For more than 10 years, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is being implementing various projects with the association "Engineers without Borders e.V.", which is an independent university group. In this context, students from Karlsruhe spend a part of their studies in Haiti and help Beaumont orphans to take their lives into their own hands. With the slogan "Students build a future for children in Haiti", the children and the teenagers should be given a perspective for their lives.
The theoretical knowledge acquired during the studies can directly be implemented by the students into the project. In 2014, the EWBers started on the Beaumont site. A lot of work has been going on since then. Several earthquake-proof and storm-resistant buildings have been built. These houses are used as living space for orphans, as a school building for learning or as an assembly hall for get-togethers. In the future a cafeteria, a hospital ward and a self-sufficient water and electricity supply through a photovoltaic system will be provided. The photovoltaic system is already in working order whereas the construction of the canteen starts this summer and the water supply should be realized by the construction of a cistern system in 2019. The hospital ward still has to be planned.
The project in Haiti is being implemented in close cooperation with the German-Haitian partner association Pwojè men kontre, which looks after 75 children and teenagers in the orphanage and now even teaches 300 students in the new school buildings.
The special thing about this cooperation is that the children from the orphanage lend a hand and build up their own house. Furthermore, the locals will be given the knowledge and skills to build earthquake- and storm-resistant buildings in the future. Since the conventional constructions have been fatal to many residents during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. "We feel confirmed that our buildings have withstood Hurricane Matthew," reports Project Manager Maren Mistele.
Wood construction screws produced by SWG Production were used for the construction of the buildings, too. For the girls' house, which was built in 2017, there were used 8,500 ASSY screws. These are wood construction screws with the diameters from 4 mm to 6 mm and a length from 50 mm to 120 mm.
In the current seventh section, the construction of the canteen is going to be realized. Also for this building section our wood construction screws are used. We wish the construction team a lot of staying power as well as success for their project!
Many more impressions of the past experiences and individual construction progresses can be found on the blog of the website “Engineers without Borders”. In the movie the management briefly reports on the entire project and their goals. A great project with a sustainable background!
