Rebuilding in Haiti After the 2021 Earthquake: An Interview with Haiti Project Manager Pierre Paya

Pierre Paya is the Haiti Project Manager and a civil engineer. He joined Build Change in 2015 and has experience in building and infrastructure construction projects in France, Africa, and the Middle East. 

Build Change has been working in Haiti since 2010. Can you tell us more about what you’ve been doing and your impact to date?

Build Change has been supporting families in Haiti to repair and rebuild their homes to withstand future earthquakes in a way that supports livelihoods and long-term economic recovery.

Surigao, Philippines: Examining Damages after the 6.7-magnitude Earthquake on February 10, 2017

From February 23 to February 25, 2017, Carl and Linnel from our engineering team in the Philippines performed post-earthquake reconnaissance following the 6.7 earthquake in Surigao Del Norte, on the north side of the island Mindinao. The team investigated and documented the response of rural school buildings and informal urban housing in the area, which will help inform our retrofit efforts in Manila and further our understanding of the seismic vulnerability of school buildings. The highest concentration of damaged housing exists in Surigao City,

Day 1: Guayaquil to Manta- A First Look at Damaged Houses

May 1st was our first full day in Ecuador, after landing in Guayaquil on April 30.  Our team has three members: Traveling from our Bogota office there is Juan Caballero, architect and Director of Programs and Partnerships for Latin American, and Walter Cano, structural engineer and Project Engineer for Colombia.  From the U.S./headquarters there is Lizzie Blaisdell, structural engineer and Director of Engineering.

In Guayaquil, we saw little evidence of an earthquake.  According to the preliminary report on the Instituto Geofisico website (http://www.igepn.edu.ec/) a strong motion sensor near Guayaquil,