L’Institution Mixte Bethleem de Villard  (“Bethlehem School”)

Complete construction of the L’Institution Mixte Bethleem de Villard  (“Bethlehem School”) which is located in Villard, the L’Artibonite region of Haiti, by the mid 2013 and provide for the school’s future vitality and quality of education.

Building Strategy

One of our primary goals for building the Bethlehem School is to use local materials and local labor and to teach better techniques for using local materials that will improve the building standards to meet earthquake and hurricane International Building Codes.  This school building will be seen as a place of refuge and needs to meet safety standards allowing for overcrowding during times of stress that may be due to flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes and possible political unrest.

Design and Schedule

The current school design is a two story building, approximately 3,000 square feet; two stories with six classrooms; and a small office for the principal.  This design incorporates site restrictions (e.g. water runoff) and calls for the school to be constructed of reinforced concrete columns and beams with concrete block walls between the reinforced columns.  The roof design is steel trusses with wood purlins and metal roofing attached.  This type of design is typical in commercial buildings in Haiti and would be familiar to local craftsmen.

Seasonal changes in weather can make construction progress difficult or even impossible; there are two raining seasons one in the spring and one in the fall during hurricane season.  Therefore planned construction is aimed for a building schedule over 90 to 100 days to minimize the impact from these seasonal changes.

Construction Steps

1. Inspect existing foundation by a registered local engineer to determine if it is sound and if not can the foundation be modified or does the foundation need to be replaced in order to be an earthquake stable structure.
2. Procure building materials.  Most materials will be available from St. Marc a moderate sized town about 25 kilometers to the south.  Some materials will need to come from Port-au-Prince.
3. Hire local contractor to complete the building or work with the engineer that started the building foundation.  The second approach will help in the training of the local craftsmen in better building techniques and it is just a matter of money and training.
4. Initiate construction which will probably be the demolition of the existing foundation.  Some of this material will be salvageable for use in the new school and some will be donated to locals.
5. Construct new foundation, main level floor, columns and beams.
6. Construct second level floor and second level columns and beams.
7. Install roof trusses and roof covering.

Construction Budget

The current school budget is $143,900 as outlined below.  Constructions costs include materials, labor, tool rental and purchase, translator, site security, Haiti Engineers, material transportation, travel to and from Haiti for supervision, living expenses while in Haiti and a contingency fund.  The costs are based on personal interviews with local business people and typical Haitian labor costs.

The Haiti School Project  is a federally recognized non-profit IRC Sec. 501(c)(3) organization helping Haiti’s children supported entirely by volunteers.  Our mission is to support Haiti with a sustained investment in education that will promote economic development in Haiti and improve their quality of life.

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