite a few families with children. They simply lack the money to build a new home.
Especially the children, who have to spend their daily lives in the huge dreary tent cities, need a perspective for the future. Even before the natural disaster, only about one in two children in Haiti went to school. The quake damaged or destroyed about 4,000 schools. Cap Anamur is therefore involved not only in medical aid for the people, but also in education and is building schools.
Cap Anamur rebuilds two schools
Our two technicians Thorsten Vogt and Rene Lefebvre organize the construction measures. The first school is built in Gressier. The municipality, with a population of around 25,000, is part of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. A UN assessment team estimated that about 50 percent of the buildings in Gressier were destroyed. The people here are happy about any help. And the cooperation with the local construction workers is going very well. Trotz der Gluthitze sind alle motiviert, die Schule schnell fertig Despite the sweltering heat, everyone is motivated to finish the school quickly.zu stellen. After the backfill work was finished and the floor slabs were laid, we were able to start with the foundation and the masonry.
In southeastern Haiti, the rural Les Palmes, the work is more difficult. With painstaking work, the embankment was first removed. The exceptionally clayey soil had to be prepared for construction. Sand and gravel are extracted from a river between Les Palmes and Petit Goâve for the production of concrete. Local farmers support us in transporting the stones. They toil in all kinds of weather. The transport of building materials in particular is a challenge. Although the roads to Les Palmes have been repaired in many places, driving in the rain is still dangerous.
Before the earthquake, a school stood on this very spot in Les Palmes, a community of 30,000 people. There is little left of it.
The new building provides space for three additional classrooms. The local children are already looking forward to classes in the new earthquake-proof school.