Rebuild & Reinforce
The earthquake of August 14th was devastating for the entire community of Petit Trou de Nippes, and our partners at St. Paul’s School were no exception. While there was destruction and damage on the school campus, we are so grateful that no one was injured. In order to understand the plan moving forward at St. Paul’s, the context below is instructive.
PRIORITIZING SAFETY AND RESILIENCE ON ST. PAUL’S CAMPUS
In 2019, after a great deal of dialogue and discernment, we embarked on a campus development plan to ensure the safety of our students and staff. This message from Executive Director Wynn Walent sent in June of 2018, entitled Haiti’s Next Earthquake noted that “The question is not if another natural disaster will strike Haiti, the appropriate and sobering question is when. Our first and fundamental commitment is to the safety of our students.” There were concerns that some of the buildings on campus were unsafe and not earthquake-resilient, and so with support from you, we demolished the two story school building and built a light roofed, one story structure which serves as classrooms for Pre-K to 8th grade. Space that was previously used for other activities (housing visitors, storage, artisan work, offices) was converted to serve as classrooms for the upper grades and as the computer lab.
We are happy to report that the new school building was NOT damaged in the earthquake, and served as a key hub and resource for the community in the immediate days after the quake, providing shelter for families who had lost their homes and serving as a base to store and distribute urgently needed supplies.
Unfortunately, the older structure, used for upper grade classrooms, guests housing, and storage, sustained significant damage. In addition, another key building on campus, the presbytery / staff housing also sustained damage and is no longer safe. (See here for blog of that day.)
The plans below represent the next phase of development on campus, a new, light roofed, secondary school and administrative center, as well as a new home for the priest in charge and other staff on campus. Also, at the bottom of this page, you can find simple campus maps that show some of the changes that have occurred.
