Ranja Valley School
Year
2021 – 2025
Location
Ranja Valley, Haiti
Context
Rural
Size
6 classrooms (1st phase)
Service
Design, Fundraising
Sustainability
Local workers + training
Local materials
Ranja Valley School
Children in Haiti don’t have it easy: Haiti has a literacy rate of only 60% — the lowest in the western hemisphere. The lack of education deepens social and economic differences, resulting in a high poverty rate and little opportunity to improve life conditions.
Another great current challenge that the country faces is to recover from the huge natural disasters that have devastated the island in recent years, most notably the earthquakes in 2010 and 2021 and hurricane Matthew in 2016, which left more than 300 schools in the western part of Haiti destroyed or severely damaged, causing school disruptions for more than 100,000 children.
The Ranja Valley School has now been completed and is operating in the Grand’Anse region at the western end of Haiti. For the children of Ranja, the nearest school used to be several kilometers away and required crossing the Grand’Anse river — a daily safety risk that kept many children at home. Today, children can safely walk to class.
We-Building built the school in partnership with the Diocese of Jérémie, which provided land next to the local church. This location has made the school part of the community’s social center, while also ensuring that the site is accessible and safe for children throughout the year.
The 1st phase of the school complex has been completed. It includes six classrooms with toilets and benefits approximately 180 children from the community and their families. Subsequent phases are planned to add ten more classrooms, a computer lab, space for teachers and staff, and a canteen with kitchen facilities. The master plan positions all classrooms around a large central courtyard, which is used for social, sports, and recreational activities.