Rebuilding the School
L’École Ebénézè
de Fèvre

In the last decade, Haiti has been devastated by two natural disasters: 2010 - a magnitude 7.0 earthquake; 2016 – Category 4 Hurricane Matthew. As a result, L’Asile has suffered with destruction of many homes, damaged road conditions, and shortage of clean water, amongst other devastating effects. More explicitly, the winds from the Hurricane were so strong that the roofs of the school caved in, leaving the rain to wet and damage the materials inside of the structures. 

Additionally, the foundational walls of the school cracked during the earthquake and have severely worsened after Hurricane Matthew.

As a result of the unsafe building conditions, more than 2/3 of the students who attended the school have been forced to either travel to schools that are further away from L’Asille (over an hour away by foot from their community), or the students have stopped going to school altogether.

The New School

Through donations made and money raised, construction started immediately, with the building of a new 6-classroom school as a replacement of the existing damaged school. 

The new construction was built using updated materials that can better withstand the environmental pressures of this climate and was made moderately larger to accommodate for more students per classroom. 

This new 6-class children's school, which now host 15 to 20 students per classroom, has a general enrollment of 90 to 120 students. For a better functioning of the school building, two offices are annexed, as well as two rooms with bathrooms included, which can be shared by the school's staff and or staff passing through it.

The set of classrooms is solved with block walls and a simple concrete structure. Another common element is the training area, which is developed at the front of buildings, with two well-defined accesses to classrooms and other immediate areas. It also takes advantage of a large playground for children and in turn as a safe area in case of evacuation.

The façades were materialized with windows of aluminum type ¨Miami¨. This material allows great durability, better cleaning and maintenance of the same, as well as ensuring good cross ventilation in the interior of the premises, as well as protection in case of rain and strong winds. The doors are of wood with good curing and later painted and protected of the desolation and humidity.

The interior walls of the common spaces are finished with fine repaint and painted to the acrylic latex or vinyl. The bathrooms and kitchen, finished with stainless steel keys, good quality single-lever faucets, ceramic tile floors and quality sanitary furniture. The floors in general are of enameled ceramic slabs and the galleries are of polished cement.

During the construction process, school remained in session. Students attended classes outside in the church courtyard and inside the church during inclement weather. The new construction started in the summer of 2018 and was completed just in time for the school reopening in the fall of 2019.