Our team in Nepal successfully retrofitting a school in the Sindhupalchowk district, thanks to the efforts of local communities and supporters, over 100 children were able to resume their education.

After the 2016 Aceh earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on December 6, our Indonesian reconnaissance team worked right away to assess the damage on-site. The team documented the damage of homes and schools in the Pidie Jaya region through the Build Change blog. The team also met with representatives from the Ministry of Education and organizations such as UNICEF and Save the Children while providing technical assistance. The team also took the time to visit homes in the Aceh Besar district,

Our Founder and CEO, Elizabeth Hausler joined more than 150 social entrepreneurs in signing an open letter to President Trump, standing in solidarity against the Muslim Ban.

On February 10, 2017, a 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck Surigao Del Norte, Philippines. From February 23-25, our team performed a post-earthquake reconnaissance investigation of the damage and response of school buildings and housing within the area. Our team completed the reconnaissance on February 25, their results will contribute to the development of retrofit manuals.

Our 2016 Year in Review video was published, this video included updates such as our earthquake app for Android devices, drone technology and school retrofits; as well as, updates on all of our programs across 6 countries.

Our partners at RMS sent a team of their staff to visit our program in Nepal and had the opportunity to meet with our teams and local partners. Hear about their experiences in their own words in their blog entries on our blog.

Our Director of Engineering, Lizzie Blaisdell Collins was the recipient of the 2016 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s (EERI) Shah Family Innovation Prize. This prize honors young professionals within the field of earthquake risk reduction for their creativity and innovation. The prize was presented at the EERI 69th Annual Meeting in Portland, OR.

Build Change was engaged by the World Bank to provide expert advice on home retrofitting alternatives to mitigate disaster risk in Guatemala City. This job is part of the World Bank “Resilient Retrofit of Informal Houses” project, focused on exploring marked based and subsidy approaches to retrofit existing informal houses, defining strategies that can be used to improve their structural performance in order to reduce risks of life and economical losses due to collapse in probable earthquakes in the region.

Our 2016 Annual Report is published. This year’s report was dedicated to the power of partnerships as a means to develop lasting change for communities.

Build Change was selected as one of the Social Design Circle honorees by Curry Stone Design Prize. In conjunction with this honor, Elizabeth Hausler was featured on the Social Design Insights podcast.

Build Change was named a winner of the 2017 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship by The Skoll Foundation. The Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship each year to a select group of social entrepreneurs whose innovations have already had significant, proven impact on some of the world’s most pressing problems, and invests directly in the promise of even greater impact at scale.

Surakshit Ghar was officially launched by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) during a press conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. Surakshit Ghar (“Safe House” in Nepali) is a mobile application developed by Build Change for the NRA to provide remote technical assistance and safe construction awareness to Nepali homeowners engaged in the reconstruction effort. This application contains official NRA messages along with images, illustrations, audio clips and videos on safe reconstruction. It further contains information and recommendations on how to build earthquake resistant houses,

The Simpson Strong-Tie Fellowship for Engineering Excellence was announced, and call for applications for the 2017-2018 fellowship began. The Fellowship program is the result of a recent partnership between international nonprofit social enterprise Build Change and global structural solutions leader Simpson-Strong Tie. Complementing the Simpson Strong-Tie goal to find solutions for structures to make them safer and stronger, the fellowship will allow innovative engineers the opportunity to provide impactful contributions to Build Change programs and engineering professional development in developing nations around the world.

Le Nouvelliste, the national newspaper of Haiti, features the innovative partnership between Build Change and Sogesol, the microfinance subsidiary of Sogebank, in Haiti to bundle technical assistance with housing microfinance, the Kredi Bel Kay program. Read the story here.

Rockefeller Foundation profiles Build Change’s work in the Philippines, featuring Build Change COO Gordon Goodell.

Build Change expands the better building materials program in Haiti, working with local small businesses to create jobs, produce stronger blocks and market them to the general public. Read Nicolas Chevelon’s story.
Word

Build Change signs a memorandum of agreement with the World Bank Global Program on Safer Schools.  Build Change expands its mission to include schools as well as residential units and Sig Anderson joins the Build Change board of directors.

Build Change secures local registration in the Philippines, which will enable stronger partnerships with the Philippines government in support of safe reconstruction and disaster risk mitigation throughout the country.

Build Change celebrates its 10th anniversary with the rollout of a new logo and this website.

RMS supports Build Change and becomes a Global Platform Partner.