El Canton Health Center: Raise-the-Roof

End Date: Jan 1, 2014 12:00 AM

Casi Hecho Terminemos El Techo!

Help Us Put A Roof On The Health Center in El Canton

Description:

Global Architecture Brigades collaborate with rural communities in Honduras to alleviate needs in health and education infrastructure through design and hands-on construction projects. Over the next 5 years we plan to mobilize 2,000 volunteers to work with community members to build the necessary infrastructure to educate 840 students and provide healthcare to 700 families.

In March 2012, construction for the Centro de Salud (community health center) began in the community of El Canton. Home to approximately 450 people, this community saw a dire need for a health center as the nearest one to this area is about a 2.5 hour walk. The proposed health center would serve over 10 other communities in the surrounding area, giving over 4,000 people access to healthcare.

The community chose UT Austin’s final proposal for their community health center design, and have worked alongside over 300 student volunteers from both Medical and Architecture Brigade chapters as of June 2013 in progressing this project. A major roadblock in the construction in Fall 2012 was erosion that was caused by the unfortunate location and poor quality of soil that was allotted for this project by the government. To fix this, student groups from Fall 2012 to the present have helped (and are still helping) to build a fifteen foot high retention wall to prevent further erosion from destroying students’ previous work in building a strong foundation for this center.

We are still in need of more architecture brigades to come to Honduras to finish construction, and your donation will help to SECURE the materials necessary to finish the roof for this project within this calendar year.

A donation of $7 USD provides 1 m2 of roofing for our health center. The roof will be made with a combination of wood planking support and sheet metal panels in a stepped roof style to provide ample ventilation and light. The roofing style will be similar to that of one of our finished schools, see this article for more information: http://www.designboom.com/architecture/global-architecture-brigades-posits-a-new-model-of-holistic-development/

We need 373 m2 of roofing to cover the heads of the patients, doctors, and community health workers that will be occupying the health center space on a daily basis.

JOIN US in helping to finish the roof of the El Canton Centro de Salud by the end of 2013!