Post-Earthquake Housing Reconstruction in West Sumatra (2008)

Build Change's West Sumatra program is supported by the Kingdom Foundation and the Mulago Foundation. Kingdom Foundation is chaired by HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Alsaud. Prince Alwaleed is an entrepreneur and international investor who is highly involved in charitable activities around the world. Mulago Foundation works like a social impact venture fund to find and grow the most promising solutions in health, development and conservation in teh developing world.

Changing Construction Practice in Indonesia (May 2006 - December 2007)

Mercy Corps supported Build Change’s expanded impacts on the reconstruction of Aceh, to provide design and construction assistance to other organizations building houses in Aceh, and to build the capacity of local masons and carpenters.

Draper Richards Foundation Fellowship (March 2006 – 2008)

The Draper Richards Foundation has invested in Build Change’s model for long-term change in construction practice. Established in 2002, the Draper Richards Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship provides selected early-stage nonprofit organizations with start-up funding of $100,000 annually for 3 years, as well as assistance and support. To learn more about DRF, please visit www.draperrichards.org

Indonesia Tsunami Housing Reconstruction Pilot Project (July 2005 - February 2006)

Mercy Corps provided the majority of funding for the pilot project in Aceh, Indonesia. Mercy Corps also generously provided office space, housing, vehicles, computers, and support staff for the project.

Indonesia Assessment and Planning Trip (March - May 2005)

We were thrilled with the support we received for our assessment and planning trip to Indonesia. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to many individuals. We would like to specifically highlight the generous contributions made by the ASCE Seattle Section Geotechnical Group, ASCE World Headquarters, Bay Area Geotechnical Group, Certus Consulting, Dasse Design Inc. Structural Engineers, Shannon & Wilson, Inc., and Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.

Seed Funding from Echoing Green (2004 - 2006)

Build Change was seed funded with a 2004 Echoing Green fellowship. Echoing Green identifies, invests in and supports the world's most exceptional emerging leaders and the organizations they launch.

June 30, 2008: Reconnaissance to Sichuan
Build Change's Founder, Dr. Elizabeth Hausler, visited the earthquake-affected area to understand why buildings failed and make plans to support earthquake-resistant housing reconstruction. Using unconfined precast concrete plank floors on top of unreinforced masonry walls caused most of the devastation (foreground in photo below), but some confined masonry buildings performed flawlessly (background).

Visit the Technical Resources page under post-earthquake recon reports for more information, and support the homeowners to rebuild earthquake-resistant houses so they never have to face such tragedy again. DONATE NOW

May 12, 2008: Devastation in China
69,185 killed. 374,171 injured. 18,467 missing. More than 7.79 million houses destroyed and 24.5 million damaged. 5 million homeless, and 10 million now living below the poverty line after a M7.9 earthquake.

January 28, 2008 : On Video!
Elizabeth Hausler explains to Global X that she was finishing her Ph.D. in engineering at Berkeley when an earthquake hit India and killed 20,000 people. That's when she realized that "it's not the earthquake that kills people, it's the building collapsing."

See the video.