Shortly after the earthquake, Shannon Cox received a phone call from Dijana Alickovic from Common Studio (www.commonstudio.org). Dijana said that her volunteer organization of architects was wondering if Haitian Roots could use their help in any way. It just so happened that we were in the process of acquiring our land and coming up with our children’s village project. The timing couldn’t have been better. Common Studio also works with the University of Utah’s College of Architecture and other professional architects in the community to give humanitarian aid. The U of U and Common Studio became so excited about the project that they decided to hold a design competition and also devote an entire summer semester studio class to the project. Haitian Roots and our partner organization for the village project have met various times with Common Studio, the dean and professors from the U of U already and are thrilled about what can be accomplished. This team will completely design the school, orphanage and volunteer headquarters for us!
On June 1, a few members of the Haitian Roots team as well as Dijana Alickovic, Prescott Muir and Mimi Locher (professors from the U of U) and several architect graduate students will be going to Haiti to see the land and to meet with engineers and architects in Haiti to learn as much as possible about how to make this project amazing.
Many of you have expressed a desire to accompany us on volunteer trips as soon as we began running them again after the quake. We are sorry that we cannot take more of you on this trip. We already have a very large group and transportation and safety are still a big issue. However, with the announcement of our children’s village project, we hope you all realize that we will be needing many volunteers and will have many future trips to Haiti where you can join us to help make a difference in the lives of Haiti’s children.
Thank you!